[edward1]

hi,
do any of you guys have this or have you looked into it .

[Spruce]

Hi Edward.

Not in my current window cleaning life, but when I worked for Bosch Power Tools in South Africa we did it in the very late 80's after it had changed from BS5750.

I know things must be different now, but the process was a whole lot of business accepted documented procedures that the company followed in all aspects of their business dealings. In our case, it began with importation of goods, warehousing, sales and invoicing procedures, goods dispatch and delivery as well as all workshop after sales service procedures.
This was adopted by Bosch as a worldwide standard in their organisation, and was a way to get each branch in each country to run to the same procedures.
So theoretically, I could have walked into any after sales service branch in any country and begun work as the procedures were the same throughout the world.

So from Bosch's point it was a good thing. They are also a massive company and other big companies would take comfort knowing that they work to this creditation.

With that in mind, I would feel that nothing would be gained from an ISO9000 creditation as a small window cleaning business even if you had several employees. I bet one of your large customers will only employ other business that have ISO9000. They won't deal with you if you haven't got it. But the paper trail needed to support that creditation is unbelievable (or it was). We were always having spot checks on our day to day processes to ensure we we working to the 'book,' all in preparation for the big ISO audit that could strike at anytime.

We have walked away from a large job that required us to be VAT registered. We aren't and I can't see any benefit for me at my age to become VAT registered for this one job.
I would think the same would apply to ISO 9000 IMO.

Spruce
  

[Smudger]

perfect reply Spruce.

Darran

[JSMC]

search my username for ISO. i was an internal auditor who worked all of our quality manual and it was very time consuming but a requiremnt for our business.

for everything you do in your business you will require a procedure i.e. filling your resin vessells, your tank, check TDS and so on .etc

also just anothe rlittle thing. how do you dispose of your waste resin? i think you will find you require waste transfer paperwork for it.

a massive undertaking is iso

[edward1]

thats very interesting.
i notice that the sponsor on here "price " has an iso.and they look big.

the  ha i currently work for have been swallowed by a bigger ha ,and im advised that next yre iso will be a requirement .

that puts a lot of us out the door .i have been with this company for nearly 20 yrs and could be thier preffered provider if i get accredited .but the workload would be great ,and i certainly would not be washing windows.

i think i may need help with this ,if i go that way.
thx guys

[Spruce]

thats very interesting.
i notice that the sponsor on here "price " has an iso.and they look big.

the  ha i currently work for have been swallowed by a bigger ha ,and im advised that next yre iso will be a requirement .

that puts a lot of us out the door .i have been with this company for nearly 20 yrs and could be thier preffered provider if i get accredited .but the workload would be great ,and i certainly would not be washing windows.

i think i may need help with this ,if i go that way.
thx guys

Hi
This is the crux of the matter. Although having ISO9000 will stand you in better stead with this company, you also can't be guaranteed that you will get the work after that. Usually businesses that are swallowed up by bigger businesses get bought out for their customer base, product image and for tax write off reasons. Most of the little guys working for them now will sadly be chewed and then spat out. They will see this new business purchase as one that can be run along side their existing infrastructure without adding much to their overheads and give them a better bottom line. See Cadburys as an example.

Personally, if I were staring this in the face, I would take the opportunity now to get out there and start replacing that business, or at the least put plans together to streamline your own business. If it is something you believe you need to do, then why don't you phone this sponsor and ask them how they managed. You maybe even able to drive down and spend a couple of hours with them to get a feel for the process, ask about problem areas, etc.

I would imagine that if you did get this accreditation, the possibility is initially, that even although you have to possibility of more work, financially you will take a big step backwards to begin with as your focus will be on paperwork rather than getting the job done.

JSMC has raised such a good point with regard to the handling and disposing of waste resin.

Spruce

[edward1]

thankyou for your concidered reply.very valued .

my feelings are that ,i may be in with a chance if i get the iso .but not a great chance . i would probably loose out on price .And they probably have a preferred contractor already.
.they are a big custy to me about 100k .but i imagine as a whole may be 1million .which would mean subbing out.which is expensive.

im inclined to go elsewhere ,as im a small buisness with about 7 workers full/part time.i currently turn over around 180k.big change for me though after 20 yrs.

i may well give the sponser a call .see how friendly they are.

thankyou very much