Quality management system consultant, Seattle
Five engagements, and most clients need only one of them
WAC sells five pieces of quality consulting work: ISO 9001 implementation, a gap assessment, certification audit readiness, documented information and internal audit with management review. All five are on one ledger below, with the price basis, the time on site and what you have to hand us before we start.
01 The comparison ledger
Basis, deliverables and what you supply
Read across a row, not down a column. The last column is the one people skip, and it is the one that decides whether the dates hold.
| Engagement | Price basis | Time basis | You receive | You supply |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ISO 9001 implementation | Fixed fee agreed after a scoping call | 16 to 26 weeks elapsed; from 14 consulting days | Process map, documented information, trained process owners, first internal audit, first management review, mock stage 2 | A named management representative with 4 hours a week, process owners for mapping sessions, access to the floor |
| Gap assessment | Fixed fee per site | 2 days on site; ledger within 5 working days | A clause-by-clause findings ledger with RAG rating, owner and due date, and a debrief with your management | Whatever documents exist, however rough; a guide for the floor walk; 1 hour of the top manager's time |
| Certification audit readiness | Day rate for an agreed number of days | From 6 days; timed 3 to 6 weeks before stage 2 | A mock stage 2 audit with graded findings, a closing meeting, closure support, advice on choosing a certification body | A running system with records, the stage 1 report if you have one, auditees available on the day |
| Documented information | Per document set, quoted after review | Typically 3 to 8 weeks, depending on review turnaround | Procedures, work instructions, forms, a document master list and revision control, in Word and Excel | A reviewer per process who will read drafts inside 5 working days; your existing files, including the FINAL_v7 folder |
| Internal audit and management review | Per audit cycle | 1 cycle a year, or split into 2 halves | Audit programme, audit reports, 9.3 minutes that cover every required input, corrective actions tracked to closure | Auditees, the previous cycle's reports, performance data for the review, a top manager who attends it |
Day counts come from the base figures in the scope builder, before headcount, site and standard factors are applied. The certificate itself, and the audit days behind it, are bought from a certification body.
02 Which one do I need
Find your situation in the left column
Most people call asking for implementation when they need a gap assessment, or asking for a gap assessment when the certification body's stage 1 report has already told them the gaps. Pick the line closest to where you are.
If two lines fit, the higher one on the list usually comes first.
you have no quality system and a customer has asked for ISO 9001 certification
Implementationyou have something written but no idea how far it is from the standard
Gap assessmentstage 2 is booked, the system runs, and you want to know what the auditor will raise
Audit readinessyou were certified, then a surveillance audit raised a major nonconformity
Audit readinessyour people run the process fine but the paperwork is a shared drive nobody trusts
Documented informationyour internal auditor left, or audits happen but corrective actions never close
Internal auditmanagement review is one meeting a year that nobody minutes properly
Management reviewyou need ISO 14001, 45001, 13485 or 27001 and want a day count first
Scope builder- 01ISO 9001 implementation
- 02Gap assessment
- 03Certification audit readiness
- 04Documented information
- 05Internal audit and management review
03 In a paragraph each
What each engagement feels like from your side
-
01
ISO 9001 implementation
The long one. We spend the first weeks with the people who run each process, drawing what they do on a whiteboard, then write it down in as few pages as the process allows. The standard mandates far fewer documents than most people think. What it cannot do without is records, so forms go live early and the system has to run for at least three months before stage 2. Expect a weekly session with your management representative and a visit every two to three weeks.
Clauses 4 to 10Fixed fee -
02
Gap assessment
Two days, and you will notice us. Day one is interviews and the floor walk: storage bays, the inspection bench, the calibration register, the corrective action log. Day two is records sampling and a debrief at 3 pm. Every finding goes on one ledger line. A gap assessment is two days on site and a ledger of findings, clause by clause. You keep the ledger, and you are under no obligation to hire us for anything after it.
RAG ratedFixed fee per site -
03
Certification audit readiness
We play the certification body's auditor for a day or two, with an audit plan, sampled records and findings graded major or minor the way ISO/IEC 17021-1 bodies grade them. It is uncomfortable on purpose. Then we help close what we found, and we tell you honestly if stage 2 should move. We also go through how to compare certification bodies. We advise; you choose.
Mock stage 2Day rate -
04
Documented information
For organizations whose work is sound and whose paperwork is not. We sort what exists, retire what is dead, and rewrite the rest to clause 7.5: identified, reviewed, approved, versioned, available where it is used. A quality manual is optional under ISO 9001:2015. We write one only if you or your customer want it, and it will be short.
Clause 7.5Per document set -
05
Internal audit and management review
Clause 9.2 wants a planned programme and auditors who do not audit their own work. Small organisations often cannot manage the second part, which is where we come in. We run the audit, or pair with your auditor so they learn it. We prepare and minute the 9.3 review against every listed input and track the resulting 10.2 actions until someone signs them closed.
9.2 · 9.3 · 10.2Per audit cycle
04 Limits
Work we turn down, whichever engagement you pick
Short list. Each of these has cost someone a certificate or a customer, and we would rather lose the job than be the cause.
- CertificatesWe do not issue them or broker them, and we take no fee from any certification body.
- Procedures for processes you do not runAn auditor asks the operator. If the operator has never seen it, it is a finding.
- Backdated recordsThree months of records means three real months. We will move a stage 2 date before we fake one.
- Guaranteed pass datesYour auditor decides. We give you a feasible sequence and flag where it is tight.
Tell us which line in the decision table you are on. We reply with a scoping call slot.
Request a scope