What a load of old rubbish
Now don't get us wrong. It is possible to implement an ISO 9001 conforming system in a very small consulting firm, but it needs a bit of skill, nifty interpretation, and, above all, we're going to have to pick our assessor carefully. We need one with common sense who is sympathetic to the nature of this particular beast.
For example, the development, review and communication of the Quality Policy is a bit of a nonsense in this context; the independence of internal audits is an inherent problem unless they contract them out; since they don't sub-contract we're tempted to move to exclude purchasing (but we're scared of the reaction); value-adding process measures were difficult to identify and justify (they should be able to tell you things you might not already know), and developing a procedure for control of non conforming product was no more than an exercise in box ticking.
So flexibility and common sense is the order of the day
After saying all of this, we're not saying that ISO 9001 has no place in the land of the small, mind you, just that there's an argument for specific guidance in these situations just to avoid the risk of implementation of crappy systems. Especially as we're seeing an increasing number of small, agile companies with an eye on quality. We don't want to cut them off. The standard and assessment schemes should be more ready and able to embrace these startups. Children are the future and all that.
At the end of the job we were just pleased that they'd managed to find a truly Capable Person to help them. One with a bit of common sense, and links to a couple of sensible and sympathetic certification bodies. Great things these blogs aren't they
