Monthly Archives: November 2013

14001:2015, Improvement, Photography, Quality Tools

Sunday Summary – 17Nov13

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Well, I do hope you had a nice weekend. Mine was fairly full, as will often happen if one travels for work.

I’ll be brief for both of our sakes, with a summary of the posts from last week.

There were two:

Ma foi! Next week I’ve managed to schedule a few days at the home office. I’ll be able to complete some paperverks and schedule a few dozen audits.

And I might get a haircut.

Have yourself a week where you learn something new; something good and useful. I’ll leave you with, since it’s a cold, drizzly night here – a shot of the beach. And since it is the end of the weekend – a sunset.

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Sal

 

5 Whys, Improvement, Quality Tools

Quality Time – Autumn

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I was able to spend a little time today with my wife – raking leaves. As you know, I travel a bit, so this kind of thing is what is called “Quality Time”. There was lots of hand-holding, blushing and googly-eyes.

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We live in a part of the country (New Hampshire) where nature puts on a bit of show. The green leaves gradually give way to vibrant oranges, dappled yellows and cascades of carmine. Or, if you are less poetically inclined, where chlorophyll submits to carotenoids and anthocyanins. They’re lovely to look at for about three weeks, then – not so much as they take their final bow; falling like a curtain.

Show’s over, pick up and leave.

So that’s what we do: rake, rake and rake and then stuff their thin carcasses into bags or pile them onto tarps and drag them into the woods or burn them.

Next morning, or worse, later that afternoon – the torn and bruised zombie invasion is back; their veined and blistered skins collecting in roaming, scratching bands of fading color.

The whole ceremony got me thinking about root cause analysis, of course. You too? We should start a support group. Let’s look at the problem: we could use 5 whys, an Ishikawa diagram… fault tree analysis?

Nancy Tagu’s book, Quality Toolbox – which I highly recommend, by the way – has over four-hundred pages of quality tools – maybe one of those? The worst part is that by the time all the leaves have fallen from the trees, the weather is as cold and unforgiving as a spouse dealing with a frequent business traveler. Not that my wife is like that at all (she really isn’t – I’m pretty lucky).

Why do we have to remove these things from the lawn? Customer requirement? Turns out I’m the customer. And I don’t want my lawn to look bad – and it would, if I let these things accumulate. I have a requirement for a green lawn – it’s in the spec sheet. I point this out because changing the specification is always an option when dealing with failures, or perceived failure. It shouldn’t be the initial reaction, but sometimes the criteria have been overzealously applied.

I have considered though that keeping up with the Jones’ isn’t the best use of my time, and an unenlightened concession to vanity. Well, turns out the shuffling invasion isn’t just an eyesore.

According to the Mississippi State University Extension Service; the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, leaves reduce light and air circulation necessary for a happy lawn. Diseases and insects can go unnoticed until the turf is toast. Moisture trapped between the soil and the leaves provide spawning grounds for nasty sounding pathogens like rhizoctonia that love cooler, wet weather.

Root Cause

Convinced! These leaves are bad. Why wait for them to fall from the trees? The root cause here is literally – a root! Alright, maybe it is a nut (don’t look at me like that).

So, my short-term corrective action; the thing that will solve the immediate problem, is to remove the leaves. Remove the leaves without otherwise damaging the lawn – I say this because I did consider using a flamethrower in situ, but apparently this is also against the law. And I’d have to make one.

That done, along with the analysis that the trees are the problem, we need to move on to the long-term corrective action. Options?

  1. Netting below the canopy of the trees.
  2. Robotic device that detects a leaf falling, gathers it and either destroys it or relocates it to a designated area (I’m already working on this – ). Optional – train a dog to do this. Or a child.
  3. Something along the line of a Patriot Missile Defense system; possibly with a  laser, that identifies and tracks a  falling leaf and – terminates it.
  4. An array of air nozzles, roughly akin to a sprinkler system (perhaps a combined system!), that occasionally blasts air toward a collection area (or an unloved neighbor’s property).
  5. An Earth-orbiting set of screens that limit [somehow] photosynthesis and reduce the overall canopy.
  6. Removal of the trees.  All the trees.

There may be more – my cross functional team comprised of learned individuals from several key departments, is working on it as I write. I have just been informed that number 5. Earth-orbiting set of screens, may have longer-term negative consequences, particularly to my lawn, so that is under review. This is a potential problem with any corrective action, and should be part of the investigation and analysis.

Consequently, I’m leaning toward number 5. Removal of the trees. My wife’s automatic response, delivered seven times so far has been, “We aren’t doing that.” FINE.

Let’s say I do that anyway (“No, let’s say you don’t.“). At some point, probably next fall, I’ll need to ensure the corrective action was effective. I may even be able to specify now by what means; what measurement criteria or method, will determine effectiveness. At this point in time, I’m going to say that a 90% reduction in volume will determine success.

Assumes, of course, that I am currently measuring volume of leaves as a quality metric. Alternatively, we could use surface coverage of lawn – something.

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Isn’t fall wonderful? I spend a little Quality Time with my wife, and at the same time we eliminate the need for raking leaves. Magic. I’m thinking that maybe next month, she and I can do a little snow removal. Snow is a very similar problem, isn’t it? A perfect opportunity to initiate a Preventive Action. On it!

Thank you for reading. Go forth, and calibrate thyself.

Sal

 

 

14001:2015, ISO 14001

14001 CD2 Overview

2 Comments

ISO 14001, the standard for Environmental Management Systems, has been undergoing a revision.

As some readers might know, the ISO 14001 Working Group WG5 met in Bogota about three weeks ago. One output of that information exchange was the latest Committee Draft 2 (14001 CD2).

I’ve been reviewing a copy of it against the existing 2004 version and wanted to present an executive; “30,000 foot”, overview. If there is any kind of expressed desire for a deeper analysis I’d be happy to post that as well. In either case, the standard caveat applies when dealing with drafts – things may change before the final publication.

From the top

The first thing you’ll notice is the table of contents is quite a bit larger. Four sections expand and rearrange to ten sections. This reflects the current fashion to comply with what is known as “Annex SL” which serves to incorporate a common text and structure across all ISO management system standards. It is the same for ISO 9001:2015 and the latest ISO 27001 as well.

The top three sections are titled the same in 14001 CD2; Scope, Normative references, Terms and definitions but where 2004 ends at Section 4, Environmental management system requirements, and breaks that into six pieces – 2015 does this:

  1. Context of the organization
  2. Leadership
  3. Planning
  4. Support
  5. Operation
  6. Performance evaluation
  7. Improvement

Become friends with this list, you’ll see the same one in every ISO management system standard.

And now, there is another Annex, “Annex C (informative) Relationship between this International Standard and the PDCA model”

Annex C has a table with each section and subsection in one column, and the corresponding PDCA component in another. For example, under parts of 4, 5 and 6 is listed “PLAN”.

Both versions contain a Foreword of approximately the identical content – you won’t read the new one either.

The Introduction, however, is probably worth your time for an initial read, to give you the philosophical underpinnings of the standard – I believe it is useful when interpreting requirements, because they are not always crystal-clear.

To this end, figure 1 within the Introduction is worthy of reproduction.

14001 PDCA Figure 1

Section Overviews

1. Scope, 2. Normative references and 3. Terms and definitions

Scope has similar content, reworded somewhat, additional focus on applicability to any organization regardless of size, type and nature.

Normative references continues to be empty; a guest that, despite repeated hints, will not leave .

Terms and definitions in 14001 CD2 are of course quite changed and expanded and should certainly warrant an initial scan. Where there were twenty, there are now thirty-three.

4 Context of the organization

Annex A, and this is a good time to point this out, has fairly straightforward guidance on the standard in general, and it is often overlooked. It explains context as a high-level, strategic understanding of the important issues that can affect, either positively or negatively, the way the organization manages its environmental responsibilities.

So, this includes understanding the organization, and the needs and expectations of interested parties. This section is where you’ll find the requirement for determining the scope of the EMS.

5 Leadership

Here is the management commitment part of standard including objectives, strategic planning – essentially supporting the fulfillment of the rest of the standard’s requirements.

The environmental policy is here along with the as familiar roles, responsibilities and authorities.

6 Planning

Planning includes “Actions to address risks and opportunities”; aspects, compliance obligations. Given that, planning to take action based on those considerations comes into play, with a focus on environmental objectives.

7 Support

Resource determination and allocation is part of Support, including personnel; competence. Subsections here are also Awareness and Communication (internal and external).

Document control, including records, resides here.

8 Operation

“The organization shall plan, implement and control the processes needed to meet environmental management system requirements, and to implement the actions [previously] determined.”

Subsections of Operational planning and control, Value chain control (purchasing), Emergency preparedness and response (controlling an emergency).

9 Performance evaluation

“Monitoring, measurement, analysis and evaluation” starts this section out with a list of what shall be measured:

  • key characteristics of its operations that can have a significant environmental impact;
  • the key characteristics necessary to assure compliance obligations are met;
  • organizational risks and opportunities;
  • operational controls as applicable;
  • value chain controls as appropriate; and
  • progress towards the organization’s environmental objectives, using the determined indicators

There is a section for evaluating compliance, separate from Internal audits – and that is covered here as well, unchanged except for the focus on risks and opportunities.

Management review fits into section 9, as you’d expect – but this subsection is quite a bit more “fleshy” and is worth a closer look.

10 Improvement

The word “Preventive” is absent in 14001 CD2, elsewhere folded into the concept of risk and the first subsection becomes “Nonconformity and corrective action”.

Continual improvement (including the word “continual” – interesting because it is absent in the similarly changed draft of ISO 9001) is the final part of the section.

More Changes May Arise

There is your broad overview of the changed, 14001 CD2 of the next version of ISO 14001. I do hope it helps you plan for the future, but please do keep in mind that there could be additional changes which include a reversal of what has already been outlined.

Thanks for your time.

Sal