ISO 2015 in Plain English: Support Part 3

Requirement: Clause 7 is called Support, which is basically all of the resources required to support the organization’s primary business. This weeks final review is on Organizational knowledge, Competence, Awareness and Communication.

7.1.6 Organizational knowledge requires the organization to determine the knowledge necessary for the operation of its processes and to achieve conformity of products and services. It also requires that knowledge be maintained and made available to the extent necessary. When addressing changing needs and trends, the organization must consider its current knowledge and determine how to acquire or access any necessary additional knowledge and required updates. 

7.2 Competence requires the organization to determine the necessary competence of person(s) doing work under its control that affects the performance and effectiveness of the quality management system, to ensure that these persons are competent on the basis of appropriate education, training, or experience, to take actions (where applicable) to acquire the necessary competence, to evaluate the effectiveness of the actions taken; and to retain appropriate documented information as evidence of competence.

7.3 Awareness requires the organization to ensure that persons doing work under the organization’s control are aware of the quality policy, relevant quality objectives, their contribution to the effectiveness of the quality management system, including the benefits of improved performance, and the implications of not conforming with the quality management system requirements.

7.4 Communication requires the organization to determine the internal and external communications relevant to the quality management system, including on what it will communicate, when to communicate, with whom to communicate, how to communicate, and who communicates.