I have to write a quality manual for my company but to be frankly honest I HAVE NO IDEA HOW! Anyone done it?

I have had to write a few safety procerdures pretty much the same but you can get locked up when it hits the fan. I found a good source to be croners, I even got free 30 day access to their documents, may be worth a try. Remember to keep it simple and add in a degree of failure

For a really quality manual, i'd go straight for Hahnemühle Fine Art paper evry time. Write with a Montblanc Meisterstück fountain pen (you really can see the difference in the finished work), and insist on having a bespoke leather binding by Hollingworth & Moss.

Liam














Sorry - I'll get me coat

Did this years ago so may not be valid, there are two approaches we took.

1 Write about everything....
2 Write something that points at reference material

As an example someone wants to know how to use MSword, you can try and write about it yourself or you can create a libary and put the word manual it this.

The libary can just be a filing cabinet, as long as you refer to it correctly jobs a good un.

Option 2 worked for me, it also has the benefit that if something is upgraded you just put in the later manual, you do not need to change the documentation that refers to it.

Another eaxmple could be health and safety, lots of standard instructions on safe lifting, use of fire extinquishers etc. So refer to where the first aid box is, the extinquishers, lifting equipment etc and get booklets and how to use each item correctly and safely. Give these instruction manuals a reference number and put in the libary.

Each member of staff gets notes on what they should do as local work instructions and refer them to the 'libary' for detailed instructions on usage.

Regards Mark


[Edited on 27/5/08 by mark chandler]

[Edited on 27/5/08 by mark chandler]

I'm a business excellence manager, and business excellence is a continuation of quality management.

What exactly have you been asked to document?

ok wasn't familiar with iso17025, however it would seem it is a specific standard for labs.

most companies get either a quality manager in post to manage the process and or an external consultant.

I guess it very much depends on the company you work for, is the ISO accreditation just a plaque on the wall so you can win business, or do they actually want to improve their business? Two very different things, with different approaches and resource levels.

PM me if you prefer not to post a reply to that on an open forum!

Happy to help where I can!

I am applying for my UKAS accreditation and fall under the testing/calibration laboratory category. My application form just ask me to include my ISO 17025 quality manual. I am a soletrader who carries out pre-completion sound insulation tests in new build houses and flats formed under material change of use.

It's a joke because with my testing I adhere to completely different ISO's, namely being 140-4 and -7 and 717-1 and -2. These are 100% specific to my line of testing whereas the 17025 is a generic ISO which is not really relevant considering I adhere to the aforementioned standards. It is a silly plaque but without it I cannot submit my reports to the majority of the building control departments in my area.

well your more than 50% there, a lot of the quality standards are similar, and if you already have a few other ISO's then the majority of the documention and process work will have been done.

Get a copy of the ISO17025 standard, and get stuck in, it will be asking for particular points around calibration and other similar lab linked points, the rest of it will be able to be lifted (maybe word for word) from the other ISO's you have gained.

without you sending me everything you have already done, and checking the standard for 140-4 vs. 17025 and looking for links there isn't much more advice I can give.

oh except, don't get too hung up the idea of a quality manual being a massive peice of work - yes there is a good few hours in it, but it should reflect what you do, so pulling it together from existing documents shouldn't be too hard. IT would be a different matter if you didn;t have any quality systems in place and this was a first stab at an ISO of course.

Pictures, that’s what you want. I had to do operations manuals for foreign non English speaking rig workers who were going to be using expensive dangerous and new equipment. Was banging my head of the desk trying to work out how to do this till I decided to do lots of pictures of me doing the jobs correctly and then pictures with limbs hacked off and big crosses for the stuff they weren’t meant to be doing, worked a treat. Just do it like your doing a children’s book.

When I worked making boxes we had to do one. We just listed the procedures we used in the order they were executed and the materials used with the specifications. It sounds like they want something similar.