Volume 6 · Issue 11 · November 2001

Contents

Page 31…

Flowcharts as Procedures: Out With the Old, In With the New

Action Item 12. Review flowcharts for accuracy. By "accuracy", we mean what actually happens! In other words, avoid works of fiction. Action Item 13. Develop and use flowcharts to document procedures. The flowchart can become the procedure. Always drive each process with its objective(s). John Broomfield writes that any organization implementing/transitioning its QMS to ISO 9001:2000 and/or implementing/revising an ISO 14001-based EMS or any other management system will benefit by flowcharting that system’s processes and then throwing away as much documentation as possible. In this 12th entry in a series of articles containing practical advice for organizations that want to build effective management systems that go beyond achieving registration to a standard, Broomfield examines how to use Action Items 12 and 13 to address the documentation problem of documented procedures.