" Easy MCS" QMS review?

[ewatty]

Hi all,

after a previous thread and after being recommended this company via NICEIC, i am wondering if any one has used "Easy MCS" to help build a QMS manual.

any reviews? couldn't find much over the internet!

thank you

 

[JulianC]

Used 'em for a QMS for pv when we first set up back in 2011. Waste of space. As soon as they'd got our money and sent us the documentation they didn't want to know. Our appointed 'mentor' was either unreachable or useless in a 'couldn't be bothered' kind of way.

Suspecting this may well be the case beforehand (cynic that I am), we went with them anyway, solely with the intention of using their documentation as a bare bones framework to get us up and running quickly, that we could adapt to suit ourselves, while minimising the amount of typing that would be required if we were starting from scratch. I ended up rewriting and rejigging most of it anyway to make it relevant (it was full of references to solar thermal ffs!)

I was not impressed with EasyMCS and would not use them again.

 

[marc8]

Hi Ewatty

just been through MCS using easy MCS with NICEIC you do need to actually understand how to read the manual, I had spent a couple of hours per evening for 1.5months there abouts going though paperwork.
the above did help me when MCS agent arrived to do assessment. First he asked to see doc 001
i asked "what was that" his reply was "well if you don't know then i am wasting my time i will leave if you don't know". We did not get to this point (would not actually as i had paid for a day & would have insisited that he stay as i had paid for a full day anyway regardless.
But this is what i learnt from the visit with one non conformity for the day, first read start as if you were doing job from beginging enquiry form ect, as you print them off put them in one file with that at start ect ect, keep all in one file for that job. next as they arrive take out the index cards from records & procedures, as they ask for each number ask them what form that is scan the list & just flip through they are looking to see if you have the documents & can locate them, if they can tick the box they are happy.
my appointment was at 9-9:30 assessor arrived at 9:15 & was gone at 15:30. I found that i had printed forms off filled them out before printing put them into individual folders & got asked why, there are certain forms calibration sheets ect that need to be seperate but if you put them in one folder & just flip through it's fine & saves looking for different folders.

make sure you use all forms enquiry, contract, approved supplier ECT.

first time i had used anything like this but when I did use it, know how to find what they want it does become easyier also looks very good will be implementing into my day to day business where i can, never really used contracts or variations much took all on a handshake.
Working for a kitchen company at present & last year they have lost a fair bit because customers asking for extra's on job & at end arguing about costs ECT.

anyway hope it helps only my second job on PV but have got anthoer 4 appoints for 2014

 

[SRE]

Pleased you got through Marc8, but after 3.5 years of installing pv I'd suggest that we were a bit more aware of the the potential pitfalls.

I'm fairly sure you'll be so overwhelmed with the whole MCS thing that you wouldn't have picked up the SAP 2009 issue that would be immediately obvious to most installers who had been doing pv for any length of time. In actual fact the preparation for MCS looks a lot worse than it is - it's just that most of us have day jobs to do generating work and installing so anything that helps out with pointless paperwork is appreciated but not at any price.

Easy MCS is very expensive if it doesn't do what it says on the tin and the fact that you didn't know what doc 001 was when asked suggest that your "mentoring" wasn't as good as it should have been, not your fault necessarily but that's what you paid them for.

Well done for getting through your MCS - it's a bit like passing your driving test. Now is the time you start to learn about the whole process, there will always be people happy to help on the Forum, don't be worried about asking better to be safe than frightened to ask.

 

[marc8]

Hi SRE
not really overwhelmed with MCS but what i would say is that depends on what you call a lot of money?

if i personaly taken time out to prepair the QMS myself or employed someone to do this for me would it have cost my company more than £600.00. If you look at it like that good value for money i would say as it cost me a couple of days work instead of probably a couple of weeks.

on the paperwork side i think they have gone to overboard, especially as i had some Pics of work in customer houses which i had installed immersun units in, one was putting power staright into the grid bypassing the domestic meter & another with 2.5mm out of main switch running PV db, both i thought were not good works but they are MCS have been around a while.
MCS was not even intersted in the PICs or the work not really his problem he said but if the customer made a complaint they would be happy to deal with it! my point how would the customer actually know? sums up the whole MCS really.
forum on my part has been very helpful

 

[SRE]

I call £600 a lot of money for something that is off the shelf, doesn't reflect specifically what your company does and the mentoring left you unable to answer the first question you were asked.

6 weeks at 2 hours a night is a bit more than 2 days You could have written the document yourself in that time.

We do agree on the difficulty that customers have knowing what is a good installation and that the trade bodies can be somewhat toothless when shown dodgy installations.