Posts Tagged ‘business process improvement’
Software applications To Better Manage Your Environmental Processes
Lets talk about the “G” word, Green technoloy. Software applications will be one of the top ways that companies will better manage their green management processes. You not only save a tree, but you also improve your entire business management system at the same time.Elements of your environmental program such as the environmental aspects and impacts are all managed using our preventive action module, special requirements and objectives for improvement.
In fact, this software provides excellent template procedures with CIS that meet and exceed the requirements of ISO 14001 and RC 14001 for Environmental, health, safety and security to help you fast-track your system! These template procedures are easy to modify to suit your specific needs and they all work with the CIS Continuous Improvement Software.
What better way to start an environmental program than to eliminate those blue boxes by eliminating paper completely?
ISO 9001 and 8D Problem Solving
8D is a problem-solving methodology for product and business process improvement. It is structured into eight disciplines, emphasizing team synergy. The team as whole is better and smarter than the quality sum of the individuals. Each discipline is supported by a checklist of assessment questions, such as “what is wrong with what”, “what, when, where, how much”.
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The Eight Disciplines |
| 1. Use Team Approach
Establish a small group of people with the knowledge, time, authority and skill to solve the problem and implement corrective actions. The group must select a team leader. 2. Describe the Problem Describe the problem in measurable terms. Specify the internal or external customer problem by describing it in specific terms. 3. Implement and Verify Short-Term Corrective Actions Define and implement those intermediate actions that will protect the customer from the problem until permanent corrective action is implemented. Verify with data the effectiveness of these actions. 4. Define and Verify Root Causes Identify all potential causes which could explain why the problem occurred. Test each potential cause against the problem description and data. Identify alternative corrective actions to eliminate root cause. 5. Verify Corrective Actions Confirm that the selected corrective actions will resolve the problem for the customer and will not cause undesirable side effects. Define other actions, if necessary, based on potential severity of problem. 6. Implement Permanent Corrective Actions Define and implement the permanent corrective actions needed. Choose on-going controls to insure the root cause is eliminated. Once in production, monitor the long-term effects and implement additional controls as necessary. 7. Prevent Recurrence Modify specifications, update training, review work flow, improve practices and procedures to prevent recurrence of this and all similar problems. 8. Congratulate Your Team Recognize the collective efforts of your team. Publicize your achievement. Share your knowledge and learning. |
ISO 9001 vs. Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a statistically-based process that strengthens organizational ability for ongoing business process improvement. “Six Sigma” or “six standards of deviation” endeavors to reduce defects to a rate of 3.4 defects per million defect opportunities by identifying and eliminating causes of variation in business processes. In defining defects or errors, Six Sigma focuses on developing a clear understanding of customer requirements and is therefore very customer focused.
ISO 9001 and Six Sigma serve two different purposes. ISO 9001 is a quality management system, while Six Sigma is a strategy and methodology for business performance improvement. ISO 9001, with guidelines for problem solving and decision making, requires a continual improvement process in place but does not indicate what the process should look like. Six Sigma can provide the needed improvement process. However, it does not provide a template for evaluating an organization’s overall quality management efforts whereas ISO 9001 does.
ISO 9001 The Process Approach
How often have you heard that ISO 9001 promotes the process approach to managing an organization, and requires the QMS to consider the organization as a series of interlinked processes? What does this really mean in laymen’s terms?
Processes can be characterized as consisting of one or more linked activities that require resources and must be managed to achieve predetermined output. The output of one process may directly form the input to the next process and the final product is often the result of a network or system of processes. Every organization is made up of a series of interacting processes.
The process approach considers the interaction between these processes, and the inputs and outputs that tie these processes together. The output of one process becomes the input of another.
The ISO 9001 Standard is designed to manage and improve those processes.
1. First, you identify your key processes.
2. Second, you define quality standards for those processes.
3. Third, you decide how process quality will be measured.
4. Fourth, you document your approach to achieving the desired quality, as determined by your measurements.
5. Fifth, you evaluate your quality and continuously improve.
Once these are identified, an organization can ensure its processes are effective (they produce the desired output), and efficient (they promote continual improvement and lower cost by effective use of resources). The organizations ability to master the techniques of business process improvement, can help the organization gain a distinct advantage over the competition.
Quality Perspective
Quality is a perceptual, conditional and somewhat subjective attribute and may be understood differently by different people. Consumers may focus on the specification quality of a product/service, or how it compares to competitors in the marketplace. Producers might measure the conformance quality, or degree to which the product/service was produced correctly.
There are many definitions and method that have been created to assist in managing the quality-that can have an effect on business operations. Many different methods and concepts have developed to improve product or service quality. There are two common quality-related functions within a business, quality assurance and quality control. Quality assurance is the prevention of defects, such as by the deployment of a quality management system. Quality control is the detection of defects, most commonly associated with testing which takes place within a quality management system typically referred to as verification and validation.
It can be said that validation can be expressed by the question “Are you building the right thing?” and verification by “Are you building the thing right?” “Building the right thing” refers back to the user’s needs, while “building it right” confirms that the specifications are correctly implemented by the system. In some situations, it is required to have written requirements for both as well as formal procedures or Practices for determining compliance.
Preventive actions are happening all the time in the business world, but are probably the least documented aspect of the business management process. Just think, how much more an organization could improve if they actually tracked and reviewed these actions. How many more improvements could an organization realize if they only knew how to use this information?
The ISO Audit and Compliance to ISO 9001 Certification Requirements
There are two types of auditing that are required, to become registered to the standard: auditing by an external certification body (external audit) and audits by internal staff trained for this process (internal audit). The aim is a continual process of review and assessment, to verify that the system is working as it’s supposed to, find out where it can improve and to correct or prevent problems identified. It is considered healthier for the internal auditor to audit outside their usual management line, so as to bring a degree of independence to their judgments.
Under the 1994 standard, the auditing process could be adequately addressed by performing “compliance auditing”:
- Tell me what you do (describe the business process)
- Show me where it says that (reference the procedure manuals)
- Prove that this is what happened (exhibit evidence in documented records)
How this led to preventive actions was not clear.
The 2000 standard uses the process approach. While the iso internal auditor performs similar functions, they are expected to go beyond mere auditing for rote “compliance” by focusing on risk, status and importance. This means they are expected to make more judgments on what is effective, rather than merely adhering to what is formally prescribed. The difference from the previous standard can be explained as follows:
Under the 1994 version, the question was broadly “Are you doing what the manual says you should be doing?”, whereas under the 2000 version, the question is more “Will this process help you achieve your stated objectives? Is it a good process or is there a way to do it better?”
ISO 9001:2008 only introduces clarifications to the existing requirements of ISO 9001:2000 and some changes intended to improve consistency with ISO 14001:2004. There are no new requirements. A quality management system being upgraded just needs to be checked to see if it is following the clarifications introduced in the amended version.
It’s Time To Get Of The Bench-You Can’t Win If You Don’t Play
I have been a third party registration auditor for some time now, and I see a lot of people on the field who haven’t a clue how to play the game. These people are going through the motions, but will never receive the full benefits of a quality management system such as AS9100 or ISO 9001. Doesn’t it make sense, if someone is making you do something anyway,or you doing it because your competion is, shouldn’t you get something out of it?
Investing in your business management system is the single biggest boost you can give to your organization. If you are ISO 9001 certified or AS9100 certified and you don’t see the benefits, you are doing something wrong! Simply meeting the requirements of the standard is not the point; continuous improvement is what should be driving your system. I don’t know how many times I have walked into a company where all of the internal audits were completed just before I walked in the door, or the management reviews all look the same, (No progress, no improvement, no commitment). If you are doing only the bare minimum, just to get by, you’re wasting your time, money, and resources.
If you are certified, you already have process maps that show you all of your processes and how they connect to one another. Now let’s take these tools and make them work for us. Let’s analyze the data that has been collected, review our customer satisfaction information, resolve non-conformance with a slant on correcting and preventing them from happening again. Let’s set goals and follow through on completing them. Get active in your quality management system and you will see all of the benefits of being the best that you can be, (Lower costs, increased customer satisfaction, improved processes, happy employees, and higher profits).
Business Process Mapping and Your Quality Mnagement System
Business Process Mapping (BPM) is a method for improving a company’s efficiency and quality. The methodology is applicable to any planned activity.
The increasing simplicity, (downsizing), and accountability of all organizations , including public service and government, together with the modern intricacy, infiltration and importance of computer technology, for even very small business organizations, has tended to heighten demand for business process improvement everywhere. This means that Business Process Mapping is possibly more widely important than say Total Quality Management, an earlier efficiency methodology.
Simply put, Business Process Mapping aims to improve business performance by optimizing the efficiency of connecting activities that result in the product or service an organization provides to its customers.
Business Process Mapping techniques are concerned with ‘mapping’ and ‘workflow’ to enable understanding, analysis and positive change. Diagrams – essentially ‘flow diagrams’ – are a central feature of the tactic.
The flow diagram of a Business Process Map represents the total business process for an organization and how each individual process connects with the next. There are many software applications which exist to enable this, but the basic principles of Business Process Mapping can also be applied using a pen and a dinner-napkin or a flip-chart or sticky notes, and in some cases these are still brilliant aids for creating and communicating basic ideas. So choose your methods wisely. Business Process Mapping generally needs support from people to work successfully no matter the methods used.
Improving Business Processes
Both small and large businesses can continue to benefit from improving even the most mundane business processes. When a business is built from the ground up, there are often dozens or even hundreds of expenses that are taken for granted. This is even more apparent in governments, which are like massive businesses with thousands of different arms and subsidies through which funds are funneled. But even the smallest businesses will have a few processes that can be improved upon. To identify these processes, it’s best to implement quality improvement software, and task an individual (inside or outside the company) with finding business process improvement opportunities. Often finding processes which can be improved upon involves auditing to find costs that could be irrelevant or put towards better use in other areas of the country.
It’s important to note that marketing and research and development are the two forces that drive a company to succeed; these are the two forces within all companies that provide an increase in revenue rather than serve as an expense. Quality improvement can find more funds to dedicate to these two sources, and even help run the business smoother.
Vision Part 2
Strategies to help us all become visionaries for business process improvement are as follows:
A good start is to review the current processes and challenge them. See yourself as a change agent with a mindset of innovation and a catalyst to move the organization forward. Consider radical departures from the past. Consider doing things that no one has ever done before. Moreover, be prepared to take some risks.
Take the time to imagine the process in the future and free your mind of rigid constraints. Often rigid constraints are economic. However, do not stop because you believe the economics do not work. Imagine for a second if Henry Ford never created the assembly line in 1908 because of economics. More likely than not, the pay back will justify the expense.
As your vision becomes clear to you, you should expand it to others. You must be passionate and articulate the future. See yourself as a person who “focuses the projector”, no matter how much input others have in shaping the vision, the visionary must articulate it!
In a Business Management System, we have tools provided for this purpose. One tool is the Preventive Action Process while another is Root Cause Analysis and their recommended solutions.
Therefore, part four of Managing Challenging Expectations will focus on preventive action and root cause analysis.