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Assessments are the fuel that power both step-wise and continuous improvement engines and this is no different when it comes to risk &...

According to Albert Einstein: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And yet, that is...

Audits have been used for many years to confirm the integrity of financial statements and that proper accounting procedures have been...

Adopting a Safety Management System (SMS) has typically required significant resources, large teams, and expensive technologies and...

Change can be a significant source of risk. That is why compliance programs include a risk-based process for managing planned changes....

There is much discussion these days about the need to create an improved safety culture particularly in high-risk, highly-regulated...

Turtle diagrams are often used to document processes in support of ISO standards and guidelines. However, they tend not to include...

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's...

Focusing on non-conformance is the first level of compliance. This involves meeting the prescriptive part of a regulation or industry...

As systems improve we expect that the certainty of meeting objectives increases. Instead, what often happens is that systems become more...

Recently I spoke with a retired CEO of a successful semiconductor manufacturer who said to me when I asked him about quality, "if there...

One of the challenges companies face when addressing compliance is its dynamic nature – compliance is never at rest. Even when you decide...

The purpose of a quality program is fundamentally to improve the quality of something. However, with today's focus on quality systems and...

When my children were younger we would regularly go on road trips to visit family. Five minutes after leaving the house they would start...

Companies often consider compliance as a "necessary evil" rather than a "necessary good." They sometimes feel they are forced to comply...

Audits were first adopted by financial institutions to identify and prevent fraud. Their focus was to test the integrity of accounting...

Many companies are in the midst of adopting changes introduced by ISO 9001:2015. One of the most significant of these, is incorporating...

Risk-based thinking is at the center of recent changes to compliance standards, guidelines, and regulations. One of the areas where...

Every company currently certified for ISO 9001 will need to re-certify at some point in time. This is an opportunity to go beyond just...

Increasingly standards and regulatory bodies are promoting a holistic approach to compliance. However, many companies still implement...

In a world of competing and overlapping compliance demands, siloed departments, and numerous stakeholders the role of an architect is...

One of the key misconceptions about LEAN is that its goal is to reduce the workforce. No wonder people might resist adopting it. However,...

Innovation is necessary for growth and often requires that risks are taken. However, a common sentiment is that compliance is getting in...