The final installment of this three-part series looking back on my 50 years in the business will focus on my current state; small business owner of a Quality Management consulting business, Author and Certified Leadership expert. Click here to read Part 3
We are well past the normal 5-7 years that a new revision of the ISO 9001 international quality standard gets released. Word on the street is that it may be finished toward the end of 2025 with implementation starting in 2026. CLICK HERE to continue reading my column on a history of ISO revisions and what significant changes we can expect in the upcoming Version 6.
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Reach out to the industry’s foremost expert on quality management to start planning on your ISO/AS9100 upgrade to the new requirements
Steve@tracQMS.com
920-841-3478
ISO 45001 provides significant value to organizations looking to reduce workplace incidents and demonstrate OH&S commitment. ISO 45001 can be seamlessly integrated into your current QMS as an IMS (Integrated Management System). No need to change your QMS structure, numbering scheme or functionality, I work with you to painlessly integrate these into the existing management system.
ISO 45001 establishes criteria for an OH&S policy, objectives, planning, implementation, operation, auditing and review. Key elements include leadership commitment, worker participation, hazard identification and risk assessment, legal and regulatory compliance, emergency contingency planning, incident investigation and continual improvement. Whether you have a union environment or local requirements, keeping your employees safe is not only a moral and ethical responsibility, but just good business. Near misses, lost time due to accidents and loss in morale are costs that directly erode the bottom line.
ISO 45001 Quality Management Certification Badge. Vector illustration.
Whether you currently hold ISO 9001, ISO 13485, AS9100 or IATF 16949, trust the industry expert, TRAC, to guide you through this transition quickly and efficiently.
Benefits
PRESS RELEASE
The Right Approach Consulting
July 10, 2025
Milwaukee, WI
Milwaukee Electronics Achieves AS9100D: 2016 Certification. I am proud to announce that the Milwaukee division of client Milwaukee Electronics has upgraded their QMS from ISO 9001: 2015 and received certification to AS9100D: 2016 from certifying body TUV Rheinland. Corporate Director of Quality Bob Willenbring, the quality team and entire leadership team were highly engaged with the goal of driving organizational improvement during this transition. I would like to extend my thanks to the team for their hard work and dedication throughout this project.
“A huge thank you to Steve Williams and The Right Approach Consulting for his leadership and guidance as we achieved our AS9100 certification in six months! Steve’s expertise and ability to help our team understand the requirements and meet them in a way that fit our organization was instrumental to this achievement!”
Bob Willenbring, Quality Director, Milwaukee Electronics.
About Milwaukee Electronics
A message from CEO Jered Stoehr:
“Milwaukee Electronics was founded in 1954, offering services in circuit board design and PCBA assembly to the mining industry in the Wisconsin, USA, region. My father, P. Michael Stoehr purchased the company in 1985 with the mission of creating a business that would put customers first and be a fulfilling place to work for the employees serving those customers.
As the second generation to take the Chief Executive helm, it is very important to me to carry on my father’s customers-first legacy and to ensure that Milwaukee Electronics maintains the entrepreneurial spirit that has allowed the company to continually expand its range of services, maintain decades long customer relationships and provide careers for many dedicated employees.”
Milwaukee Electronics has three manufacturing facilities, Milwaukee WI, Portland OR and Tecate Mexico, a Tech Center in Pune India, and a Purchasing Office in Singapore providing services including:
For more information go to: https://www.milwaukeeelectronics.com
Implementing ISO 45001 provides a framework for organizations to design and implement an EMS, and continually improve their environmental performance. ISO 14001 can be seamlessly integrated into your current QMS as an IMS (Integrated Management System). No need to change your QMS structure, numbering scheme or functionality, I work with you to painlessly integrate these into the existing management system.
Many of my clients are getting pressure from their customers, industry and/or local city or village regulatory agencies to attain this certification to improve their environmental compliance. ISO 14001 is a separate certification that encompasses various aspects from resource usage and waste management to monitoring environmental performance and involving stakeholders in environmental commitments.
Whether you currently hold ISO 9001, ISO 13485, AS9100 or IATF 16949, trust the industry expert, TRAC, to guide you through this transition quickly and efficiently.
Benefits
One of the most common issues among manufacturing companies is the inability to permanently solve quality issues. Click here to download the program outline.
How many times have you put a solution in place to correct a quality issue only to have it pop back up weeks, or months later? Probably much more than you wish to share. Whether internal scrap and rework, customer returns or process improvement, this issue crosses all industries, but the more complicated the processes involved, the bigger the issue. The primary “root cause” of this is the lack of formal training in the process of root cause analysis. TRAC has created a customized RCA & 8D training program that will be branded to your organization and pay for itself in 30 days.
Reach out to schedule this root cause analysis and 8D training for your organization and start saving money and increase customer satisfaction.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of books have been written about the great leaders throughout history that have served as role models for generations of business executives, students and the everyday person that just wants to learn and apply the behaviors that made these leaders successful. That is easy.
Countless books have also been written about evil deeds done by the worst of the worst in history, including most of the characters included in this book. But what about the lessons that can be learned from the dark side, the names you won’t typically find in the business section of your local book store; history’s rebels, outlaws and femme fatales? You can call them many things: thugs, barbarians, savages, criminals, etc., but what you most definitely can’t call them is stupid. The warriors I have chosen to include in Notorious may be some of history’s most ruthless, but they are also some of the most successful leaders in history, and much can be learned from them.
Williams’ Law 9
Teach it, preach it, and audit to it! Prepare so that no question should be able to be asked that an operator does not know the answer to.
Tip 1: KISS
Keep It Simple Steve; the goal is to develop a system that is:
Tip 2: Standardization
Develop standardized QMS procedure template
Facilitates:
Tip 3: Verbiage
Examples
“Bath pH shall be verified and logged onto form 203-004 every 2 hours.”
“Workplace should be kept clean on a continual basis.”
Designee
Contact me to start your Quality Management System Guerrilla Training before your next audit.
Steve: 920-841-3478
Steve@tracQMS.com
Williams’ Law 8
You CAN teach an old dog new tricks.
Many of the QMS audit concepts discussed in this blog series may seem unconventional and may not come naturally. That is to be expected, but the good news is that they are easily learned with practice, diligence, and continuous positive reinforcement.
A learned behavior is a behavior observed by someone that they find beneficial to them in some way. There’s a motivating factor behind it. Unlike innate behavior, a learned behavior is one that you make a conscious decision to learn; in other words, nurture rather than nature. Think about writing; when you first began to learn to write it required constant thought and attention. Now, when you jot down a note it is automatic; second nature. That is how all learned behaviors are developed. The below list is a way to initiate and reinforce the learned behaviors that will be required to foster the culture needed to get the full benefits out of all the concepts, techniques, and methodology discussed throughout this book.
Prepare all employees much as a trial lawyer would prepare a witness
Contact me to start our Guerrilla Training before your next QMS (Quality Management Systems) audit.
Steve: 920-841-3478
Steve@tracQMS.com
Williams’ Law 7
You can’t manage from your office; if you don’t constantly monitor the pulse on the shop floor it is easy to lose control.
My good friend Tom Peters, author of the “Excellence” series of books and one of my favorite management consultants, coined the phrase MBWA (Management By Walking Around). This is another of those concepts that seem so obvious, but how many of us actually do this?
This powerful technique applies equally to the leader of a quality management system as it does to a Fortune 500 CEO. This is a rhetorical question, but really, how often do we go out on the shop floor and just observe what is going on? I don’t mean tracking down orders and making sure people are working, but how does the facility look? Do the workers look happy? What are they saying? Are we working smart or overcompensating by working hard? What would I think if I were the customer? You can’t answer these questions sitting in your office!
Contact me to start our Guerrilla Training before your next audit.
Steve: 920-841-3478
Steve@tracQMS.com
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