Operational planning and control

In plain words

Clause 8.1 opens the chapter where the work happens. It demands that your operations run planned and in control: before an order starts, it is clear what requirements the result must meet, in which steps it comes into being, against which criteria it is checked, what resources it needs — and which records will afterwards prove that everything went as planned.

The clause is the bracket around the whole of chapter 8: the clauses that follow deepen individual stations, from customer requirements (8.2) to release (8.6) — 8.1 holds the whole together. Three side conditions carry weight: planned changes are controlled, unplanned changes are assessed for their consequences, and outsourced processes remain under your control (8.4).

For a small company this means no new paperwork empire, but: your own order flow from enquiry to dispatch, thought through cleanly once and given clear criteria. Often a single travelling document — the work plan, the job card — carries most of this clause.

Why this requirement exists

Without fixed criteria, quality hangs on the form of the day: every order becomes an improvisation, every result a matter of negotiation. 8.1 makes sure the question “what is good?” is answered before the first part is made — not in the argument afterwards. The clause is also the hinge between planning and everyday work: here your processes (4.4) and the actions from chapter 6 meet the individual order.

And the second half, so often skimmed over: real operations deviate. A machine goes down, material arrives late, a date is pulled forward. The standard does not demand that nothing ever gets in the way — it demands that deviations are assessed instead of silently swallowed.

What good looks like

In a company of 12 people: the order flow is one clear path — enquiry, order review, work preparation, production, inspection, dispatch — and for each order one set of shop papers answers three questions. Which steps, in which sequence, including the external ones (hardening)? What is checked against — drawing with revision level, inspection plan, acceptance criteria? Which records are created — measurement report, certificates, delivery note?

You recognise good by how disruptions are handled: whoever re-plans around a machine failure briefly notes what changed, who decided, and whether an extra check is needed. Two sentences on the job card are enough — but they are there.

What changes as you grow: From around 50 people, work preparation becomes a role of its own and the flow planning moves into the ERP — what matters is that the criteria arrive at the machine instead of only living in the system. From 100–250 people, where industry or customers demand it, formal production control plans arrive, along with a regulated interplay of sales, work preparation, production and QA. The core stays the same at every size: first criteria, then work — and deviations with an assessment.

The minimum to pass

• For each order or product type, flow, inspection steps and acceptance criteria are defined — available, not in someone’s head.
• The records are defined: which ones are created where, and what do they prove?
• Outsourced steps such as hardening are visible in the flow and controlled (8.4) — not a no-man’s-land between two stations.
• Unplanned changes — a machine swap, substitute material, a moved date — are visibly assessed, with consequences where needed.

What an auditor asks for

• The shop papers of a running order — and the spot check at the machine: does the person there know what to check against?
• For one product, the acceptance criteria — drawing, inspection plan — and the measurement records created against them.
• An order with an external step: planned in the flow, with requirements and evidence — not just the hardening shop’s delivery note.
• A deviation case: where is the assessment, who decided, what was additionally checked?
• The cross-check: does the system say the same as the shop floor — or do plan and practice live apart?

Common traps

• Planning in one head. An experienced production manager knows everything — and none of it is available when they are out. The clause demands no bureaucracy, but availability.
• Criteria “as always”. Without named acceptance criteria, the form of the day decides. “To drawing” is entirely enough — if the drawing, at the valid revision, is at the workstation.
• The invisible external step. Hardening appears in no flow because it happens “outside”. Outsourced does not mean out of sight.
• Silent deviations. Every shop re-plans — the problem is re-planning without assessment: different material, different machine, and nobody asked whether the tolerances can take it.
• System versus reality. The ERP lists operations that no longer exist; production runs on shouted instructions. This gap shows up in the first hour of any audit.

Worked example

At Berger Präzisionsteile GmbH the job card carries the clause. For a series of medical turned parts it lists the steps — sawing, turning, milling, hardening (external), grinding, final inspection — and per step the check points: first-piece check after set-up, a sample per lot, 100% visual inspection at the end. Next to every check point stand the criterion (dimension with tolerance, drawing revision) and the record (measurement report). Whoever reads the card knows the plan; whoever works through it creates the evidence as a by-product.

The disruption case: the 5-axis machine stops unplanned (spindle fault, the technician is on the way) — the delivery date does not. Marco moves two operations to the older milling machine, which means clamping each part twice more. On the job card, three lines: what was changed, why, decided by Marco — plus an extra first-piece check after every re-clamping, results attached. When the auditor pulls exactly this card months later, they find not a perfect week but a controlled disruption — which is worth more. And when the opportunity “assembly work” (6.1) became the pilot order, its work plan existed before the first screw was turned: new steps, new check points, the same logic.

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