Category Archives: Quality Improvement

The Curious Case of the Inverted Hierarchy

Posted on July 13, 2018 by Shaun

Sometime last year I found myself working with a rather well known organisation. Part of my work involved understanding their operational risks and how they were mitigated. For that I needed to spend some time at the coal face. This is what happened … Continue reading →

Posted in Auditing, Leadership & Management, Quality Improvement | 4 Comments

The Quality vs Price Dilemma

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Shaun

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” Continue reading →

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What’s the Remedy for Inefficiency?

Posted on November 30, 2014 by Shaun

In 2014 the NHS was allocated a budget of £95.6 billion. By any standards that is an eye watering sum. I can’t help thinking that SHOULD be enough. If we imagine for a moment that the UK had no NHS and decided to establish one tomorrow, and its budget was to be £95 billion – would anybody in their right mind design it to look like the one that has evolved? I very much doubt it Continue reading →

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Quality and efficiency

Posted on April 12, 2014 by Shaun

This article explains the term efficiency and describes exactly why it is part of every quality professionals remit Continue reading →

Posted in ISO 9000, Quality Improvement | Tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments

The real benefits of ISO 9001 certification

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Shaun

ISO 9001, that part of the ISO 9000 series that defines the quality management system requirements, clearly means many things to many people. There are certainly people with a vested interest in promoting its virtues and (sometimes) overstating its merits in the process. There are also some very vociferous opponents, including some career critics who have made a good living from disparaging it. But let’s try to be objective and think things through clearly Continue reading →

Posted in Auditing, Certification schemes, ISO 9000, Quality Improvement | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments