Procedures and policies both play a vital role within any quality management system of an organisation. From ensuring that your organisation is compliant, to ensuring a higher level of productivity, lower threat of risk and better chances of improvement across the board, procedures are designed to provide clear processes.

In order to create or update procedures, it is important to first understand why procedures are there in the first place. Simply put, procedures act as an internal control system within your organisation. These documents outline the various tasks, policies and processes that enable your organisation to meet its goals, and affect four main focus areas: Compliance, Operations, Risk and Improvement.

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Customer complaints and competency management both play a vital role in any quality management system within the workplace. As an essential part of business success, customer relations should be top of mind for every employee, from directors and managers all the way through to entry level staff. Competency management ensures that your employees have the skills, commitment, knowledge and abilities that enable them to work effectively in their role within the organisation, thereby providing a higher level of customer satisfaction.

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Many people in business consider change management and project management to be the same thing. In fact, project management is a part of change management, and has a focus on individual tasks. Project management is almost completely technical and process-driven; change management involves more emotion and politics. A project is temporary by definition, change is often ongoing.

What is Project Management?

There are many different project management frameworks that can be utilised to achieve your goal. In a nutshell, project management skills teach you to:

• Identify the right projects
• Set the right goals
• Plan by working backwards from the end point, defining smaller targets along the way
• Manage and lead the project team
• Problem-solve and adapt
• Close and evaluate the project

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Procedures are documented processes that are often required as part of an effective quality management system. In order to ensure the procedures are followed correctly however, it is essential to create error-free procedures that are simple and easy to read.

The first step in creating any procedure is to identify the message and objectives. This should be done before the writing phase begins, as the message and aim of the procedure will determine the best course of action when creating the documents. In some instances, a simple work instruction is required, especially in the case of basic tasks that can easily be carried out by employees. If the task is more complex however, a documented procedure is required. In this document, you need to state the purpose, roles and responsibilities, details of the task as well as the company policy that governs the overall process.

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Many companies considering the benefits of ISO standardisation for quality management are still confused about what these standards mean, and what ISO itself refers to within continuous improvement policies. The name ISO is derived from the Greek word ‘isos’, which means equal. As these standards were developed as a way for companies all over the world to standardise their procedures for global improvement of quality management systems, this name is used in all languages.

ISO is often confused with the International Organization for Standardization. This organisation governs and determines the various standards however, and its abbreviation is IOS rather than ISO.

ISO Standards for Quality Management

The standards that apply to quality management belong to the ISO 9000 set of standards. These include the ISO 9000, ISO 9001 and ISO 9004, with each comprising of the primary ISO 9000 standard. This standard is essential for any organisation that needs to adhere to a great level of continuous improvement, and relate to procedures, protocols, guidelines and certification.

The ISO 9000 standards can be broken down into the following components:

• ISO 9000 – this standard comprises the various definitions and terminology that is used by the ISO 9001 standard, acting as a reference point when implementing ISO standards within an organisation.
• ISO 9001 – this standard comprises the actual requirements for certification or registration audits. Organisations will use these requirements to implement various changes that will ensure that standardisation is achieved successfully.
• ISO 9004 – this standard comprises a set of guidelines that can be used to develop and implement quality management systems within the workplace. Using these guidelines along with the requirements of this standard is the best way for organisations to gain ISO certification.

How is ISO Certification Achieved?

The International Organization of Standardization does not certify companies itself. Instead, companies need to apply through accreditation bodies. In order to be certified, these accreditation and audit bodies will assess companies based on an extensive sample of its sites, functions, products, services, and processes.

A list of non-compliances and action requests are presented to the audit body, and the company is required to either resolve these potential issues or an improvement plan is granted. Once the company is shown to have responded sufficiently, they will be granted ISO certification.

ISO certification is a company’s seal of compliance, and as such, the benefits range from better customer perception and service, improved systems and an overall improvement in quality management across the company.

Document control provides companies with an effective way to manage all documents within the company, from policies to procedures, memos, schedules, contracts and any other type of documentation that a company requires. While this system can save a great deal of time, and also ensure a greater level of quality management within the workplace, not adhering to best practices will result in a lack of organisation.

Common Document Control Mistakes

Ensure that your document control processes are as efficient as possible by avoiding the most frequent mistakes when it comes to the management of your company documentation. Common mistakes include the following:

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Policies and procedures are both essential for effective quality management. While these may seem very similar in nature, there are many differences between policies and procedures. Understanding how each works is essential to ensure that your company is able to put proper processes into action.

Understanding Policies

A policy communicates your company’s principles, with a number of different policies to be found for each company and its various departments. Sales and marketing departments or companies have pricing policies that determine how customers will be charged for products.  Accounting departments have accounting policies that relate to reimbursement, depreciation or purchase decisions. Your company’s policy on quality is a required element of an ISO 9001 quality management system.

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One of the many aspects of a quality management system focuses on preventive actions as well as corrective actions. The International Organization of Standards (ISO) has certain standards set out by the ISO 9000 standards that relate specifically to non-conformance and the required action that is needed to address current or potential issues within an organization. The ISO 9000 standards system defines these actions as per the following:

• Corrective Action – eradicates the cause of a detected non-conformance and its recurrence.
• Preventive Action – eradicates the cause of a potential non-conformance and its occurrence.

While correction action is also important in regards to quality management, preventative action is even more important as it focuses on preventing potential issues rather than managing current issues. Essentially, preventative action deals with potential risks that could affect the success of your campaigns or business objectives.

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Many organisations find that developing an ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS) requires a great deal of time and effort. From the initial creation of the system, to changing employee behaviour and then documenting processes and measuring results, the development of a QMS is a lengthy task made easier with the required technical skills and experiences. Some organisations have successfully built an ISO QMS and passed their initial registration audit, only to later fail to maintain documents, records, and quality process activities.  Creating an ISO QMS is challenging enough, but maintaining it can be even more taxing.

This is where Lennox Hill comes in. With the help of the isoTracker quality management software tools, we provide the framework and processes that enable organisations to create their processes, effectively manage their QMS and meet the standards set forth by the International Organization of Standards (ISO) such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.

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Modern managers face more obstacles to break-out success than ever before.  The ever-changing corporate climate, volatile economic conditions, and an evolving and increasingly competitive global business environment increase both the risk and reward to doing business better.  While the changing world has forced managers to change along with it, implementing new corporate practices can be challenging.
The most successful changes can often be the boldest.  Innovative managers must be able to take dramatic action both intelligently and carefully.  Essentially, this means they must have the ability to understand whether implementing massive strategic shifts are imperative, or whether they should be avoided.
There are some basic things to consider if your organization has determined that change is necessary.  There are generally thought to be four key characteristics of a powerful change strategy.  A change strategy should be:

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