How to use a consultancy service from a QMS Consultant?

Many often we hire consultant and at the end of the project we don’t get what we wanted in the first place. There are many reasons why this happens. To avoid such cases, it is necessary to ensure some of the things before we take a service from a consultant for developing our Quality Management System.

In this article we will take the guideline from ISO 10019:2005 standard on “Use of the quality management system consultant’s services”.

First of all, it is necessary to define the consultancy service. Here are the consultancy services any organization can use one or more of the following activities within a Quality Management System:

definition of objectives and requirements
initial evaluation
planning
design and development
implementation
evaluation
ongoing training and maintenance
improvement

Contract for consultant’s services:

The first thing the organization should do is have a contract document with the QMS consultant that clearly defines the Scope Of Work (SOW). The SOW should include the output specified, should have realistic milestones and cost effective for the organization. When the organization will decide to enter the contract, the following activities need to be ensured:

setting agreed contract objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-limited;
setting out a detailed contract plan with agreed milestones and outputs;
communicating the plan to all interested parties;
identifying the training needs of relevant employees so they can perform the ongoing evaluation, maintenance and improvement of the quality management system;
implementing the plan;
monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the plan and implementing contingent actions, as appropriate;
ensuring the agreed milestones are met or redefined;
defining a process to approve the outcomes of the contract.

The organization should hold meeting to evaluate the progress in implementing the QMS and the performance of the consultant. The progress in terms of the plan should be reviewed in every meeting. Also, the budget for QMS Realization activities should be reviewed in the meeting. The documented progress reports should be submitted to the top management.

Useful considerations for consultant's services

When any organization use the QMS consultancy service, they should consider the following:

the resulting system should not generate unnecessary administration and documentation;
the success of a quality management system depends mainly on the involvement and commitment of top management and not on the consultant alone;
the organization should assign a staff member (usually the person who will eventually ensure that the quality management system is maintained) to coordinate and monitor the consultant’s activities;
employees are involved at all levels, in order to integrate the quality management system within the organization’s overall operations;
the consultant should be empowered to interact with the organization’s management and employees at all levels in order to appraise the organization’s processes;
even if quality management system consulting was in response to contractual or market requirements, there is an opportunity to use the realized quality management system as an effective and efficient management tool;
there is a potential for the quality management system to provide a basis for continual improvement of the organization’s performance;
the consulting services should be compatible with the organization’s culture, the competence of its employees, and existing processes and/or documentation.

The following table from ISO 10019:2005 standard shows what activities can be performed and who will be responsible for each activity:

For more details on how to choose a QMS Consultant please read this article:

“How to choose your QMS Consultant”