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MANAGEMENT SYSTEM SOFTWARE
Organizations that operate a formal Health & Safety, Environmental or Quality Management System will be familiar with the amount
of paperwork and administrative burdens that this creates. Dedicated administration resources are normally required to manage
the requirements for “document control” and “non-conformance”. Such activities include the completion, registration, distribution,
tracking, follow-up and close-out to ensure that the required actions are fully implemented. Records need to be analyzed to provide
statistical information which is a further time consuming manual exercise.
Many software solutions are available today that promises to alleviate some of the burden and normally bears a huge cost. Committing
to such a high capital outlay forces an organization to carefully evaluate the software in order to ensure that it will show some
savings over a period of time.
It defeats the object if the same number of staff that used to drive the manual paper chase now works as hard to maintain a computer
software system. Most software systems required administration tasks such as hyperlink maintenance, changing access rights to adding
and amending lists to allow the correct operational integrity. Allowing this to be kept to a minimum is a major advantage for any
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Each management system is unique and therefore this kind of software should not force the organization to adopt a specific way of working
but rather allow the software to be configured by the company in the way that would be most practical for their environment.
In addition to the functions and features of the software, the evaluation should also include as a minimum:
- User training. To ensure ease of use, how much training will be required for the users to comfortably find their way around the software?
- Software administrators. How many software administrators will be required to maintain the status quo and how much training will they need to become proficient?
- Technical input. What technical input is required for the maintenance of the software?
- Hidden costs. What other costs are applicable such as database licensing, operating system, dedicated hardware and costs associated with the need for intervention by the software vendor?
- System Maintenance. Does the cost include updates to keep the system current and will new features be provided as part of the cost?
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Centurion Quality Management has developed the eMAX Intranet application to fully automate the systems
for documentation, non-conformance and audit management and caters for any type of organization. Auditors, consultants and SHEQ professionals
from our existing client base have provided input over the past 11 years to ensure a cost effective, practical and user friendly approach.
The main objective of the software is to reduce time, effort and costs in administering and operating your formal management system more effectively. |
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ISO 9001 IN PRACTICE
An abundance of information is already available in media such as the internet about the purpose, reason for use,
origin and the contents of the ISO 9001 standard. The question most commonly asked by organizations that are
embarking on the implementation of such a system is “where do I start and how much do I need to do to implement
such a system in my organization?”
The reason for this is that ISO 9001 does not prescribe the level of detail, the complexity or the extent of control
that is required for a Quality Management System. It specifies a minimum number of elements to be addressed and managed
as part of the organization’s Quality Management System in order to demonstrate compliance.
An important statement has been included into the 2008 version of the ISO 9001 standard under the “General” section as follows:
“The design and implementation of an organization's quality management system is influenced by” and in sub-paragraph a) “its
organizational environment, changes in that environment, and the risks associated with that environment”
It is clear that the evaluation of your organization’s environment will be the starting point for the development of a Quality Management System.
This will required a magnitude of questions depending on the nature of your business. The following would apply in most cases:
- What is the level of safety criticalness of our processes, products and services?
- To what extent are our processes automated?
- What is the level of complexity of our processes, products and services?
- What is the level of education and experience of our workforce?
- What are the effects and costs associated with malfunction or failure?
- How critical are product or service performance levels?
- What is our capacity in relation to delivery lead time demands?
- What is the rate of technological advances that we need to react to?
- How reliable are our suppliers, contractors or partners?
Considering the environment, the ISO 9001 standard requires that objectives be set for the processes, products and/or services of the organization.
To ensure that these objectives are met, it will be necessary to identify the risks that could cause non-achievement.
This risk profile should also include any foreseeable risks to the customer when utilizing your products or services. |
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To mitigate the risks, it will now be clear what the contents of your system, the kinds of control, the amount of information and the level of detail
should be when developing an effective Quality Management System.
Since each control mechanism will bear some financial overhead, these would only need to be as comprehensive as required to counter the likelihood of
the risk occurring.
In most cases, introducing controls that will provide 100% solution for a given risk may be costly. This implies that after controls are introduced,
some remaining risk could still be present. Depending on the weight of the remaining risk, it will be required to prove control over this portion by
introducing a method of monitoring or measurement in order to react when required.
This information would then be reflected in your “Quality Manual” as part of the requirement to “document a description of the processes of the organization
and the interaction between them”.
In most organizations, it is likely that the above exercise has already been done informally in which case; merely documenting actual practice would be needed.
Whatever the given status, making use of a professional and experienced consultant will provide many benefits, namely:
- Identification of the necessary contents of the QMS
- Fast tracking the development cycle
- Coordination of tasks which are channelled to produce optimum results
- Ensuring the involvement of all process owners and promoting ownership
- Standardization of documentation types, level of content, look and feel
- Provide suggested solutions to achieve control at optimum cost
- Provide products to automate the mandatory requirements of the standard
- Ensuring a successful ISO9001 certification
Centurion Quality Management has a proven track record in assisting its clients to develop and implement value adding Quality Management Systems.
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