How to reconcile the conflict between ISO 13485 and ISO 9001

3 Comments / ISO 13485:2016, ISO 9001:2015, ISO Certification / By Robert Packard / ISO 13485, ISO 13485 standard, ISO 9001, ISO 9001 standard, upcoming ISO 13485 and 9001 standards

This blog explains how to reconcile the conflict between ISO 13485 and ISO 9001, and discusses whether you should maintain dual certification.

What is the conflict between ISO 13485 and ISO 9001?

The previous version of ISO 13485 was released in 2003. That standard was written following the same format and structure as the overall quality system standard at the time (i.e., ISO 9001:2000). In 2008, there was an update to the ISO 9001 standard, but the changes were minor, only clarified a few points, and the periodic review of ISO 13485 in 2008 determined there was not a need to update 13485 at that time. Unfortunately, the proposed structure of the ISO 9001 standard was radically different, and this forces companies with dual certification to reconcile the conflict between ISO 13485 and ISO 9001.

On December 1-5, 2014, the working group for the revision of ISO 13485 (i.e., TC 210 WG1), met at AAMI’s Standards week to review the comments and prepare a first Draft International Standard (DIS). We should have some updates on the progress of the DIS later in December, but hopefully, the news will not be delayed in publication until 2016. The following is a summary of the status before last that meeting.

Updated ISO 13485 and ISO 9001 Standards Being Released

In 2015, there will be a new international version of ISO 9001 released. This new version will have dramatic changes to the standard–including the addition of a new section on risk management and the adoption of the new High-Level Structure (HLS) changing from 9 sections to 11. The ISO 13485 standard is also anticipated to have a new international version released in 2015, but the ISO 13485 standard will maintain the current HLS with nine sections. The timing of the ISO 9001:2015 release and the ISO 13485:2015 release will likely be around the same time (Correction: the ISO 13485:2016 standard was released in February 2016). Both standards are expected to have a three-year transition period for implementation. The combination of the three-year transition and lessened requirements in the new version of ISO 9001 for a structured quality manual should allow most manufacturers to wait until the ISO 13485 release before they begin drafting a quality plan for compliance with the new standards. Some of my clients have already indicated that they may drop their ISO 9001 certification when it expires, instead of changing their quality system to comply with the ISO 9001:2015 requirements. However, my clients will not have the ability to allow their ISO 13485 certification to lapse. Will Health Canada be updating GD210 and continue to require ISO 13485 certification for medical device licensing? What should companies do?

Update on the reconciliation of ISO 13485:2016 and ISO 9001:2015 on May 29, 2020:

GD210 was never updated, and instead, it was replaced by MDSAP
ISO 13485:2016 certification, under the MDSAP program, is required for Canadian Medical Device Licensing
Many device companies have dropped the ISO 9001 certification.

Recommendations

From the experience of preparing for the ISO 13485:2016 and ISO 9001:2015 releases, I learned that obtaining draft versions of the standards before publication is invaluable. I was able to use the drafts to help prepare quality plans for the transition. Second, companies need to train their management teams and auditors on the differences between the current and the new standards to enable a gap analysis to be completed. Any manager that is responsible for a procedure required by the current version of a standard should receive training specific to the changes to understand how they will meet the requirements for documented information. Most companies will need to improve their risk management competency (which was updated again in December 2019). I recommend that companies begin drafting their quality plans and enter discussions with their certification body for quality system changes as early as possible. I also recommend that medical device companies maintain a quality manual structure that follows the ISO 13485:2016 standard rather than the ISO 9001:2015 standard. Following ISO 13485:2016 will help everyone locate information faster.

There is also specific text in the introduction of ISO 9001:2015 that states it is not the intent of the standard to imply the need to align your quality management system to the clause structure of the standard. Companies that maintain ISO 9001 certification should consider including cross-references between the two standards in their quality manual.

Historical Note

There are also European National (EN) versions of each standard (e.g., EN ISO 13485:2012). The EN versions are harmonized with the EU directives, but the content of the body or normative sections of the standards are identical. Historically, the differences were explained in Annex ZA, which was the last Annex in the EN version of the standard. In 2009 the harmonization annex for ISO 14971 (i.e., the medical device risk management standard) was split into three parts to match up with the three directives for medical devices (i.e., the MDD, AIMD, and IVDD). The new annexes (i.e., ZA, ZB, and ZC) were moved to the front of the EN version of the standard. The changes to ISO 14971 consisted of a correction and the change to Annex ZA. In 2012, there were new harmonization annexes created for ISO 13485 to follow the same format that was used for the EN ISO 14971 annexes. It is expected that these “zed” annexes will be released with a new EN version of the standard shortly after the international standard is published.

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Aug 23 2013

QMS Implementation Tasks

3 Comments / ISO Certification / By Robert Packard / implementing 12 important tasks, ISO 13485

Learn 12 QMS implementation tasks you need to include in your quality plan for successfully implementing ISO 13485.

QMS Implementation Tasks

For your ISO 13485 implementation project, use a planning tool that you are comfortable with (e.g., – a spreadsheet or project planning software). Your plan should include the following:

Identification of each task
Target dates for completion of each task
Primary person responsible for each task
Major milestones throughout the project

Regular progress reports to top management and implementation meetings with all process owners are recommended to track your progress to plan. Weekly meetings are also recommended so that no tasks can fall too far behind schedule. Be sure to invite top management to weekly meetings, and communicate the progress toward completion of each task to everyone within your company. The list below identifies 12 of the most important tasks that should be included in your plan.

12 QMS Implementation Tasks to Consider for Implementing ISO 13485

1. Select a certification body and schedule your certification audits (i.e., – Stage 1 and Stage 2). If you want to place devices on the market in the EU, Japan, or Canada, make sure your certification body meets the specific regulatory requirements for that market.
2. Establish a Quality Manual and at least 28 required procedures. If you have purchased a copy of the excellent AAMI Guidance Document, this lists the required procedures for you. There are a few extra procedures or work instructions needed to meet regulatory requirements (e.g., – training, mandatory problem reporting, and post-market surveillance).
3. Document training on the procedures comprising the quality system. A signed form indicating that employees “read and understand” the procedures is not enough. Training records should include evidence of the effectiveness of training, and you should be able to demonstrate the competency of the people performing those procedures.
4. You must complete at least one full quality system internal audit. The timing of your internal audit should be late enough in the quality plan that that most elements of your quality system have been implemented. However, you want to allow enough time to initiate CAPAs in response to internal audit findings before your Stage 1 audit. If your internal auditor(s) have been heavily involved in the implementation of the quality system, you may need to hire an external consultant to perform your first internal audit.
5. You need to complete at least one management review, which can be done just before the Stage 1 audit. My preference, if there is time, is to have at least two management reviews. The first review might occur three months before the Stage 1 audit, just before you plan to perform an internal audit of the management processes. There may be limited data to review at that time, but this first review provides an opportunity to train top management on their roles and responsibilities during a management review.

The second management review must cover all the requirements identified in ISO 13485, Clause 5.6. The second management review is also your last chance to identify any gaps in your quality system, and initiate a CAPA or action items before your certification auditor arrives.

6. Compliance with regulatory requirements must be a commitment stated in your company’s Quality Policy. Specific regulatory requirements should be traceable to a specific procedure(s).

If you are seeking ISO 13485 Certification as part of the Canadian Medical Device Conformity Assessment System (CMDCAS) or the CE Marking process, then these regulatory requirements will be specifically included in your certification audit.

7. Systematically incorporate customer and regulatory requirements into the quality management system. For contract manufacturers, this is especially important, and the Supplier Quality Agreements your company executes are the best source of these customer requirements. If your company is a legal manufacturer (the company named on the product label), this task is probably addressed sufficiently in tasks #1 and 6.
8. You need to implement a supplier quality management process. If you already have a strong supplier quality program, then this may be a small task involving a few changes to your procedure. If you don’t have much of a supplier program yet, then this may involve identifying your suppliers, ranking them all according to type and risk, qualifying or disqualifying them, and executing supplier quality agreements.

Note: If you need training on Supplier Quality Management, you might consider participating in Medical Device Academy’s webinars.

9. If product design is within the scope of your QMS, which is typical of legal manufacturers, but not for contract manufacturers, then you must establish a design control procedure(s). Product development projects often operate in a timeframe that is longer than your implementation project, and you may need ISO 13485 certification as part of the regulatory approval process.

Therefore, the minimum expectation is to initiate at least one development project before the certification audits. For records of implementation, you should have a design project plan, an initial risk management plan, reviewed and approved design inputs for your first product, and conduct at least one design review.

10. Document what your Certification Body expects (e.g., – notifying them of significant changes). These expectations are likely to be stated in your contract with the Certification Body.
11. Appoint the management representative and a deputy. Ideally, this is formally documented with a letter of appointment signed by the CEO and the management representative. This letter should be maintained in the management representative’s personnel file, along with a copy of the job description explaining the job responsibilities of the management representative. This may also be achieved by identifying the management representative and a deputy in your company’s organizational chart.
12. After the certification audit, your last task should be to “Create Quality Plan #2”—another PDCA loop through the system. The reason for a new quality plan is to implement improvements based on what you learned while you were building the quality system for the initial certification audit.

If your company wants to achieve ISO 13485 certification, you may be interested in YouTube video on this topic.

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Aug 22 2013

Implementing ISO 13485: Planning the Project

1 Comment / ISO Certification / By Robert Packard / ISO 13485

In this article, you will learn five reasons why implementing ISO 13485 takes longer than you expect and tips to help avoid pitfalls

Implementing ISO 13485

Your company wants to achieve ISO 13485 certification. How are you going to get there? In a recent blog, I reviewed setting objectives for implementing an ISO 13485 certification project. Once you’re clear on those, then you’re ready to create your first quality plan. The basic elements of any strategy will be:

Task breakdown (which I will cover in a separate blog)
Timeline
Resources (skills and hours available)

Timeframes and Trade-offs of ISO 13485 Certification Planning

The endpoint of planning for the certification project is the certification audit. The earlier you choose your registrar or Notified Body and book the audit, the more choice you will have regarding the date. This should be one of the earliest tasks in the task breakdown. To be able to do that, you need a timeframe as to when you will be ready for the certification audit. How long it takes to implement ISO 13485 and be ready for a certification audit depends upon your starting point and your available resources. If you have no QMS in place, it will take you longer than if you already have a strong, documented QMS that complies with 21 CFR Part 820.

It May Take More Work

If you already have ISO 9001 certification, though you already have a structure in place, the upgrade to ISO 13485 is likely to take more work than you expect because:

There are fewer procedures required by ISO 9001
Most of your existing procedures will require revision
Your employees will need training on the new procedures
You will need time to generate records using new procedures
You will need to complete a full quality system audit of the new procedures

Many companies also underestimate the required resources for ISO 13485 certification. If you have a knowledgeable consultant, and people available to write procedures, then ISO 13485 implementation will progress faster than an organization that has little expertise and little time available, so plan accordingly. Ideally, you will determine the length of time each task will take and decide on an endpoint for the project based on that information and available resources. This approach works well if you already have a well-documented, regulated QMS.

6 Months-Reasonable Timeframe?

Six months is my rule of thumb for the time needed to implement a quality system compliant with ISO 13485. If the implementation schedule is longer, organizational enthusiasm may wane. If the timeframe is shorter than six months, it’s difficult to complete all the required tasks. No matter how carefully you plan, you still need to write procedures, train personnel, and implement procedures, so there is adequate time to generate records. Six months is aggressive for most companies, but the objective of achieving certification in six months is reasonable.

You may find it interesting that in Rob Packard’s white paper on ISO 13485 implementation. He also recommends that you allocate six months of one Full-Time Equivalent (FTE). This is a reasonable starting point, but you may want to adjust your resource allocation up or down depending on the level of experience within the implementation team. Experience has taught me that smaller organizations are more successful at building an effective quality system when effectiveness is achieved in reiterative steps (i.e., – revision 1, revision 2, etc.). This is also the basis of the Deming/Shewhart Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle. This is also what I meant in a recent blog, where I suggested that you should “throw perfectionism out the window.”

Your understanding of how the quality system links together will grow as you implement each process in your implementation plan. As knowledge grows, you may reconsider some of your procedures. Instead of delaying the certification process (i.e., – revision 1), you may want to implement improvements as a second revision to procedures after the Stage 2 certification audit (i.e., – revision 2). During your Stage 1 and Stage 2 certification audits, your understanding of how the standard is interpreted and audited will build. After you achieve the initial ISO 13485 certification, you will have a much greater understanding of how all the elements of the quality system need to work together. You will also understand what parts of your quality system are easy for an outsider to audit.

After the ISO 13485 Certification Audit

During the initial planning stage, you should also imagine your future state after the certification audit. Your boss may assume that once the audit has been and gone, then everything will settle back to “normal” again. The reality is that after you deal with any nonconformities, and you take off a few days like you promised your family, you will have a long list of improvement ideas waiting for you. You will also need to prepare for next year’s surveillance audit. Therefore, I recommend that you manage expectations by adding “Create Quality Plan #2” as the last step of your ISO 13485 certification plan.

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Aug 19 2013

Implementing ISO 13485: Dealing with Delays

1 Comment / ISO Certification / By Robert Packard / ISO, ISO 13485

By Guest Blogger, Brigid Glass

The author provides tips, practical examples, and six steps to follow if your ISO 13485 implementation project falls behind schedule.

In the best-planned project, with plentiful, skilled resources and diligent monitoring, things can still go awry. We need to be watchful for signs of our plans falling behind schedule, and develop contingency plans to prevent delays.

Walk Around the Mountains

Identify major obstacles early and develop a plan to deal with them. The major obstacles are usually the tasks that take the longest—such as process validation. Specifically, name these tasks in your pitch to management for resources before you start. This approach will ensure that everyone is focused on the biggest challenges.

If your plan to climb over those mountains is failing, work out a route around them. Maybe your R&D Manager can’t yet accept that there will now be design controls. In this case, an alternate path might be to leave design controls for last purposely. If you write a concise procedure and release it as your last procedure, then you have a built-in excuse for why you have very few records to demonstrate an implementation of design controls. You will still need at least one design project plan and training records to demonstrate that the process is implemented.

If this plan is successful, your auditor will write in the report that “design controls are implemented, but there are limited records to demonstrate implementation at this time.” If this plan is unsuccessful, you will need to provide additional design control records before you can be recommended for ISO certification—typically within 90 days.

Another approach is to initiate a CAPA and implement some of the tasks after the audit. For example, you have more suppliers than you can audit before certification. In this case, qualify all your suppliers, and use a risk-based approach to help you prioritize which suppliers need to be audited first. In your plan, identify that you will start by auditing the three highest-risk suppliers. Lower risk suppliers can be scheduled for audits after certification.

Be Watchful

Keep a close eye on your project plan. One of the most critical factors for success is keeping the plan and progress against the plan in front of the key players and senior management. Do this in such a way that progress, or the lack of it, is very clearly visible. It’s a basic maxim of Quality that we act on what we measure.

ISO 13485 Implementation: If Your Project Falls Behind Schedule

If you find yourself lagging seriously behind in your project, the following steps will assist you in recovering sufficiently to still be able to attain certification.

Enlist management support when you need it, especially if you need them to free up resources.
Prioritize. Before the Stage 1 audit, ensure that those procedures which are required by ISO 13485 are released (there are 19). There’s always room for improvement, but leave some of it for the second revision, instead of delaying certification.
Ensure that you have at least a few examples of all the required records. Your auditor will be unable to tick off his checklist if a record is absent. Make it easy for the auditor.
If there is a sizeable gap that you won’t be able to close before certification (i.e., – you have a validation procedure, but validations have not been completed), write a CAPA outlining your action plan to address the gap. During the audit, act confidently when you are questioned about the gap. Many auditors will give you credit for identifying the problem yourself.
Don’t panic. The worst the auditor can do is to identify a nonconformity you will have to address with a CAPA plan before you can be recommended for certification. At most, this will result in a delay of a few weeks.
Throughout your certification preparations and during the certification audits, you will identify issues you may not have time to resolve before the certification process is complete. If you are planning to revise procedures and make other corrections, make sure you track these issues as CAPAs or with some other tool (e.g., – an action item list). You want to address each issue prior to the first surveillance audit (no more than 12 months from the date of the Stage 2 audit).

Best wishes for your project. Success is the result of good planning, good communication, and good monitoring.

This blog is part of a series of blogs that leads up to our Roadmap to Iso 13485 Certification Courses

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Aug 12 2013

Implementing the ISO 13485 Standard: Objectives

1 Comment / ISO Certification / By Robert Packard / ISO 13485

By Guest Blogger, Brigid Glass

The author discusses implementing the ISO 13485 standard, including seven questions to clarifying your objectives and six considerations in shaping your objectives.

Implementing ISO 13485 is such an enormous undertaking for an organization that it pays to approach the planning strategically to ensure that all objectives are met. Often, some objectives are made explicit, and others are unspoken. It is worth taking the time to ensure that all objectives are clearly stated to achieve the outcomes you want. Begin with the end in mind. Then, ensure that you are taking the organization with you, and you are all headed to the same destination.

7 Questions to Clarify Your Objectives

What are your regulatory drivers for ISO 13485 implementation? Are there dates associated with marketing plans that you need to take into account? Are there other regulatory requirements that need to be built into the QMS and the implementation plan, (e.g., incident reporting for Canada or a Technical File for CE marking?)
What other regulatory requirements must you meet to get into international markets? ISO 13485 requires that you meet applicable regulations for each market, such as a training procedure to address 21 CFR 820.25, a post-market surveillance plan to address CE Marking requirements, and a Mandatory Problem Reporting Procedure for Canada.
If you are a supplier to medical device manufacturers, what do your customers expect of your QMS? If they haven’t made this explicit already, ask them. Meeting their needs and their audits of your system may be as important to you as the certification audit.
Do you want to achieve business improvements by implementing a QMS? If you include this in your stated objectives, and everyone “buys into” the program, then you will build procedures that deliver business improvements, rather than just being regulatory overhead.
Do you have real buy-in from your CEO? You may have buy-in for certification, but if you don’t already have a regulated QMS, does she or he fully understand the cultural change that he or she must lead? If not, make this one of your unwritten objectives and keep it front of mind.
Do you have organizational buy-in? Ensure that it is clear who owns each process, and that those process owners have the ultimate responsibility for the compliance of their process and ownership of documentation that is created for those processes. Keep the project progress visible. Develop a communication plan with its objectives and targets, even if your organization is small.
Do you want to align with other systems? If you already have a QMS, you will want to integrate ISO 13485 compliance with that. Do you also need to implement ISO 14971, the risk management standard? Since you are going to be doing this much work on your QMS, maybe you could take the opportunity to align it with your health and safety or environmental management systems.

Timeframes and Trade-offs

How long it takes to implement ISO 13485 will be covered in another blog soon. Six months is a workable rule of thumb.

So what do you do if you don’t have that long, and have to meet a pressing deadline? Or you don’t have the resources available to implement, as well as you want in the time available? Compromises have to be made, and now it’s necessary to set short-term and long-term objectives.

6 Considerations in Shaping Your ISO 13485 Standard Implementation Objectives

If you are constrained from structuring the implementation project ideally, the following considerations below will assist you in shaping your objectives:

Get a qualified consultant who understands your business. If you have a large company, find someone who spends more of their time working with corporates, and vice versa for a small company.
Throw perfectionism out the window. The goal is not perfect procedures. The essence of a Quality System is documentation to explain the intent, records to capture reality, internal auditing, and monitoring to identify the gaps and CAPA to improve and maintain effectiveness. The Deming Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle assumes that you are never perfect.)
Accept that you then have another round of work to do to improve procedures.
Organizational buy-in is even more critical. Be very careful about setting expectations. Adjusting to the extra requirements of a regulated QMS is already tricky. In these circumstances, you may be asking people to live with procedures that are not as usable as they would like.
Be especially careful to ensure that the auditor can tick off all the essential points, and find how you have fulfilled the requirements without hunting too hard. All the required procedures and records must be in place. It’s more important to address 100% of the requirements than to perfect 80% and skip the last 20%.
Accept that there may be nonconformities that have to be dealt with after the certification audit. Set the organizational expectation around this and build time for it into your schedule. Ask your certification body early to tell you the timeframe for dealing with nonconformities.

Setting Expectations

Objectives need to be communicated clearly to everyone in the organization. For a project (and many other things in life),

Satisfaction (or Disappointment) = Actual Result – Expectation

The certification audit is not the end. You will still need people to align their effort into making the implementation succeed after the pressure and obvious deadline of the certification audit has passed. Setting their expectations appropriately early in the project is essential to keeping their (and your) motivation going. This is especially important if you are building your QMS, short on time or resource, and therefore know that you need to do a lot of work in the year following certification to develop improved workable procedures and generate a recorded history of compliance.

This blog is part of a series of blogs that leads up to our Roadmap to Iso 13485 Certification Courses

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Jun 11 2013

Benefits of Incorporating Risk Management into Procedure Documents

1 Comment / ISO 14971:2019 (Risk Management) / By Robert Packard / documentation, ISO 13485, Procedures, Risk Management

By Guest Blogger, Brigid Glass
The author discusses the benefits of incorporating risk management into procedure documents. An example procedure for Record Control is included.

I loved it when I was first introduced to FMEA many years ago. I loved the systematic approach and particularly appreciated using a Process FMEA to explain to those involved in a production process why specific controls had been implemented. I enthusiastically taught FMEA to our engineers. At the time, our bubbly, buoyant, outcomes-focused Training Manager said to me, “You Quality people have such a negative outlook. You’re always looking for what can go wrong!” Well, yes, but it’s our role to prevent things from going wrong! I’d found a tool to help me with that.

Next was EN 1441, a risk analysis standard that never satisfied and always felt incomplete. ISO 14971 followed, covering the entire lifecycle of a product with closed feedback loops. So now, product and process design risks are well covered, but ISO 13485 section 7.1 asks us to “establish documented requirements for risk management throughout product realization.” Many of us would acknowledge that we could do better despite passing audits. And what about the rest of the quality management system? I know that when we document a procedure, we already apply risk management principles in our heads, but we usually don’t apply them systematically or write down the results.

The Idea

Recently, Rob Packard and I started work on a project requiring us to generate a complete set of documentation for a QMS compliant with U.S. and EU requirements, including ISO 13485 and ISO 14971. We each had our ideas on how best to write a procedure, but this project allowed us to get some synergy going. Rob wanted to address risk management in each procedure. “Yes!” I said, thinking that there was a chance to fill that gap. But then, it was my job to develop the template for the procedures and work out how to accomplish this.

My first results looked very complicated, so I took the KISS (Keep It Simple, Sweetheart) approach: one column for the hazards and consequences and one for the risk control measures.

What I didn’t include:

I started with more complex hazard documentation (hazard ID, impact, trigger event, etc.). Still, I felt the benefits in the context of a procedure document was not balanced by the extra complexity and work required for analysis and training. It would be a hard sell to users within an organization who were not used to the risk management approach.
I decided not to assess risks and controls quantitatively for the same reasons as in the bullet point above.
Initially, I included references to implementation, but this would be difficult to maintain as other documents changed.
I thought about verification of the implementation of risk controls, then decided to leave that verification to reviewers.

Below is an example from a procedure for Record Control in which records are completed on paper and then scanned as a PDF. My list won’t be the same as yours, but it is illustrative.

Standards and regulations are essentially a set of risk controls, so they are the first starting point when identifying hazards. The list should include direct risks to products, risks to the integrity of the QMS, and regulatory risks. For those of us who have been in this industry for a while, experience, past mistakes, questions fielded in external audits, and observations of other systems will yield further hazards and appropriate controls. Audits allow updating and refining the list and testing the control measures.

Benefits of Incorporating Risk Management into Procedure Documents

Impresses your ISO 13485 auditor!
When first writing procedure documents, starting the writing process by reviewing the external requirements and systematically writing the risk section sharpens the mind as to what must be included in the procedure. This is the same approach as in design controls, where we include risk mitigators that apply to product design in the design inputs. This is part of planning in the PDCA cycle.

Supports future decision-making, in the same way, that the risk file for a product is considered when a design is changed. The risk control section of a procedure provides the criteria against which any improvement or change can be assessed. Will it enhance the risk controls, or might it introduce a new hazard?
Serves as the basis for training on the procedure. Making visible the link between potential hazards and procedural controls much more convincing than saying, “Do this because the procedure says so,” or, “It’s in the procedure because the regs say so.”

This is part 1 in a series of blogs that leads up to our Roadmap to Iso 13485 Certification Courses

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Jun 23 2012

Auditing Design Controls – 7 Step Process

4 Comments / Design Control, ISO Auditing / By Robert Packard / auditing, Design controls, ISO 13485

This blog reviews seven steps for effectively auditing design controls utilizing the ISO 13485 standard and process approach to auditing.

turtle diagram for design controls Auditing Design Controls 7 Step Process

Third-party auditors (i.e., – a Notified Body Auditor) don’t always practice what we preach. I know this may come as a huge shock to everyone, but sometimes we don’t use the process approach. Auditing design controls is a good example of my own failure to follow was it true and pure. Instead, I use NB-MED 2.5.1/rec 5 as a checklist, and I sample Technical Files to identify any weaknesses. The reason I do this is that I want to provide as much value to the auditing client as possible without falling behind in my audit schedule.

Often, I would sample a new Technical File for a new product family that had not been sampled by the Technical Reviewer yet. My reason for doing this is that I could often find elements that are missing from the Technical File before the Technical Reviewer saw the file. This gives the client an opportunity to fix the deficiency before submission and potentially shortens the approval process. Since NB-MED documents are guidance documents, I could not write the client up for a nonconformity, unless they were missing a required element of the M5 version of the MDD (93/42/EEC as modified by 2007/47/EC). This is skirting the edge of consulting for a third- party reviewer, but I found it was a 100% objective way to review Technical Files. I also found I could review an entire Technical File in about an hour.

What’s wrong with this approach to auditing design controls?

This approach only tells you if the elements of a Technical File are present, but it doesn’t evaluate the design process. Therefore, I supplemented my element approach with a process audit of the design change process by picking a few recent design changes that I felt were high-risk issues. During the process audit of the design change process, I sampled the review of risk management documentation, any associated process validation documentation, and the actual design change approval records. If I had time, I looked for the following types of changes: 1) vendor change, 2) specification change, and 3) process change. By doing this, I covered the following clauses in ISO 13485:2016: 7.4 (purchasing), 7.3.9 (design changes), 7.5.6 (process validation), 7.1 (risk management), and 4.2.5 (control of records).

So what is my bastardized process approach to auditing design controls missing? Clauses 7.3.1 through 7.3.10 of ISO 13485:2016 are missing. These clauses are the core of the design and development process. To address this, I would like to suggest the following process approach:

Step 1 – Define the Design Process

Identify the process owner and interview them. Do this in their office–not in the conference room. Get your answers for steps 2-7 directly from them. Ask lots of open-ended questions to prevent “yes/no” responses.

Step 2 – Process Inputs

Identify how design projects are initiated. Look for a record of a meeting where various design projects were vetted and approved for internal funding. These are inputs into the design process. There should be evidence of customer focus, and some examples of corrective actions taken based upon complaints or service trend analysis.

Step 3 – Process Outputs

Identify where Design History Files (DHF) are stored physically or electronically, and determine how the DHF is updated as the design projects progress.

Step 4 – What Resources

This is typically the step of a process audit where their auditor needs to identify “what resources” are used in the process. However, only companies that have software systems for design controls have resources dedicated to Design and Development. I have indicated this in the “Turtle Diagram” presented above.

Step 5 – With Whom, Auditing Training Records

Identify which people are assigned to the design team for a design project. Sometimes companies assign great teams. In this case, the auditor should focus on the team members that must review and approve design inputs (see Clause 7.3.2) and design outputs (see Clause 7.3.3). All of these team members should have training records for Design Control procedures and Risk Management procedures.

Step 6 – Auditing Design Controls Procedures and Forms

Identify the design control procedures and forms. Do not read and review these procedures. Auditors never have the time to do this. Instead, ask the process owner to identify specific procedures or clauses within procedures where clauses in the ISO Standard are addressed. If the process owner knows exactly where to find what you are looking for, they’re training was effective, or they may have written the procedure(s). If the process owner has trouble locating the clauses you are requesting, spend more time sampling training records.

Step 7 – Process Metrics

Ask the process owner to identify some metrics or quality objectives they are using to monitor and improve the design and development process. This is a struggle for many process owners–not just design. If any metrics are not performing up to expectations, there should be evidence of actions being taken to address this. If no metrics are being tracked by the process owner, you might review schedule compliance.

Many design projects are behind schedule, and therefore this is an important metric for most companies. Now that you have completed your “Turtle Diagram,” if you have more time to audit the design process, you can interview team members to review their role in the design process. You could also sample-specific Technical Files as I indicated above. If you are performing a thorough internal audit, I recommend doing both. To learn more about using the process approach to auditing, you can register for our webinar on the topic.

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