I have a friend who just returned from Mexico (about a year ago) where he was setting up a music ministry. Then he was slightly depressed. He said he might be closing his strawberry picking business in Watsonville, California.

I asked him if he had a quality system in his business? this would be a consistent set of processes that ensures every employee delivered what was expected. “We have some procedures but tell me more.” hope seemed come to his face.

After a short time in his office, I suggested that he have a Quality Operations Manual that documented and/or pointed to all the processes that ran the company. About a week later I delivered the first draft of the their Quality Operations Manual and he reviewed it with his people. When I visited them the following week, they were refining it to even further meet their needs.

By the end of the season, they had turned a profit, all his people knew exactly what to do, his picking reports were delivered on time and the management reports were all he needed to manage the company.

See the sidebar ISO Simple to find out how it works

For a small business a Quality Operations Manual maybe