How to use
Fifteen minutes,
one order
Read only the gate you are standing in. Judge three states, not two. Leave with a name and a date for anything unclear.
01Three states, not two
“Unclear” is the state that carries most of the value — and the one most reviews quietly skip.
| Verdict | Meaning | What must happen next |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Evidence is complete: revision, two signatures, traceable number. | Record the numbers. Move on. |
| Fail | The evidence exists, but the conclusion does not stand. | Stop that step. Fix it before the next gate — not before shipment. |
| Unclear | The thing exists but cannot be judged: no revision, one signature, no lot number. | Assign one person and one date on the spot. “Unclear” that survives the day becomes an incident. |
02Four kinds of false evidence
These pass a glance and fail a review. They are also the four most frequent findings in the samples behind this gate.
| What you are holding | Looks like | What is actually missing |
|---|---|---|
| Photos of the goods | Proof of condition | No date, no lot number, no seal reference. Proves “similar”, not “this batch”. |
| An inspection report | Proof of inspection | No cited standard or revision. Proves someone looked, not what they judged against. |
| A work instruction on the line | Proof of control | No revision, no signature. Could be any revision, including a retired one. |
| A chat confirmation | Proof of agreement | No dated document, no version. When requirements change, the earliest message wins by accident. |
03Three steps, fifteen minutes
Do this on one live order, not on a policy. A gate applied to a real container is worth ten workshops.
| # | Do this | Time | What you hold afterwards |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pick one order in progress. Write down which gate it is in right now. | 2 min | One gate letter: Z, A, B or C. |
| 2 | Apply the evidence law to the main document for that gate. | 5 min | Either three conditions met, or the name of the missing one. |
| 3 | Run the three checks of that gate. Record verdicts on the sheet. | 8 min | A page with three verdicts, one name and one date per Unclear. |
Do not run all twelve at once. Twelve checks in one sitting produce a report nobody acts on; three checks on a live order produce a change before the container is packed.
04Five ways this gets misused
Each of these has happened, usually with good intentions.
- As a scorecard
- Turning twelve checks into a percentage destroys the point: a 10/12 tells you nothing about which two failed. A failed Z-02 outranks four failed B-checks.
- As an audit
- This is not an audit programme. It judges this order; it does not certify the plant.
- As a sales slide
- A standard used as marketing stops being a standard. If it appears in a deck, the anchors and the version number have to appear with it.
- As a substitute for inspection
- It tells you what to demand and whether what arrived counts as evidence. It does not inspect, measure or test.
- As a fixed document
- Every quarter, three to five checks change. Citing without a version is citing a document that may no longer exist.
05Licence and change policy
Free to use is not the same as free to rename.
- Use
- Free to cite, republish and use internally, with source and version noted. Translating is allowed and encouraged; send the translation back and it will be linked.
- Adaptation
- Adaptations may not carry the gate name or the criterion numbering. Once the numbers are re-cut, every existing citation breaks — that is the one thing this licence protects.
- Change cadence
- Quarterly, three to five checks at a time. More than that means the previous version was not thought through, not that this one is more diligent.
- Proposals
- Anyone may propose. A proposal needs two things: a de-identified real sample, and one sentence of judgement someone else can re-check. “I think it should be” does not enter a revision.
- Arbitration
- No voting. Samples decide. When two samples conflict, the one reviewed by a third party wins; if both were reviewed, both go into open questions and wait for a third.
- Withdrawal
- A check cited by nobody and disputed by nobody for two versions is demoted to reference. A check falsified by a real incident is withdrawn, with the reason written into the log. Withdrawing is more respectable than defending.