July has proved to be a hectic month with a short notice certification transfer audit in Saudi Arabia. At this time of year the temperatures are getting around 42 degrees C (in the shade) and the sun seems to burn the jacket off your back. I am afraid I am that person that must have been the subject of the phrase about Mad Dogs and Englishmen in the mid-day sun as I do not change my mode of dress whichever country I am in. I must admit, the jacket and tie would come off as soon as I got into the freezing hotel room! The hotel was within 200 metres of the Red Sea and my glasses would mist up instantly I left the hotel with the high humidity and cold glasses.

I have been to a couple of breakfast meetings in my local area before but have not found them particularly useful but I went to one this month and was pleased to meet up with several people I do business with. The economy is affecting many businesses in different ways but it was pleasing to see that they are 'weathering the storm'.

A visit to Hungary for an aerospace re-assessment audit saw me flying British Airways again. However, this time the flight was on time with no problems, just how I like it without the effects of the cabin staff strike or volcanoes.

The end of the month saw a visit to my consultancy client, who is going for AS 9100 without the benefit of having been certified to ISO 9001, for the last time before the 2nd stage audit at the end of August. The 1st stage audit went without any real hitches so fingers crossed for the 2nd stage.

The internal audits for my client, the small machine shop going for AS 9100 from no standard, were carried out in this month in preparation for their 2nd stage audit at the end of Aug 10. The audits revealed a number of weak areas that need to be addressed and the organisation is currently working hard to rectify the situation.

Another client is also going from no Standard to not only the Aerospace Standard but to include the automotive Standard as well. They are a very high tech Company who hope to be established in the aerospace and automotive industries by the end of 2010. Another external audit visit to an American global Company in Germany during the month showed that they have not lost the label of having a world class quality management system with the 3rd consecutive annual visit with no non conformances. At each visit the pressure mounts as to who will be the first to break this excellent run of audit results.

A holiday in Madeira in the first week of the month put me in a good frame of mind for the rest of the month. However, the volcanic island was not as warm as I was expecting it to be and we nearly were stranded on the island by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.

I have been using the Google Adword system for the last year but have had very little response from it despite changing the key words and having professional help in refining the process. The cost seems higher than the original perception so this flurry into this type of marketing may come to an end soon. I have just increased the daily rate for a couple of weeks to see if it makes any difference.

The consultancy work in 2 local Companies is now picking up with 1 Company still on course to achieve AS 9100 by the end of August 10 and the second Company is now using a full time Engineer, with my involvement, to establish a root and branch review of the new quality management system.

April has been and gone so fast it makes me think that Christmas will soon be here! The small engineering machine shop I have taken on the consultancy for has accelerated away with the intention of getting AS 9100 by Sept 21 when they will be having a trade show. They wish to present the new certificate at their stand in order to gain aerospace business. They are installing a new computer system at the same time so things are very hectic for all concerned. However, the motto seems to be ‘lets get on with it’.

A visit to Germany south of Hannover caught me out courtesy of the Icelandic volcano. Like many others, my flight was cancelled which resulted in me getting trains from Hannover to London in the most ad hoc manner as it was impossible to get a through ticket as everyone else on the Continent was also affected. Initially, my Eurostar train would only take me to Calais but due to someone losing his passport at the Eurostar Brussels terminal I was able to use his seat to get straight through to London and then on to Stansted to pick my car up after a 16 hour journey.

A visit to Russia to see how a 1 mile square American owned factory is progressing in the Aerospace Standard resulted in no problems at all which reflected the very hard work all the staff have undertaken over the last 4 years and it was a pleasure to sign off the report. Indeed, it is even more remarkable considering the reduction in manpower that has occurred at the same time.

For anyone interested in consultancy work in the East Anglia region in the UK there is a little gem of an organisation called the Hethel Engineering Centre which collates approximately 20 consultants in a wide range of areas from 6 Sigma to Security as well as identifying any resolutions to ‘high tech’ problems. Their web site is www.hethelcentre.com

The month started with getting a medium sized electronics business in the UK through the initial audit for AS 9100 with just a few non conformances which are being wrapped up as I type, so that is another Company on its way to aerospace prosperity!! Another project started this month which is quite a challenge in that a small machine shop in the UK without ISO 9001 is wanting to go straight to AS 9100 in the shortest possible time. So from a cold standing start in March I will try and get them the aerospace standard by July 2010 and I will keep you informed if the challenge has been met. A visit to Turin to visit an aerospace factory was interrupted by the British Airways strike and I thought I would be clever and book another flight on Air France to avoid any problems. However, as we were going through the Air France gate, we were informed that the Captain was ill and the flight had to be cancelled and so I had to return home. However, I booked British Airways again for the following weekend despite the strike and the service was exemplary, no queues, no lost baggage and smiles all round; even the landings were smoother than normal.

The marketing campaign start in the autumn of 2009 has started to increase the consultancy business I am involved in and the approval of the Hethel Engineering Centre has also proved to be a good source of work, especially now that the centre is marketing the consultancy part of the organisation.

A major addition to the consultancy work last month was the ability for me to carry out consultancy on Business Continuity matters. To expand on my experience, my 39 years in the Royal Air Force was excellent grounding in making sure that, whatever happened, the Unit could always carry on. For instance, we would spread the specialist tools between hangars to make sure that if 1 hangar was damaged we had enough tools elsewhere to carry on operating the aircraft. This type of thinking does not cost anything but a bit of effort and planning yet if something does happen, you can more quickly get back to normal operation so much quicker and more effectively. How many Companies make sure that arrangements are made for a trained media person to be available to give interviews to the local TV? To explain that the fire in background will not affect product to their customers and to reassure their suppliers that they are still in business? This will ensure that your competitors are less likely to steal your business!

January has proved to be a very exciting month as I have been approved to be of a sufficient standard to be accepted as a consultant in the Hethel Engineering Centre. This is a prestigious organisation set up to promote high technology engineering in the East Anglia region of the UK. The organisation is based in a purpose built modern building just behind the Lotus Cars test track in Norfolk. The centre will be holding a Consultants’ forum on 20 Apr 10 to allow them to advertise their expertise and any one interested in seeing my expertise is welcome to attend.

My expertise in Business Continuity has been accepted by the Hethel Engineering Centre and so this aspect of my work has been added to my skills list. I carry out consultancy to enable organisations to plan for the worst whilst hoping for the best. The outcome of my consultancy is being certified to the British Standard BS 25999 and covers all aspects of Crisis Management from floods, theft of data to a syndicate lottery win.

December has been a quiet month with most organisations preparing for the Christmas break. Most of the month was taken with auditing which included 2 organisations who required NCR close out visits. Although no-one likes to have a number of NCRs raised against them I was pleased to see that these 2 organisations had improved their processes to a great extent and made their processes that much more robust. As one quality manager said, ‘You might not like it but a kick up the **** every now and then ensures you keep up with the pack!’

The end of Dec 09 has resulted in several inquiries for consultancy work and hopefully this will enable me to extend my work overseas. I wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

The wet month of November in the UK saw me in the balmy warmth of Riyadh of Saudi Arabia amidst the elegant and futuristic buildings that characterise the wealth of this region. The project here was to establish the level of compliance with ISO 9001:2008 and it was interesting talking to foreign people who could speak English better than I can. The interest that the Saudi Arabians have in the ISO 9001 was great and they were very responsive to any suggestions made, making it a pleasure to deal with them.

My marketing strategy went into full swing during the month with a number of folders being sent to many Companies and fellow consultants in a bid to expand my client base. It may be some of you receiving my folders will now be reading this monthly review. I will welcome any response from you and assure you of my good intentions.

With a week of work in Poland with half a metre of snow and a week in Russia with balmy days with the flowers still out it has been a mixture of weather which may have something to do with global warming.

A day was spent at the old Society of British Aircraft Companies (SBAC) in London on a course for personnel dealing with the aerospace standards AS 9100, AS 9110 and AS 9120. There are a number of changes coming in sometime in the future which will tighten up the requirements of the aerospace standards and the way that auditors do their work. The implementation of the AS 9100 Revision C will not now take place until the Summer of next year.

A non conformance raised in September has been discussed in detail, as an organisation did not have a means of planning the work they do with the result that the on time delivery performance was poor. The AS 9100 standard requires that product realisation is carried out under planned and controlled conditions which generally means that in some form, there is a plan and everyone knows when their part of the plan is to be completed. It is not good enough to have this information in the supervisor's head as he might win the lottery and not come into work on Monday morning. Then where would we be!!!

September has passed in the blink of an eye and it will soon be Christmas. However, September has shown once again how poorly some British Companies do root cause analysis and associated corrective action. The order of the day seems to be 'fire fighting' and let's hope the problem does not come back too soon! Simple 5Y analysis is so effective, especially when done as a small group and the aim is to get more than 2Y. I appreciate it is difficult getting past 2-3Y but the real root cause is in the fourth or fifth Y. I know of one quality manager who managed to get a genuine 22Y for a major British manufacturer which is being used as a best practice. However, that did take some time!!! The use of 8D analysis is also very good and simple to carry out and can give long term benefits out of all proportion to the effort put into it.

Don't forget, once you have carried out corrective action in 1 place and you use the same corrective action in another place it is still corrective action as it stemmed from something going wrong. In other words, it does not suddenly become preventive action as that is trying to stop something happening in the first place. Also, preventive action is not the same as preventative action. The word 'preventative' is a noun ie a condom!

The beginning of the month saw me attending a ‘Bid Course’ to learn how to assemble bids of varying sizes. There is a lot more to putting in bids than I thought and this must rank as one of those business changing moments. To put some of the topics into practice I now realise that my 60 second video on my web site is laughable and desperately needs to be changed before more people are put off from dealing with me. I am now in the hands of a local marketing firm who, I am sure, will be able to do a much better job using professional equipment. It just proves the point that if you want something doing properly and in a cost effective manner then you should go to the expert. I am the expert in putting in professional management systems so give me a call and see what I can do for you.

The middle of the month found me with an American global Company based in Germany and it was interesting to see such hi-tech equipment in use and being manufactured.

This month involved an initial audit for the aerospace Standard AS 9100 for a company that has been struggling with the recession as they were an automotive supplier. However, they did well to move the emphasis of their activates to the lower production runs of the aerospace market and with all issues having been corrected during the month they are now the proud owner of the Aerospace certificate. In addition, a surveillance visit to an organisation in Hungary was very successful with a major a communication problem with their main customer being highlighted. It was a pleasure to carry out a surveillance audit this month in the UK on a company that I have been dealing with continually since 2006 when I carried out a gap analysis on an organisation that was struggling. They achieved the AS 9100 certificate and have been able use this to 'steady the ship' and have generated a wider customer base and over the last 3 years they have gone from strength to strength.

I have now been informed that I will be able to continue my work in the Falkland Islands. I was there last about 18 months ago and although the flight is semi civilian it takes off from an RAF Station in the UK and lands at RAF Mount Pleasance in the Falklands with a 2 hour stop over at Ascension Island. The aircraft is escorted in to the Falkland Island Defence Zone by 2 Tornado fighter aircraft who come right to the wing tips of the airliner. During the visit I was taken to Ajax Bay where the old meat processing plant was being used as a field hospital, a day's tour of the old battle sites and to Sea Lion Island where we met, would you believe, many sea lions on the beach along with numerous penguins. (they really do smell and they do fall over when an aircraft passes over them!) The wild life is tremendous and matches anything we find in the town centres of Britain.

This was a chance to take a holiday and see the Arabian way of doing things in Tunisia and Libya. Whilst trying to curtail my instinct to point out that they could be doing business in a different way and offer 'free business consultancy' I had to realise the Arab way of business has been going quite some time and it was not my business to change the way they do things. This is my approach to Management Consultancy, if the organisation is still in business they must be doing something right so all I need to do is expand on what is happening already. You will not find me offering pre-written procedures and expect you to change to suit me!

Continuing the Arab theme, I then went straight into a consultancy audit in Saudi Arabia where the temperatures were rising into the low forties and it is not even close to the hot season.

This month brought a major trip to Russia with 3 of my colleagues where we did the re-assessment of an Aluminium manufacturer. The visit was a success with everyone turning up at the right place and the right time. With well over 4500 people on site and the major production buildings each 1 kilometre long, we soon felt the strain of walking all day.

However, to highlight the exact time keeping of auditors, we arranged to meet for the evening meal at 2000 in the restaurant and 1 colleague entered the lift on the 7th floor. I pressed the button on the 6th floor and was surprised to see my colleague in the lift. Still discussing this opportune meeting the lift stopped at the 5th floor and another colleague stepped into the lift just as my watch beeped for 2000. However, my watch is 1 minute fast and so we entered the restaurant at precisely 2000. We couldn't have done it again even if we rehearsed it!! (What, the 3rd colleague, she was Romanian and turned up somewhat later)