QIC Guru

The level of complexity or volume of a documented business management system has nothing to do with the size or complexity of the processes of a company. The only direct relationship that would be found regarding the level of documents a company requires would be the effectiveness of training programs. The more effective the training programs are, the fewer documents one would expect to see. For example, a work instruction may be needed to teach an employee how to do something (training guideline/reference document), but after training, there is no more requirement for that document.

 Before you write another procedure which goes above and beyond the six require procedures for an ISO 9001 system or the seven required procedures for an AS9100 system, consider the following:
1. To perform this process consistently and correctly, does the company need step-by-step instructions to be used by the operator while performing the process? If the answer is yes, then document the steps of the process to be used by the operator.

2. To train employees on this process, are step-by-step instructions needed? If the answer is yes, the process can be documented as an instruction or as a training or guideline document that is used only for training new employees and not for conducting the process. Consider training videos in this instance.

3. Is it a required document—one of the six required by ISO 9001 or seven required AS9100, a customer requirement, a regulatory requirement? If yes, then document the process.

4. Did last auditor say a process needed to be documented? This is not a valid reason to document a process.