Thanks Rich for your very detailed, interesting and thought provoking answer. I will need to reflect on your comments before responding. Regards Alan
----- Original Message ----- From: "Rich Nute" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Cc: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2001 8:35 PM Subject: Re: Quality Assurance and Product Approvals > > > > Hi Alan: > > > > Two questions, does the group see a time when we have a VP Compliance on > > level terms with VP Finance, VP Marketing etc, or is this already > > happening in the US. > > No. And not likely to happen in companies with ordinary > products. > > As a general rule, "compliance" is seen as a necessary > evil. It is a cost without an associated revenue (or > customer-recognized need or benefit). Few companies > want to give VP status (and an empire) to a non-revenue- > generating function. > > Many companies measure the product incremental cost for > "compliance." The objective is to find methods and means > for minimizing these product costs. > > Furthermore, few companies recognize the work of "compliance" > folks as prevention of future unanticipated costs such as > failure of sales due to non-compliance, product liability, > or even product recalls. The reason the work is not > recognized is the difficulty of measuring the future cost of > non-compliance, especially if the company has never had such > an incident. > > > Second Question. Does the group think a formal qualification in > > Compliance Management & CE Marking would be a good idea. > > While we may think this is a good idea, most professional > managers in the field of compliance consider the job as one > interim step in their career. If "compliance" is a non- > revenue-generating activity, then the step to personal > growth is to measure the cost of compliance for the duration > of one's leadership, and add this to one's CV. Then, move > on. > > Candidates for compliance management might find courses > useful. However, the value of such qualifications is not > for the long term. > > Another problem is that upper management doesn't want to be > told that they are restricted by compliance rules insofar as > setting objectives for the products and the company. They > certainly don't want to feel that the only management folks > qualified for managing a compliance function are those that > are trained and qualified in compliance management. > > Formal qualification in compliance management may be seen by > upper management as a power play where the compliance > manager uses his knowledge to gain some degree of control > over other managers. > > If "formal qualification" in compliance management is > principally that of methodology for measuring and reducing > cost of compliance, then I would think this would be a > very good idea. > > > Best regards, > Rich ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Michael Garretson: [email protected] Dave Heald [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] Jim Bacher: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: No longer online until our new server is brought online and the old messages are imported into the new server.
