With more and more businesses adding ISO compliance to their credentials, a recent update job reminded me how important it is to track compliance, for your own business monitoring as well as to provide proof and documentation to customers, authorities and enforcement agencies.

Compliance tracking is an excellent candidate for a computer based tracking system. Requirements can vary from the very simple to extremely complex systems but if managed in small steps even the most complex can be enforced and tracked.

It’s the little things

Simply recording dates / times and user names of items handled or changed can help to demonstrate that you are indeed serious about the quality process and ensuring that it is followed correctly and identifying variances. Some Processes require serial number tracking or systems that can track each component back to its original supplier so their proof of quality can be verified. But recording alone is not enough, you have to be able to readily retrieve and present the information.

Process Definition

The key comes down to clearly defining just what is needed to prove compliance and then defining where, when and how to capture this information throughout your process. Once these details are clear a database structure can be developed to store these with Business Logic to enforce correct compliance or flag exceptions and variations. As more information is gained this can then be used to further refine the quality and other business processes by studying and analysing the figures and statistics. ProcessIT can help you from the early stage of the process definitions right through to the analysis and improvement steps. Call ProcessIT now to discuss how we can help with your compliance needs.

 

Tech Tip

Well no, not this time sorry, instead just an amazing super-high-tech story!

In the last few days one of humanities greatest technical feats has occurred: The small 100kg probe “Philae” landed on the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko! In fact it actually landed THREE times! It seems somehow on its first try it “bounced” -twice, but has finally settled by a steep “cliff” with one of its three feet still airborne –er, spaceborne! This may limit its solar recharge abilities but the mission controllers are looking at ways to rectify this.

The Image shows a composite of actual photos taken by the lander with its body overlaid to indicate its position.

Rosetta’s ten-year expedition began in March 2004, with an Ariane-5 launch from Kourou in French Guiana and used exceptional navigation and planetary acceleration techniques using the gravity of both Earth and Mars to finally catch up to the comet on 6 August 2014. Rendezvousing with the comet required travelling a cumulative distance of over 6.4 billion kilometres!

The detailed skill and planning that have allowed for this trip to succeed are huge and a great tribute to what is possible when experts cooperate and enhance each other’s skill set. See the ESA –European Space Agency site for more exciting details and video updates: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta

 

Regards,
Brian Henderson

ProcessIT Limited