ISO 9001 with ISO 12647
November 20, 2009
By Rob Griffith.
For a long time I’ve mentioned when training that colour management is a form of quality assurance. You don’t recalibrate to profile a device because you think it’s inaccurate. You test, re-calibrate and profile the device regularly so you know it’s not inaccurate. Colour management should not be used to fix problems but to prevent them. I recently was asked to join an ISO 9001 with 12647 auditors course and had the opportunity to learn a lot more about quality systems and came to realise how well colour management fits into them.
ISO 9001 is a long standing quality management system standard and the BPIF (British Printing Industries Federation) are formulating a new standard that links ISO9001 with ISO12647, the printing press standard, to allow companies to be certified by internationally recognised bodies as being able to print to ISO 12647 and have the supporting quality systems in place to ensure both conformity to the standard and customer satisfaction.
Colour management should not be used to fix problems but to prevent them – Rob Griffith
I was slightly dubious about 9001 before the course. The pre-press and design companies I worked for before joining The Colour Collective were all very small and didn’t have very much in the way of formalised systems and procedures. Some of the ISO standards have a poor reputation as being more about ticking the right boxes than actually changing how companies work.
However as the course went on I realised that the majority of the standard was common sense; learning from mistakes and ensuring they don’t happen again, focusing on customer satisfaction, having procedures in place that make it hard for human error to occur, making sure management is fully behind delivering quality products and services and always trying to get better and better at whatever the company does should be at the heart of any organisation.
Any design, pre-press or print company has a series of interlocking procedures that feed the work from receipt of the customer’s files or instructions through to a finished piece of print etc. The interfaces between one department and another is where error usually occurs. Do sales get the right instructions from the customer? Does production check that all the right fonts have been included? Does the press operator check that the print matches the proof? Looking at the processes in your business and building quality checks into them is a sure way to reduce errors , have more satisfied customers and increase profits.
Certainly any printing company that aims to print to the very tight specifications of ISO 12647 needs very good quality systems in place. However, they shouldn’t go for ISO9001 certification just to put another logo on their website and tick the right boxes for their customers. They should do it because they want to produce great print every time. They need to retain the passion of print as a craft but unite that passion with the control of a 21st century manufacturing process.
I aim to start auditing ISO 9001 with 12647 systems soon and also get involved with consultancy work helping printing companies and others, achieve the standard not so that they can tick the boxes and get a 9001 certificate but so they can raise their quality levels and exceed their customer’s expectations.
Rob Griifth
The Colour Collective Ltd
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