Documentation is vital for ISO accreditation and these documents can take the form of written text, graphic illustrations and flowcharts. Written documentation leaves room for ambiguity in the language and becomes a chore for workers who may be unaccustomed to writing. These workers must determine what procedures should be included and excluded, in what order they should appear, and write the document so that it is clear and understandable for all readers. Flowcharts on the other hand, are easy to create, especially with today s software packages, and contribute to the consistency of these procedures and alleviate the anxiety for those who lack writing and drawing skills. All it takes is the ability to manipulate a few simple shapes.
Flowcharts are visual tools that help all levels within a company understand processes.
2000 standard requires that all business processes, defined as any process important to product realization, be flow charted. Going forward, there is no choice. Today, the understanding is how business works in a process flow model. People are recognizing businesses are nothing more than a bunch of business processes. The revised ISO standard includes Requirement 7.0, product realization, that is made up of four levels of processes and subprocesses.