ReRead ISO 14001 to Improve Your Managment System

The initial implementation of a management system is often overwhelming. Once the system has been implemented, the management representatives should re-read the standard with the intent of improving performance, rather than providing evidence that is easily verifiable by third party auditors.  Re-reading the standard, including the definitions that had no know application before the system was implemented, allow the readers to concentrate on what is important and to differentiate numerous seemingly-redundant terms (suitable, adequate, effective; establish, implement; criteria, planned arrangements; audit, evaluate;  training, competence, communication; etc.).  In addition to understanding what are the most important sentences in the various clauses, re-reading the standard provides the insite to correlate clauses that are now understood well enough to be correlated.