What they do when you’re not there?

At 2018 ASQ BOSCON, Stephanie Gaulding, Principal Consultant – Quality Systems and Regulatory Compliance, presented on integrating cultural assessments into supplier audits. Assessing suppliers is an important part of any quality management system but one of the key struggles faced by organizations today is how do they build confidence that a supplier is doing “the right thing” when they’re not there every day. An organization’s culture drives not only how they behave but also their decision making process. But since culture is not a tangible thing like a procedure or process that can be reviewed against standards, how can an organization gain confidence through an audit that the real culture working behind the procedures and processes in an organization is understood. In this presentation, Stephanie discussed typical signs of “good” and “bad” organizational culture, several techniques for gathering “data” on an organization’s culture as part of conducting an on-site audit, and how to build a cultural assessment into a supplier management program.

BOSCON is an annual quality conference hosted by the Boston Section of ASQ. BOSCON is the section’s signature event which hosts national and international quality professionals to hear speakers discuss different quality topics.

Stephanie has over 20 years quality systems and regulatory compliance experience in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. She helps clients develop, redesign, and implement efficient and sustainable quality systems as well as successfully preparing for and navigating regulatory inspections.

Stephanie's slide from BOSCON can be found here