Demystifying ISO 9000 Documentation, 1993 Polymers, Laminations & Coatings Conference Proceedings

Gerard Paradise

Problem: the leading cause of IS0 9000 audit failure is inadequate documentation/document control. Last year alone, 47% of those organizations who attempted to meet the IS0 9000 standard failed--because of their documentation.

Objective: this session’s goal is demystifying the IS0 9000 documentation process. You will be presented with a research-based methodology for documenting your quality system. The session will demonstrate a structured set of guidelines, principles, formats and tools that will enable you to analyze and understand audience (your workers, auditors) needs and from this develop IS0 9000 certifiable documentation.

Results: the methodology presented is the result of 25 years study of learning theory and human factors engineering. After applying it to communications development in companies we have found:

- reading time decreased 50%

- error rates decreased 54%

- accuracy in retrieval increased 32%

- questions to supervisors decreased 70%

- learning improved 23-83%

- use of documentation increased 38%