Archive for August, 2009
Business Management System Tools For Today
We will devote this page of the blog to new and inventive ways to manage your business management system. We will discuss software trends and other time saving tools that will make developing and maintaining your quality management system both cost, and time effective.
You are invited to contribute your ideas and knowledge so that everyone may benefit from this blog. All though I am a consultant, I am very serious about working together with all that are interested in driving continuous improvement and the betterment of our community. If everyone who comes here, contributes just one idea, just think what we can do together.
Some small businesses cannot afford six figure consultant fees to help construct a quality management system that complies with the standard, and meets their indiviual needs. This is why these new tools are so improtant and should be shared and discussed openly.
Business Process Management-New Ways To Improve
Business Process Management is a field of management focused on aligning organizations with the wants and needs of clients. It is a holistic management approach that promotes business effectiveness and efficiency while striving for originality, flexibility, and incorporation with technology. Business process management attempts to improve processes continuously. It could therefore be described as a “process optimization process.”
Process optimization is the discipline of adjusting a process so as to optimize some specified set of parameters without violating some constraint. The most common goals are minimizing cost, maximizing throughput, and/or efficiency. This is one of the major quantitative tools in industrial decision making.
Your business management system can be automated to enhance your organizations ability to optimize your processes, faster and more efficiently, by making the information available real time. Many business management consulting firms now have quality management software that is capable of managing your system with a low cost, high performance output. These systems manage themselves, as long as the organization uses them correctly. Data is collected and graphed automatically and reminders are sent to those who have corrective and preventive actions to address. But the best feature yet, is the ability to connect your business management system to your customers and supplier allowing improved service throughout the supply chain.
What Are You Waiting For
Even after many years of hearing the words ISO 9000 and seeing many organizations achieve registration to ISO 9001, there are still companies who are skeptical when it comes to going for ISO 9001 registration. For some, a misconception about the objectives of the ISO 9001 standard or a lack of knowledge may steer them off this path. For others, it may be the upfront cost to achieve this goal plus the long-term costs associated with maintaining compliance. Whatever your fears are, the fundamental benefit and the reason why ISO 9001 is the best business management tool that was ever created is clear.
- ISO 9001 has a proven set of guidelines and if implemented correctly, an organization can establish policies and procedures that allow business management systems to continue for many years—creating a sound foundation of the company. (A road map to success)
- When you become ISO 9001 registered, employees are excited about the new system in place. Not only are they proud of their quality management system, but they feel good that “opportunity for continual improvement” is heard more often than “we made a mistake.”
- ISO 9001 takes proven ideas, techniques, and principles from world-class quality companies and offers those as an incorporated set of “standards” so that you can accomplish a level of quality in your organization that meets your customer requirements.
- ISO 9001 gives your organization an edge over your competition because it shows your customers that you have a system in place to support the fulfillment of their requirements.
Remember the definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome.
If you have been thinking about implementing ISO 9001 and after many years you are still unsure about its benefit, why not ask yourself, does my company have a solid foundation? Are all the employees working toward the same goal? Are our employees proud of our company? Are our competitors ISO 9001-registered? Do we have an edge on our competition? Chances are you could use the standard to take your company to the next level and into the ranks of world-class quality organizations.
How Much Documentation Is To Much
The level of complexity or volume of a documented business management system has nothing to do with the size or complexity of the processes of a company. The only direct relationship that would be found regarding the level of documents a company requires would be the effectiveness of training programs. The more effective the training programs are, the fewer documents one would expect to see. For example, a work instruction may be needed to teach an employee how to do something (training guideline/reference document), but after training, there is no more requirement for that document.
Before you write another procedure which goes above and beyond the six require procedures for an ISO 9001 system or the seven required procedures for an AS9100 system, consider the following:
1. To perform this process consistently and correctly, does the company need step-by-step instructions to be used by the operator while performing the process? If the answer is yes, then document the steps of the process to be used by the operator.
2. To train employees on this process, are step-by-step instructions needed? If the answer is yes, the process can be documented as an instruction or as a training or guideline document that is used only for training new employees and not for conducting the process. Consider training videos in this instance.
3. Is it a required document—one of the six required by ISO 9001 or seven required AS9100, a customer requirement, a regulatory requirement? If yes, then document the process.
4. Did last auditor say a process needed to be documented? This is not a valid reason to document a process.
Keeping it Organized
Attention entrepreneurs! When starting your own business it’s important to establish certain key elements that serve as the foundation, guaranteeing success. Of these facets, business organization is of the utmost importance. Maintaining a well-oiled and structurally sound business will ensure accuracy in all other segments of the company.
Whether your plan is to open a small boutique or build a large-scale paper chain, implementing business organization will provide an efficient and functional environment for your workers. It’s no surprise that co-workers who receive precise direction from the management produce such accuracy in their own actions. When a business has established a top-notch degree of efficiency, its customers are always pleased. And happy customers are the key to a successful business.
Why Use Templates To Document Your Business Mnagement System
So why would anyone want to a documentation derived from ISO 9001 templates or AS9100 templates that a business consulting organization has developed? I can think of at least three good reasons to start with a templated system if you are a small to midsized organization:
1. Money
2. Time
3. Resources (People)
Let’s face it; a small business today has less of all three of these assets. A documented system based on set of proven tempated procedures that meet all of the documentation requirements for ISO 9001 or AS9100 would absolutely save an organization in all three of these areas. Using these templates an organization can adapt them to meet their business process needs and catapult them to the next stage which is training and understanding.
The 5 Why’s of Corrective Action
 The 5 Why method asks why an event happened and place the resulting answer in the cause chain. Each question should be simple, short, focused on a single question and starting with “Why…?” After each cause has been identified, the next question to ask is “Why did this event happen?” |
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| Example of 5 WhysProblem Statement: Caliper was found in use on shop floor beyond its calibration date.
Why was a caliper in use beyond its calibration date? |
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| Why was the caliper not recalled? Because the caliper was not on the recall list. Why was the caliper not on the recall list? Why are new caliper not added to recall list? |
Why did the operator not check the label? Because the operator was recently hired and had not been trained to check calibration labels. Why wasn’t the operator trained to check labels? Why doesn’t OJT address calibration labels? |
Once the 5 why’s have been used successfully your business management system will see marked improvements.
Through you internal auditing process you will find many opportunities for improvement, and there are software solutions that can aid you as you progress in your problem resolution understanding. ISO 9001 software and as9100 software packages will help you collect and analyze your problem solving information to help make better decisions and improve your bottom line.
Test/Certification Management Platform for Global Teams
Today, software teams are globally dispersed, and are working round the clock on a wide variety of systems and platforms. Hence, consistency, quality and standardization of the final product become main concerns for the managers and customers alike. A SaaS based platform that enables centralized repository of test and certification assets/guidelines, enables collaboration among team members and keeps audit trail of all changes is very important in this flat world. This is where SaaS based test and certification management platforms like QMetry could help by delivering an enhanced visibility and control over the entire test process. These tools enable self-certification process for software products across several industries and make the entire process seamless, cost effective and powerful. QMetry is equipped with readymade guidelines of compliance certification in Financial and Mobile Industries.
About QMetry: QMetry has been developed by a team of highly experienced testers, QA managers and certification compliance analysts, who not only understand the whole testing process but are also well versed with all of the typical pain points. QMetry meets the needs of QA teams of all sizes, and how it would be a one stop solution for all in the near future. QMetry is partnering with various requirements management tools, defect tracking tools, test automation and task management tools to provide a high quality project as well as certification management solution.
Any comments and suggestions will be appreciated. If you would like see a live demo of QMetry please feel free to contact us. http://www.qmetry.com/
Steps To Corrective Action
Immediate corrective action is really a misnomer. It is really a description of what was done after the problem or event was discovered. What actions were taken to contain the problem and stop it from continuing? If you were making bad parts, what did you do to stop making bad parts and what did you do about the bad parts you made? Immediate Corrective Action is where you describe the extent of the problem and the action taken to assure no other hardware is affected and that all affected hardware is identified.
After the problem/event is contained, the causes must be identified to prevent recurrence. The direct cause is the source that directly results in the nonconformance. Contributing causes are those that left unchecked, bring about the direct cause but on their own, may not have sufficient power to result in the incident taking place. Root Cause is simply the last reasonable cause in the chain and the essential logical change necessary to prevent a recurrence.
The impact of the incident is where you describe what impact the nonconformance actually had. recommend if hardware was impacted or not and tell us how you determined this. Failure to comply with contractual requirements constitutes an impact on hardware. If the product was (or may have been) impacted, be certain to include information and objective evidence on customer notification.
Preventive Actions cannot be determined until the direct, contributing, and root causes have been identified. When formulating a solution, remember that there is no single right answer. The solution should be chosen on its effectiveness, viability, appropriateness to the company, and the company’s budget. Solutions should not be rushed into. Rushing can cause additional problems. It is best to think about alternatives before choosing a solution. It is also important to correct the process from a long term viewpoint instead of focusing on the short term. If the solution is only focused on the short term, there is no point in performing a corrective action.
Objective Evidence needs to be provided to verify that Preventive Corrective Actions were put into place and that they are effective in preventing recurrence. Your CIS Consultant can help you develop the tools to capture this information and analyze it to continuously improve your business management system.
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The Value of Top Management Commitment
Top management commitment and employees empowerment is one of the most important and vital principle of a successful business management system, because it is often assumes to have a strong relationship with customer satisfaction. When implemented correctly, management commitment will creating an organizational climate that empowers employees. This can be achieved with top management commitment in your iso 9001 training employees and giving employees opportunities to be responsible for the quality of their work. A successful business management system strategy brings about a turnaround in corporate culture as compared to the old traditional system of management in which the top management simply give orders and the employees merely obey them.
The objective of quality improvement and customer satisfaction can be better achieve if the top management are committed to empower employees to be responsible for the quality of their work and also empowerment in relation to decision making authority and process. Empowerment in a quality system brings about a flattened organizational chart where there is a shared responsibility between the managers and the employees. Employees’ empowerment and improved level of job satisfaction can be facilitated by top management leadership and commitment to the goal of customer satisfaction.