Clause 4.2.4 of ISO9001:2008 places particular requirements on businesses with regard to control of records. It's an area where, as an Auditor, I often find there is room for improvement.
The aim of the clause is to ensure that businesses are able to provide evidence of their operation of key processes, and the outcome of these processes and to be able to access those records in a timely manner. Many companies seem to believe that this means records have to be held on site and this is one of the first myths that needs dealing with. Records can be retrievable even if they are held off site in a secure storage facility, and may be easier to track down than those held 'on site . . . somewhere'. In one business we managed to off hire 4 portacabins, all of which were heated and lit, simply by reviewing what documents were being stored there. Half were duplicates of information held by others (agreeing who would keep the record took some doing but we got there in the end), a quarter were well past their disposal date (and being kept 'just in case') so we soon got shot of them, and the final quarter were valid records which were then sent to the corporate archiving company who were being paid to look after them. Why not look at the records you hold and
The aim of the clause is to ensure that businesses are able to provide evidence of their operation of key processes, and the outcome of these processes and to be able to access those records in a timely manner. Many companies seem to believe that this means records have to be held on site and this is one of the first myths that needs dealing with. Records can be retrievable even if they are held off site in a secure storage facility, and may be easier to track down than those held 'on site . . . somewhere'. In one business we managed to off hire 4 portacabins, all of which were heated and lit, simply by reviewing what documents were being stored there. Half were duplicates of information held by others (agreeing who would keep the record took some doing but we got there in the end), a quarter were well past their disposal date (and being kept 'just in case') so we soon got shot of them, and the final quarter were valid records which were then sent to the corporate archiving company who were being paid to look after them. Why not look at the records you hold and
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