ISO 9001 - Planning & Leadership - 2021 Update
Please feel free to download the slides here.
Your business may have drastically changed in the last year in terms of staffing, product or service, and it is likely that ISO 9001:2015 has not been the focus of your strategy, however this is the most important time to use it!
We discuss in practical terms how the Planning and Leadership sections of the ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management standard can be implemented to help ensure that you are in the best position possible to support your staff and be ready for when business resumes as normal.
Your presenter Jude Hargreaves explains:
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Roles and Responsibilities – how do you evidence awareness and communication that shows you have allocated accountability within the system?
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Dealing with issues within Leadership – non-furloughed staff tired and overworked? Honeymoon phase of ‘we are in it together’ now showing strain? People maybe do not want to come off furlough?
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Will your Leadership style change? - or is consistency key? What do your staff think?
- Meeting the requirements - using the Leadership section of the standard to meet the other 9 sections in 5 easy steps.
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
ISO 9001 - Planning and Leadership
00:03 - Good afternoon and welcome to the third instalment really of the ISO 9001:2015 planning and leadership element. My name is Jude and I'll be with you for the next 45 minutes to deliver that and go through it with you.
00:26 - So for those of you who are new to NQA you might be aware that we're a global certification body and hopefully you can listen with confidence to this webinar as we're in the top three in the UK for the four core standards of quality, environment, health and safety and information technology and
00:46 - you will get a copy of these slides at the end, so you can look through at leisure and these certification training services we're now offering advanced courses and basic training in these so if it's an area that you or your business might be thinking of looking into then feel free to contact us once you've got some more information or find out a bit more information about it.
Your Presenter
01:12 - So, as we go through this presentation, I may receive questions in the box and but I'm more likely to go through them at the end unless there's anything totally burning and urgent and at the end there will be an opportunity for a question and answer and you'll then get a recording of the webinar and also a copy of the slides once the webinar is closed.
Objectives of Today’s Webinar
01:39 - So, what we're going through today is a practical implementation of roles and responsibilities and dealing with issues within leadership. Now to be honest with you I was going to add a few other topics in there, but once I started writing it, it's just sort of taken on a little
01:59 - world of its own. Because as I've noticed in the past two months auditing now we're coming out of lockdown what's become quite apparent is that we are currently in a state of change, business-wise.
We Are in a State of Change
02:11 - So, don't believe everything that you hear in the press about it's all negative and it's all a bit miserable what's really encouraging, and I think the press have actually reported on this is that manufacturing has possibly not been more busy for us in the UK since the 1970s and conscious that we
02:28 - don't work in the manufacturing sector but it's a really encouraging sign that in fact the economy and employment are going to be getting back to normal. Conscience also of the fact that there are a few issues with supply chain at the moment with people wanting to get materials and other
02:45 - issues which are going on, but it's a positive sign that business and commerce is now moving in the right direction and who would have thought just 12 months ago we were sat probably quite worried and not too sure about how things were going to recover we're now in that phase hopefully.
03:06 - We've also noticed that employers have been more responsive to mental health. So there's been lots of courses on mental health first aid and recognizing issues with employers in the company for years now. but actually it's over probably the past 12 months this has become quite a pertinent
03:23 - thing for leaders of business to look into and heard some lovely stories from business owners and senior management about how they've been part of actually identifying issues with staff and being able to sign post them to people who are qualified to deal with issues.
03:40 - Generally, it has been as a result of lockdown whether it's been isolation whether it's triggered previous issues or alcohol problems very very real human issues which I think at some point would have all felt either a little bit lonely, scared or just generally uncertain
04:01 - and I think possibly the good thing that's come out of the lockdown is it's certainly humanized a lot of people in business. And that ties us quite nicely to the social responsibility aspect of business which has become quite critical to business image. So I think we've all been very
04:20 - grateful those of us who have managed to remain in employment, managed to keep the business going and a lot of companies now are giving back and I'm wanting to help those less fortunate, NQA included, I know we've certainly provided a lot of money to food banks and various charities over the past 14 months which is probably more than we would normally do but we have always done something.
04:44 - I've heard fabulous stories about quite small businesses actually, hiring fans to pick up waste for people who can't get to the tip or you know have got large families and just having rubbish pile up, getting shopping for people who are shielding and you know I think it's certainly a positive change that is worth recognizing and shows a good sign of leadership.
05:09 - We're continuing to adapt to a balance of work from home and necessary attendance on premises as well. So, I don't think I've dealt with a company yet where everybody in the company is totally back on site yet and it's all gone back to the way it was before lockdown.
05:27 - It seems quite significant that where we can still work from home and people want to work from home whereas before that would have been unheard of in a lot of places, that's now starting to be quite a normal and nobody bats an eyelid which is great and just while we're on that actually
05:49 - I've been out to sight this week which has been fantastic just to do an operations part of an audit and then come back and done the rest remotely and that's worked really well for the company, so we are finally getting back out onto the road to clients who actually want to see
06:06 - us or want us on site and I have to say with them providing their risk assessment a couple of weeks in advance for covid really helped that process and I think helped everybody feel a little bit safer and a bit better that everybody knew what was expected of them.
06:25 - I'm sure most of you will have also noticed environmental benefits of the past 12, 14 months, hopefully your fuel bills are down, your lighting bills are down,
06:36 - I'm sure they're going to go straight back up, but it again has been something within the leadership most people that have spoken to, certainly the last two months things have become a little bit more back to normal something that they're now actively thinking about so there's lots going on for leaders and companies at the moment.
Roles and Responsibilities
06:58 - So it stands to reason then that it's probable as practice and markets change, so must roles requirements and training, and you might have noticed if you've been to one of my previous webinars that I'm using this sort of value chain
07:12 - model again and the reason I do that is because it's good to separate the different functions within the business, it doesn't matter about your business size you're likely to have most of these in place. So when we looked at it last time we went through that the bottom part of the diagram
07:32 - is your money makers for want of a better word. These are the sections which are going to receive product, make product, get the product out, get the orders in and then deal with customers in aftercare and then the top part of the diagram that's all the services and functions which will allow these money-making functions to run smoothly cohesively and hopefully slickly.
08:03 - If you look at that as a whole then actually there's a lot of roles there, are different responsibilities so actually managing all these differentiations and making them work together is quite an interesting challenge which is often overlooked.
08:21 - So looking at the diagram we've just looked at this there's obviously the inputs and it runs right the way through the outputs but for the inputs to be effective the roles have to be clear.
08:31 - Often when I'm on an audit and I'll say what do we do with roles and responsibilities, I'll be handed job description or an organizational chart and there's nothing wrong with that, but if we have a look at a job description versus a clear role and responsibility, what we'll hopefully find over the next few slides is that they're actually quite different and it's not always what the standards looking for.
08:59 - With the impact of the commerce and the country opening thankfully recruitment is something that a lot of companies are currently looking at because the supply and the demand is just through the roof and this is absolutely fantastic stuff. Often something we don't think about
09:20 - with recruitment is that it's probably actually a sales task and I don't mean that the sales people will go out and look for these things it's a more of a management or HR function but what we're attempting to do is sell the company to get the right candidate
09:35 - for the position and poor recruitment and having to re-recruit is actually quite a significant cost or it can turn out to be. So please do think about if your recruitment is constantly unsuccessful this might be a process that you want to re-evaluate.
09:52 - So this is just a basic job description that I've pulled off the internet I haven't written it myself and it's a little bit, you know, of a shopping list isn't it, so it'll tell us exactly what that person is going to do for day-to-day activities, but it doesn't actually provide us too much with what their role will be and what they'll be responsible for as such.
10:21 - But it'll tell us what their day-to-day they're expected to do as a function of the company and of the business need. We'll always ask for qualifications as well, won't we so, will want to know that they can actually physically do the job itself, so obviously if
10:37 - we were hiring for a managing director the set of skills and qualifications would be quite different to what it is for an administrative coordinator, but equally the roles and responsibilities are going to be very different again. So just to clarify this point slightly for you
10:55 - we can see the description tells a candidate the current or the current job holder what activities are expected to do but the standard is a little bit like the law, it tells you what you need to do, or what not to do, but it doesn't tell you how to do it so if you present a job description say as
11:19 - this is how someone knows their role in responsibility. What it will often not help us with is how it engages, directs, supports people to the contributing effectiveness of the quality management system or how it supports other relevant management roles to demonstrate leadership as it applies to their area of responsibility.
11:44 - So at this point you're probably wondering well what are you talking about.
11:49 - What it's telling us from that point in the standard is that each role within the company has a quality responsibility, so it's not so much about whether it's your responsibility to answer the phone or open the post or create a spreadsheet or a business strategy it's telling us our quality responsibility.
12:10 - But in order for us to set that and provide a clear set of expectations, we need to know what they are ourselves. So everybody in the company is responsible for quality and quality reporting okay. So what that means is that everybody within the company
12:36 - should have a knowledge of what the quality management system is, what the purpose of the quality management system is, and how they convey the outputs of the quality system and to whom.
12:51 - Everybody's responsible for identifying non-conformance and I always say this on every webinar it's an awful word non-conformance, it sounds really aggressive and really harsh, but in actual fact we know that all it means is that actually there's something in the process
13:07 - that hasn't quite worked as well as it could do or should do it's not about reporting a person or making it into a personal mistake for once a better word. Everyone is responsible for customer service, so even if you're out driving in a van you're responsible for that van, the image of
13:29 - the van, you're responsible for that contact with the customer, the person who's doing the administration needs to be doing it professionally correctly because everything that the business does will impact on perception of customer and everyone is responsible for being part
13:49 - of the quality management system as well so although as the owners and the leaders of the quality management system and leadership. Yes, you're there to direct that the same as the rest of the business but we really have to drill home to people that nobody who is employed by the company is excluded from these quality management system processes and the ethos.
Dealing with Issues Within Leadership
14:14 - So, the problem the big problem that we come across a lot is that these things are not effectively communicated to employees which would automatically mean a non-compliance right, but we don't often raise it because we will see that you know maybe our policies on the wall or objectives are on the wall or a plethora of many different things.
14:37 - I would challenge a lot of places to say though that they 100% do it effectively.
14:45 - But we can eliminate the issue and automatically improve the process and save hidden costs as well.
14:51 - So, we can do annual quality awareness and you probably do this for health and safety, so look we all know how to lift a heavy box right or how to assess whether you need something to assist you with that, but it's good to do it each year because it focuses
15:08 - the mind sort of after nine months after your training we can all fall into bad habits, lift things incorrectly and it's exactly the same with quality. We can find ourselves cutting corners we can find ourselves deviating from the process and it's often good to just get everybody together and refresh, this is why we do what we do and you get a good communication back hopefully as well.
15:33 - We can look at inductions probably one of the most important elements with employees, so they have to have an expectation of what the company's going to provide and how you operate and part of that and often missed is quality, which makes no sense really because you're asking them
15:51 - to follow processes and procedures yeah, but what we're not doing is saying this is why, we do this because and of course I think we've probably all been there either with work somewhere else and coming to somewhere new and think where we used to work we did this better
16:09 - or you know managing somebody with that experience you think oh, you know this is our system you're not working where you used to be this is how you have to do it.
16:18 - So it's a really important feature of the induction to just go through what your system is and why you certificated the importance of it to the company, it might allow you to trade, it might be something you're quite proud of or it might be a requirement of your customers.
16:39 - Positive non-conformance reporting and analysis so like I said before we don't want to make non-conformances about a blame game, you did this wrong, this is terrible and I'm going to write it down and review it at management view so everybody knows about it. That's not what
16:55 - it's about all it will do is make people hide things positive non-conformance reporting might lead to discovering hidden costs and wouldn't it be great you know sort of after 12 months that you could go back to your staff and say thanks for reporting all of these issues that you found
17:12 - you've just saved the company x amount, this is a positive thing and this is why we need you to do it. And hopefully it's about knocking that culture and it's still out there a little bit where people don't want to just highlight where the issues are or hide it.
17:27 - I think it goes against human nature we don't want to feel we've ever done anything wrong do we so it's really important that we drill that into the staff and part of that good induction and quality awareness that reinforcement that nobody's going to get into trouble for a non-conformance or a process error follow the process it's the process that isn't working not what you're doing.
17:51 - We can look at process and obstacle removal and analyse that as well so, if a process is operating well then we certainly know that it will be effective but then how do we find out how well it actually works so we're going to go through that.
18:13 - So dealing with the issues that we come across in leadership from a process aspect, this is a little tool that I'm going to show you that you might want to use, purposes of it are to a engage your staff.
18:31 - B. have a look at if there are any issues within your process, we know that the issue is in most processes to be fair and what we do is we look at it and say well it's always worked that way so we don't need to do anything and it's just you know an area that gets bypassed probably because it's quite time consuming.
18:52 - But let's say we want to look at the sales process and we want to increase 10 percent by month end of sales and this might be part of your quantity objectives as well to be fair.
19:04 - So you might say we want to increase revenue, we want to reduce non-conformance, we want to do something that will have a measurable output and we're going to look at what the condition is now and what the obstacles are.
19:25 - So this is a really good tool that you can use to really drill down processes within the system for which you claim accountability for. So don't forget within the section of leadership within the standard it asks you know to have confidence that your processes work, that they're effective,
19:44 - but also that everybody who uses those processes is supported and they understand them. So this might be a way that you want to use to actually evidence it to the auditor but also get a good output as well that will actually produce some value for you.
20:04 - So what we've found is that we're going to look at the sales department and we want to increase 10 percent by month end and we might want to continue doing that every month it will be up to you to decide that's what I’m telling you that's what you've wanted to do I
20:19 - know I've just made it up really haven't I. But pop a table such as this together and what you're going to do is record a date and a step of what you expect, what happens when you did it, and what you learned from it. So what we've identified in our hypothetical situation is that the lowest seller working on outbound three minutes per call, that's what they should be doing okay.
20:52 - What we expect is leadership and management is often not what happens okay. So this is the issue, what we're going to expect is that the seller will follow a procedure and complete x amount of closes within that day okay. So we're going to observe the process and what we see happens is maybe
21:15 - the seller or the salesperson takes 15 minutes on one call and therefore according to our three minute per call process they've missed four other opportunities.
21:27 - On initial look at that what we might learn is that the problem is not ability in terms of sales but it might be the willingness to follow a procedure, and this could happen in any part any aspect of the business, it might be somebody in production on a line, it might be
21:48 - somebody in procurement not getting the best price or so you think or not getting through things quick enough. So we go back to the first step then and what the date is and what we're going to do that, so the next step is we're going to discuss this with the person doing
22:06 - the sales and find out the opinions. Now commonly in our next section what we're going to expect is the seller's going to be negative about the procedure and take the opportunity maybe to rubbish the company I'm not following it because it's a load of rubbish and it doesn't work.
22:22 - That's probably what most of us do expect when we perceive somebody's not following a procedure.
22:30 - So then we're going to record what actually happens from that and what we find is that the seller was actually wanting to build a firm relationship with the customer, improve the understanding of what the customer need is and by getting this information what they've found is it's previously helped close with other clients. So what did we learn as leadership
22:52 - as leaders from this. Well we shouldn't be too quick to judge motives and talking has actually helped us understand that they want to do a good job so maybe a mistake we could often make in leadership is I think oh someone doesn't want to do it but not many people coming to work thinking I hope I really do a bad job today and upset everybody. So we're going to revise back to well what do we do next so we're going to review previous month sales and call time vases contracts.
23:19 - We expect that long calls logs will have the length of the call may reflect in the value of the sale that was closed what happens. Complaints, mistakes and issues are the lowest from the seller and they receive high customer satisfaction.
23:37 - What did we learn we found that areas can be improved in the process from sales to production.
23:43 - Okay so the purpose of this tool and exercise is to start with what you perceive to be a problem and work through stage by stage by stage, so often what we will hear in relation to issues is people won't buy in, they don't like the process they think they can do it better well they're
24:04 - the ones using it so they possibly can and certainly with this example it's made up but it's based on conversations that I've had with people over the past three years. By in interrogating that process and by listening to what the results say and be what the user
24:26 - of the process says what we've actually done is we've combined departments there so we've worked out that the three minutes on the call might be too quick, as a result of that we've seen that we make mistakes with orders that's going to affect production, it's going to affect the customer
24:45 - and then ultimately you might be hitting your three-minute target but was it productive, did it make any sense so it forces then the leadership to go back and look at it and say okay well what, if we give them longer give them autonomy on the call what should happen is less mistakes at production.
25:05 - Happier customers return of sale so what we learn at the end of it is the moving towards the target of the extra 10 percent by a month end, it's a combination of leadership sales team and production and it's so important that we listen to the process owners because it doesn't take a great deal to change a process we just get everybody involved.
25:36 - If we look at it from a point of view of how you perceived in leadership but by the main body of work normally when we look at the pyramid of hierarchy we'll see that top management is always the small part at the top. Let's invert it if you had this on your walls perhaps
25:57 - within wherever you work what it shows is that the top management is the smallest amount of people and then above them you've got your team leaders and supervisors but the main core of your staff are going to be your main body of key workers, so that's your main group of opinions
26:17 - your main group of people who can perform your processes and probably the main group of people who are going to deal directly with your customers. The other two are never going to have the capacity that the main body of workers have to have that amount of impact.
26:34 - So when we lead the purpose of this really is to show we lead humbly that we are the smallest part of that cog of the machinery because relying on all the many cogs of the main bodies to actually implement this system that we are asking them to and do it correctly.
26:54 - So we really need to look at taking the time to work on processes and understand the importance with the process users and ask why do we do this in such a way another method you could use is to put together a chart similar to this and again, I've gone with a simple process such as picking and I say it's simple but then once you start actually pulling the process apart it becomes multifaceted there's more to think about than you realize.
27:28 - So we're going to have the important steps because don't forget when you write these processes out often what those auditors will do is we'll say show me an order and provide me your procedure and we'll read the procedure with the documentation that you've handed us more often than not there's
27:47 - deviations but they're not included in the in the procedure and so that leads us to ask a few more questions why but the reality of business and life is that you can't have such a specific procedure with such a broad range of customers and products that most of our clients actually have.
28:05 - So you might want to go through the procedure with your employees and say for example what's the most important step starting, so okay we'll receive the picking order one of the key points of it we need to check the stock, amount, location and consider weighted transport or other departments involved.
28:26 - We're then going to go to the location make sure we've got lifting equipment and we've got forklift truck drivers maybe cherry pickers involved pick the order check for damage confirm correct goods in may be affected by this or a part of that process
28:43 - and then you take the order dispatch put labels off attach item to identify all sounds really simple. So looking at that people who work in manufacturing will look at that and think I can approve that instantly and you're absolutely right I'm afraid it's not something I do on a
29:00 - daily basis but let's see what we can take away from it, what can we actually consider to improve that process and eliminate hidden costs. Do we know what the most ordered items are close to dispatch and packing how have we arranged the layout for the most efficient process again we're using
29:19 - manufacturing but this can apply to any process which you have that is important that you think oh, can we make that a bit slicker. Does the picking have adequate resource to enable a quick and safe movement so uplift drivers. Are we making the most of available technology often this is overlooked,
29:39 - so we look at maybe the cost of a new software or technology which you know they're never cheap, but over a period of time would these improvements actually pay for that and bring a benefit to the business. How much extra work do we make for ourselves on the current process
29:59 - that we're using so let's say, just as an example just purely on your layout of your premises do you have your highest selling item right at the back of the warehouse that okay whoever's doing the collection they're gonna get the steps in every day and be nice and healthy but how much
30:18 - time does it actually cost you to do that and is there an easier way of presenting things to make it easy for your workers therefore make it easier for your customer because we can do things quicker.
30:32 - Do departments work together or are they siloed so that was the purpose really of this, so if for example we go to our location and we check the damage. If it is damaged where did the process go wrong, was it checked it goods in, is it required to be checked at goods in,
30:54 - so any click in the armor at any stage of these key points it may have come from a different department. Do the other departments understand the requirements of your department and this is often again where things may fall down because what the purchasing team needs the information they need to ensure that they can buy things for the company materials stock softwares whatever it is.
31:22 - Is that communicated with other areas of the company you might not understand why you need all of this information you know I’ve given you a product code surely you can just go online and order it that way and it's often these miscommunications or lack of overall understanding
31:40 - of the system that holds things up and may cause non-conformances or even friction between people so it's quite important if we go back to the beginning and have a look at quality awareness training we're not just talking about this is a policy, this is the objective, we're certificated to
31:59 - ISO 9001 it's looking at the process interaction as well and if you've got that audience of people who are using those interactions that's when we're going to start getting feedback and oh I didn't realize he needed that you did it like that or oh okay well actually you provide us with this we don't need it, we don't even look at it and so we're reducing issue reducing, refining and cutting down rather than increasing paperwork and increasing jobs for people.
Continuation of Services
32:32 - Again, you might recognize this chart from the first leadership session that we did last year actually I think it was this time last year okay, and the element of change. So we've gone from being an Amazon responsive country haven't we I order it on my couch on a Friday evening I expect whatever
32:55 - it is to arrive on my front door Saturday morning and then covet it and suddenly I just expect I might be wasting a few weeks for something or a few days or something's going to be out of stock for a while and I'm not going to get too upset about it because I know there's a global pandemic.
33:13 - Slowly but surely the Amazon effect is coming back now we're all up and running and coping with back to normal again and what we talked about last time was how to keep your business current how to keep it relevant and by making these little small process changes by engaging your staff
33:36 - by leading from the front by listening and leading humbly and ensuring people know what that role is within the system you'll find that you're automatically going through your changes and hopefully you will surpass phase four, by not
33:57 - adapting in terms of ensuring what role people do your system will stagnate and eventually it will start to go downhill and that's where issues start and all kinds of things can happen.
34:18 - So reviewing its research year for many of you and last year exactly the same side this was about continuation of services I'd like to put it to you again but this one this time as a continuation of your system to make your system better so,
34:38 - building on the familiar can be a mistake, why do we do this because we've always done it that way, why because we've always done it is not a good answer review your process make sure people are aware of it make sure that people are involved and listen to ideas from people
34:55 - who want to be involved and are going to use that process. Beware of core rigidities, so over time processes become rigid and becomes difficult to change and embed it's important you explain changes to staff with the emphasis of why people aren't really interested in just being told what to do because you have to do it if you understand it you can improve it and you can be engaged in.
35:26 - One of the processes you may look at if you look at the purchasing process will be your suppliers as well and reviewing relationships and whilst long-standing relationships with customers are great it may restrict your ability to change and enter new markets with new suppliers and
35:42 - gain new customers, so it's really important this constant review constant refresh and what we find with that always is we get new ideas there might be new markets you can move about in and emerge
35:53 - there might be a new set of customers, but we might be held back sometimes because customers demands or they don't want to pay as much as you want to charge if you're looking to sort of move up the price bracket you have to evaluate and look at it.
36:14 - Loyal custom cost cutting and higher efficiency may have hidden issues within the company's stability okay so, by not looking at the performance of your process, by not looking at the performance of the service, it can actually hide issues. So just because we have 5000
36:33 - orders a week are there 5000 orders that actually bring something into the company or bring something of benefit or are we constantly having to pay more for supplies but actually reduce price for the stuff to go up to the customer and it's really important to keep that fresh in your mind.
Conclusion
36:55 - So, to conclude what we've discussed has covered business strategy for planning and leadership and although the language is different it's exactly what 9001 is all about. So taken directly really from the standard what we've discussed covers planning to address risks and
37:14 - opportunities from a process point of view, setting objectives, so we looked at perhaps looking at a process what you want out of that process there's nothing wrong with that being a quality objective, how that's going to bring value to the business, how you're going to communicate it and
37:31 - the process of planning that. We've looked at evaluating the success of the planned changes as well by breaking things down and seeing is there a difference can we improve further and again accountability leadership is what it says on the tin it's all got to come from you
37:50 - and although we've done the inversion where we've looked maybe at how we can look out at the business and reach the main body, so that we can communicate the system. It's still you guys at the top that need to filter that information down.
38:05 - And we've looked at the qms been successful and the processes are integrated, because we've looked at well is there a silo effect, can one department communicate with the other, do the processes work into departments as well, and as part of that of course you've communicated to the staff they're assigned modern responsibility and they're where they sit within the quality system itself.
NQA Resources
38:35 - So, thank you very much for listening if you need any further help with your systems we've got lots of different resources at the moment and quite a few free, so we've got implementation guides you'll get a copy of these slides so you can look further into these, we've got advanced courses as
38:56 - well which are to help you improve not only your systems but also how you think about business as well which are these are the topics and again you can look through all of these in your own time and contact us if there's anything that you would like to know more on.
39:13 - Thank you very much I can't see that there's any questions in the box. Give a couple of moments just in case anybody has any. Nope, that's super, thank you very much and enjoy the rest of your Friday. Bye.