A manufacturer of medical devices approached us about an event for their internal auditors. They had eight experienced auditors and wanted to develop their audit skills and reward them for the work they had done the previous year. We developed a two day process auditing event, which the client combined with a team event of their own.

Day 1 was a series of activities using materials taken from LRQA’s Quality Auditor/Lead Auditor course. This was followed in the evening by the client’s team event which included a ten-pin bowling challenge. 

Day 2 transferred the previous days training to the workplace with a series of live audits, the LRQA trainer acting as coach and mentor. Feedback from the event was excellent, with the auditors commenting on the benefit of combining training with having fun.

Management briefings

Following a company restructure, the Quality Manager for one of LRQA’s clients wanted to take the opportunity to get top management more involved with the organisations management system.

Our brief was to “get them to commit to the management system”.
For this to be relevant and engage with senior managers we knew we had to address their business needs, not what the Standard says.

We were given access to one of the management team and together we developed a briefing on how they could use their management system to help them deliver their three year business plan.  What started out as a one off event went on to become a series of workshops including:

• Conducting Effective Management Reviews
• Introduction to the Environmental Standard - ISO 14001:2004

Effective problem solving and process improvement is what keeps many leading organisations ahead of their competitors. A leading chemical distributor wanted an event that would help them beef up their problem solving toolbox.

After discussing their requirements and gaining an understanding of the sort of issues they were dealing with we jointly arrived at a two-day programme that included:

• Continual improvement
• Structured problem solving
• Seven basic tools
• Selecting the right tool
• Corrective action and root cause analysis
• Focus on the solved state

To consolidate learning, on the second day of this event attendees worked successfully on a number of current problems.

Introducing Integrated Management Systems

An integrated management system is what many organizations are working towards. So understanding the approach of PAS 99 – “Specification of common management system requirements as a framework for integration” is important to many organization.

LRQA Training has delivered half day sessions on integrated management Systems, tailored as appropriate to the specific needs of each client.

Briefings for Senior Managers

One of our clients, a world leading developer, manufacturer, processor and distributor of liquid blends and related products for feed manufacturers, farmers and industrial users, wanted to promote to senior managers the benefits that their management system was generating.

The quality manager opted for a half day briefing. With all senior managers present at the briefing, this was the ideal opportunity to convey the real value an effective process based management system could offer the business.

This manufacturer of food ingredients and leading consumer foods processor in selected European markets wanted an introduction to HACCP tailored to their operation and systems.

It was a key requirement for the client that we use examples from their business so attendees could relate the learning to the work they did.

We delivered an event that focused on risk evaluation approaches and applying them to the organisations management system and in the context of ISO 22000 and OHSAS 18001. This gave them a consistent and efficient approach to risk management throughout the organisation.

A world leader in information systems for Aerospace, Defence and Security markets wanted to know about the latest issue of the Occupational Health and Safety Management System standard ISO 18001:2007. They wanted to know what the changes would mean for them.

Supplier and contract auditing

A client asked about sending a number of people on the Internal Auditor course in our Training Directory. Talking to them we found out their real need was to develop a group of people who were carrying out audits on suppliers here in the UK and in other countries.

We offered to put together a customised event that would better fit with their needs and used selected materials taken from the Lead Auditor training course. With a tight budget to work to the client was keen to maximise the return on their investment.

The benefit of a course tailored to their specific needs together with the convenience of an in-house event gave them the return they were looking for. And as well as guiding them through the audit process the LRQA Trainer was able to share with them his experience of auditing companies around the world and helped plan for their overseas audits.

Internal Auditor Update

When a company at the heart of the British gas industry approached us to run a one-day course to update the knowledge and skills of their internal auditors we provided them with a course covering:

• Audit preparation
• Nonconformity identification and reporting
• Root cause analysis
• Introduction to integrated systems audit