We are taking effort to beat the October 29 deadline relative to our transition from ISO9001:2000 to ISO9001:2008. The last of the required documents were sent through courier this afternoon; I also emailed electronic copies of the document a while ago. Are our efforts worth it? I would like to think so. Of course I would like to think that the times we spent cause mapping added to the inherent talents of the PSTDs. :-).

I'm doing an Environmental Impact Study for a district hospital and found the following document helpful in describing the EIA Methodology: http://apps.adwea.ae/en/research/pdf/Annexes/Annex2/2A.pdf. There are other sites that are equally helpful but will post them later.

Most organizations that want to start on productivity improvement will fare well with implementing 5S. What is 5S? 5S is a productivity tool based on five Japanese words:

1. seiri (sort)

2. seiton (systematize)

3. seiso (sweep or clean)

4. seiketsu (standardize)

5. shitsuke (self-discipline)

The first three S' are action words while the last two are concepts that must be internalized to sustain the 5S culture.