ISO 9001 Lessons Learned Register Template

Introduction

Organizations all over the world embrace the ISO 9001 standard to be able to achieve excellence and implement a quality management system. This system is based on a process approach and continual improvement. However, many are forgetting that one of the most important tools for managing continual improvement is the Lessons Learned Register. In this article, you will learn about the importance of an ISO 9001 Lessons Learned Register, and a guide to creating a template that will enable your organization’s continual improvement.

What is ISO 9001 and Why Are Lessons Learned So Important?

ISO 9001 is an international standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system, aimed at helping organizations demonstrate their ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements. Additionally, they must show commitment to continual improvement in their performance.

The continual improvement is achieved by:

• Taking advantage of opportunities for improvement (identifying them).
  
  

• Acting on the improvement (taking action).
  
  

• Learning from both successes and failures.

This is where lessons learned are crucial to achieving continual improvement. Without having a system in place to capture, analyze, and act upon the opportunities for improvement based upon the knowledge from projects, the organization is at high risk of failing to learn and move forward. The Lessons Learned Register is the system which enables this learning.

How Does a Lessons Learned Register Support ISO 9001?

A good ISO 9001 Lessons Learned Register not only will enable the organization to comply with some of the standard’s requirements, but it also will help the system to be effective and achieve improvement. The key requirements which are impacted by having a good Lessons Learned Register are as follows:

Meets the Requirements of Clause 10.2 of ISO 9001:2015: Nonconformity and Corrective Action

One of the requirements of ISO 9001 is that, in case of a nonconformity, the organization has to take action to control and correct it, evaluate whether action is needed to prevent its recurrence, and implement the action. Lessons learned are crucial in nonconformities, as the best actions taken to prevent a recurrence can be captured and become part of the knowledge base of the organization.

Meets the Requirements of Clause 7.1.6 of ISO 9001:2015: Organizational Knowledge

This clause requires the organization to determine and maintain the knowledge required for the operation of its processes and to achieve conformity of its products and services. A Lessons Learned Register is one of the mechanisms that the organization can use to capture and maintain the knowledge of the organization. It also helps to avoid the loss of knowledge in case of staff turnover.

Achieving Continual Improvement (Clause 10.3)

Clause 10.3 of ISO 9001 is fully dedicated to continual improvement and requires the organization to continually improve its processes based on analysis of opportunities and the evaluation of their benefits. The register helps to provide evidence of continual improvement, and thus, supports the achievement of this requirement.

Benefits of Having an ISO 9001 Lessons Learned Register

Having a good register means that the organization has a good repository of their learning from projects. The benefits include:

• Improved problem-solving: The ability to solve problems faster and easier.
  
  

• Risk mitigation: Preventing incidents and nonconformities by identifying problems that previously occurred and their root cause.
  
  

• Knowledge retention: Ensuring that valuable knowledge remains in the organization and is used for the benefit of future projects.
  
  

• Better decision-making: Making decisions using the knowledge captured from the lessons learned register.
  
  

• Saves time and money: Preventing the mistakes which were previously made and reaping the benefits of using existing best practices.
  
  

• Encourages organizational learning and improvement culture: Creating transparency and a learning environment in which the lessons learned, both positive and negative, are shared and used to improve.

What Should an ISO 9001 Lessons Learned Register Include?

Any Lessons Learned Register should include a simple but effective template which will capture the information needed for the implementation of the best practices and the avoidance of recurring incidents. The following fields are recommended:

1. Unique ID/Reference number: To be used for easy tracking.
   
   

2. Date of lesson identification: To know when the lesson was learned.
   
   

3. Project/Process/Incident name: The scope in which the lesson was identified.
   
   

4. Lesson type: Differentiate between positive practice, negative experience/challenge, and opportunity for improvement.
   
   

5. Lesson description: A short description of the lesson (e.g. "Delay in material delivery,").
   
   

6. Cause: The possible cause of the problem or the reason for the positive practice (e.g. Lack of communication with the supplier, Thorough user testing prior to launch). This can be omitted for positive practices.
   
   

7. Impact/consequence: The impact of the incident or the additional benefits of the positive practice (e.g. The project was delayed by 2 days, There was an increase of 15% of customer satisfaction survey results).
   
   

8. Recommended action/correction/best practice: The action to be taken to ensure that the negative incident will not happen again or to replicate a positive practice.
   
   

9. Action owner: Who should take care of implementing the action.
   
   

10. Target date: When the action is expected to be completed.
    
    

11. Status: Open, In progress, Completed, Closed.
    
    

12. Date closed: When the action was verified as completed.
    
    

13. Verification of effectiveness: How was the effectiveness of the action verified (e.g. Reviewed the updated protocol, Monitored the next three projects for material delivery).
    
    

14. Relevant ISO 9001 Clause (optional but recommended): The clause supported by this lesson learned.
    
    

15. Keywords/tags: To facilitate searchability and organization (e.g. Customer Management, Material Delivery, Risk Management, etc.).

How to Implement and Maintain Your Lessons Learned Register

The described above is only a template to help you get started. The most important things to ensure are the following:

• You have a process.
  
  

• You encourage your employees to participate and share their lessons learned.
  
  

• You maintain and update the register.
  
  

• You review the register on a regular basis.
  
  

• You utilize the opportunity to improve.

Conclusion

The ISO 9001 Lessons Learned Register is an extremely important document which captures the knowledge of the organization. It is the central mechanism which enables the organization to meet the standard’s requirements and to learn from their successes and failures. By using this knowledge, the organization can achieve continual improvement, as well as mitigate risks and save time and money.