Success story of one of my client whose name I don’t want to disclose may help you to understand how you can also make it to the top. This company runs by three brothers and their wives. To day they are top in Kerala, may be India, not sure because they operate in Kerala. They pay income tax over 12lakhs per annum.
Highest qualification among the brothers and wives is 10th standard.
The eldest brother looks after infrastructure, maintenance and stores. Second and third brothers are top class technicians. Wives manage the quality control. Not a single component comes in or goes out with out they are inspected and certified ‘OK’ by the wives.
On line inspection, purchases need approval from either of the two younger brothers. Every thing is documented and reviewed.
Information they receive is in the form of a ‘checklist’.
They believe in training. During the last 10 years they have recruited and trained 250 women, all from their community. All these family depends on this industry for they’re on going prosperous life.
Mind you the product they manufacture is HIGHTECH and HIGH PRECISION. Each tool these women employees use cost not less than Rs.2500.They are diamond tipped
I had personally visited 25 of their clients to get their feedback. All of them rated their products as top class and showed willingness to pay more to satisfy certain section of client’s clients.
They manage with just 15 representatives with SSLC background selected from the employee’s family.
Second brother is the MD and enjoy high esteem among the locality and is a down to earth person.
He is a person of great vision. He works 24X7 for uplifting his community.
His mission is to provide employment and training at least one person from each family from his community and locals, with the best technology available for their field of activity, in this world and export his products.
They have a mentor based in Germany, who got so impressed with the vision of these young technocrats and provided adequate finance.
To day they have 15000 sft wok space in three floors accommodating 250 production women and 50 supporting staff.
His philosophy in life is that bringing best technology and adequate training to all their staff, there by winning market loyalty, is the only solution for uplifting his community.
This person may be the only person in his field of activity in India, who has attended maximum number of the international & national seminars and exhibitions going around world during last six years. He had undergone spoken English and German course. Visits Germany at least once in three months for 15 days.
Now they have a well-maintained library with books and literatures collected from all round the word.
Similarly he invests heavily on hand operated, electric & electronic tools.
When ever he comes back from abroad, he provide training on the new equipment he has bought from abroad or communicates to all of them about the outcome of his tour.
He conducts atleast four training Programme to his staff by technical experts from Germany.
Presently he has two permanent consultants one a German stationed in Chennai to take advice and provide training time to time in technical matters. Other one is me on Quality & management. I am associated with them since two and a half years.
A German company with DAR accreditation certified them ISO9001:2000. They spend 3 lakhs for bringing two German auditors for one day certification audit, after I have completed the QMS implementation and internal audit. It was heartening to listen to the comments about the company by the German auditors.
(There is nothing to replace training and a system for sourcing information to keep pace with rapid changes in technological advancement. Similarly, your management’s representation in the great events organized elsewhere and reviewing the outcome to generate idea is in the hands of the Top management. Funds should be generated for the purpose from the company itself as SURPLUS on which I have explained. )
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Benefits of implementing best business practices based on ISO9000:2008
Implementation Strategy
Benefits of ISO 9001:2008
Why do Companies decide to implement an ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System?
Top reasons given for registration:
• Internal operational efficiency
• Lower production costs because of fewer nonconforming products, less rework, lowered rejection rates, streamlined processes and fewer mistakes.
• Access to new markets
• Some markets require ISO 9001 Registration, some markets favor companies with ISO 9001 Registration
• Customer request
• Many organizations are asked by a customer to obtain registration as a requirement to continue or to start doing business with them.
• Reduced cost
• Organizations are recognizing that an effective Quality Management System leads to reduced costs and greater operating margins
What will ISO 9001:2008do for my organization?
A well designed and implemented Quality Management System, based on ISO 9001:2000 has been shown to provide organizations with the following benefits:
Reduced costs through:
• Improved product reliability
• Better process control and flow
• Better documentation of processes,
• Greater employee quality awareness
• Reductions in product scrap, rewords and rejections
When ISO 9001:2008 is implemented in an organization:
• Well defined and documented procedures improve the consistency of output
• Quality is constantly measured
• Procedures ensure corrective action is taken whenever defects occur
• Defect rates decrease
• Defects are caught earlier and are corrected at a lower cost
• Defining procedures identifies current practices that are obsolete or inefficient
• Documented procedures are easier for new employees to follow
• Organizations retain or increase market share, increasing sales or revenues
"Assess Your Organization's Readiness to Execute Strategy
The Balanced Scorecard has moved to center stage as the preferred approach for executing strategy but one major risk confronts all organizations who hope to achieve strategic success: Are you doing it right?
Is your strategy working?
Is your organization achieving the promised benefits of its strategy? If not, it's likely that you are doing something wrong. You may have a flawed strategy that requires some rethinking. Or, perhaps your strategy is a good one but you are not executing it well.
In either case you can't really be sure what the root cause is until you know that your strategy is being implemented. You can't test the hypothesis of your strategy in theory; you have to test it in the field.
Your strategy map lays out the strategic hypotheses you believe to be true and your periodic Balanced Scorecard reports, and strategic review meetings, provide opportunities to see how well these hypotheses are working.
But, if you aren't sure if your strategy is sound, or if you are having trouble executing it, it's not too soon to assess your approach to strategic management to understand whether you have done everything possible to achieve the promise of your strategy.
A proven approach for strategy execution
The study reports that companies are increasing their use of "compass-setting" tools such as strategic planning, benchmarking, and mission and vision statements as they search for growth opportunities in a tough economic environment. The Balanced Scorecard clearly provides an opportunity to integrate these "point" solutions.
Numerous factors explain the increased use of the Balanced Scorecard; foremost among them is the fact that it works. In fact, the level of commitment increases as usage becomes more sophisticated. Even for those just getting started, there is 100% commitment to continue the practice. Among the top five benefits associated with this management approach was the fact that it was shown to improve company results in the long-term.
Avoid the pitfalls
Many organizations fail to achieve the benefits of their strategy because they fail to make strategy execution a core competency. The pitfalls that await those who don't embark upon this journey with adequate understanding and executive commitment are well documented. Pitfalls that can put your scorecard program at risk include:
• Members of the senior management team are not committed
• Executives are not accountable for implementation
• The scorecard is treated as a one-time event
To help organizations successfully execute their strategies we have created a best practices database to document the management practices that contribute to strategic success. Organized around the five principles of the Strategy-Focused Organization we have identified 28 strategic management practices that, when implemented correctly, improve the probability of achieving strategic success. These management practices have been used to establish benchmarks for best practices.
WONDERING HOW YOU WILL BE ABLE TO REALLY USE THE BALANCED SCORECARD TO ACHIEVE RESULTS-AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, SUSTAIN THEM?
Executing strategy is about achieving results-and sustaining them.
Readiness Assessment and Progress Analysis
• Assess your strategy execution readiness
• Assess progress implementing a strategy-focused organization
• Learn how to continue and sustain it
Management Process Integration
• Integrate planning, budgeting, and resource allocation process with strategy
• Build a management process
• Integrate reporting processes with your scorecard
You benefit from these services by:
1. Improving your chances for breakthrough results
2. Making strategy execution a day-to-day reality
3. Avoiding the pitfalls and challenges to implementing a SFO
Organizational Infrastructures
Organizational setting is the resources you make available to make the change happen (teams, meeting rooms, money and time).
Training and education is the training you schedule to teach people how to achieve the change. Promotion is how you promote that the change will take place.
Unfortunately most companies stop here. They only push the change forward, and it stumbles and fails within a few months.
Push elements
We will begin with the push elements of goal setting, organizational setting, training and education, and promotion with some examples of items that need to be completed and then the critical items listed in the chronological order that they will be executed.
Element 1: Goal Setting
Under goal setting, I think it is critical to tie the reason for implementing ISO9000 to key business goals of quality, customer service and profitability. I believe the failure to do this combined with an unfocused approach is what has led to the current debate regarding whether ISO9000 is a value added business improvement system or an inflexible and unnecessary paperwork fiasco to put a piece of paper on the wall (ISO9000 certification). Certainly, ISO9000 can be either, depending on how you structure the implementation and the goal of the program.
Other goals that need to be set are the sub-goals under quality, customer service and profitability that are needed to ensure these major goals are met. These can be cycle time, inventory turns, customer satisfaction indicators, supplier goals, sales revenue, production goals, quality goals, training goals, etc. Needed ISO9000 implementation sub-goals are: when the different initial documentation will be completed (quality manual and work instructions), and when the critical ISO9000 requirements will be met through the task teams (procedures manual).
Goal setting items:
• Establish a value added business system as the reason for ISO9000 certification (not the certificate itself)
• Clearly tie the ISO9000 program to critical business goals
• Clearly set the organizational performance goals per ISO requirement 4.1, and
• Clearly set the ISO9000 specific implementation goals or milestones for documentation and standardization of key processes.
Element 2: Organizational Setting
Under organizational setting, key resources must be assigned to the implementation. This starts with CEO and senior team commitment to the ISO9000 program. The management representative and ISO9000 coordinator (sometimes the same person) must be assigned. The management steering team that will lead the implementation must be created and the management review team, which will review the audit performance and quality system performance, must be created (sometimes the same team). Task teams must be created to implement the documentation and standardization of critical processes in the organization. The audit team (sometimes only 1 person although I recommend a team) must be created.
A certifying body must be chosen who will come in, conduct the third party audits and recommend the company for ISO9000 Certification. Sometimes a consultant is selected to assist the management representative although I personally recommend you build the competency inside your organization through training. Training rooms must be allocated to train these individuals in their roles and time must be set aside for training and meetings regarding the implementation. Lastly, there needs to be an implementation time line with hard milestones and dates that will not be compromised because of the latest crisis of the day. You will need this included in your game plan (7 Infrastructure plan) to be able to execute this initiative. Remember "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."
Organizational setting items:
• CEO and senior team support for the ISO9000 program.
• Establish the management representative and ISO9000 coordinator (may be the same).
• Establish ISO9000 steering team and management review team (may be the same).
• Establish task teams to complete documentation/standardization and specific goals.
• Establish internal audit team and dates of audit program
• Select registrar and dates of audits.
• Select ISO9000 consultant to assist ISO9000 coordinator (optional).
• Select training rooms and times for training and meetings.
• Complete a comprehensive time line for your 7 Infrastructures plan.
Element 3: Training and Education
As part of training and education, several groups need to receive training. The management representative and ISO9000 coordinator will need training in how to implement ISO9000. In addition, they will need training on the ISO9000 standard itself (I recommend the five-day Lead Auditor Course). The steering team will need an overview of the standard and training on how to meet their specific requirements within the standards. All employees will require training on the goal of the program and what they need to do to implement and maintain the program. Training will be needed on how to write the quality manual and how to write procedures and work instructions.
Internal auditor training will also be needed for the audit team (recommend two to three days), and I would recommend at least two people in the organization have lead auditor training (five days) so you can be prepared for the level of audits the registrar will conduct. Individual task teams may require training in their specific areas of the standard, i.e., creating the calibration program and creating the audit program A training program may also be needed for many other areas of the standard (corrective action, statistical techniques, continuous improvement, preventive maintenance, supplier management, document and data control, design, and so on).
Training and education items:
• Train management representative and ISO9000 coordinator in how to implement ISO9000 (and possibly the 5-day Lead Auditor Course).
• Train steering team on overview of ISO9000.
• Train all employees on ISO9000 goal and their role.
• Train internal audit team on auditing ISO9000.
• Specific training for different requirements of ISO9000.
Element 4: Promotion
Promotion is rarely covered in ISO implementation courses, but is critical to the implementation. Common methods of promotion of the program I have seen are: hanging a ISO9000 banner with target date for certification in all areas of the organization, posting the quality policy of the organization and posting a barometer type scale with key milestones at different points up the scale that is colored in as they are completed. CEO meetings and department meetings are another way to promote the program. Employee newsletters are another way. You can post the 7 Infrastructures plan with milestones for everyone to see. Other ways are promotional videos or employee quality days or events. Perhaps the most important Promotion item is visible management support. Another ISO9000 saying is "Say what you do and do what you say" or "walk the talk". If a CEO or management person says, "I fully support the ISO9000 program" and then cancels meetings or does not follow the system, the employees will believe what they see over what they hear.
Promotion Items:
• Promote CEO support of the program
• Promote the game plan for implementation and milestones
• Visible management support for the program, and
• Pull elements of the 7 Infrastructures.
Unfortunately, a lot of implementation efforts stop after the push elements. Without the 7 Infrastructures pull elements the effort will fall down and never regain its feet. Many organizations have difficulties finding ways to share success stories, provide incentives and rewards and do diagnosis and monitoring because they do not have experience in these areas; however, these elements are desperately needed.
Pull Elements
Now we deal with the pull elements of the model: sharing of success stories, incentives and rewards, and diagnosis and monitoring.
Element 5: Sharing of Success Stories
Sharing success stories is a great way to get people to support the implementation. Many organizations post their key metrics and status of corrective actions in a common area. As results improve, this will drive further improvement. As chronic organizational problems get solved, this will build momentum and support. Employee newsletters and possibly website postings are another way to discuss what stage of implementation you are in and how it is working. You can also cite specific success stories in avenues above. If one team has standardized their area and saved the organization Rs.50,000 through cost savings, other areas may form teams based on the success stories. Sharing success stories can also be an excellent way to benchmark among divisions or even departments in the organization.
Sharing of success stories items:
• Post key metrics and corrective actions improvements.
• Share closure of each milestone to show progress.
• Share specific improvement stories to support teams and benchmarking.
Element 6: Incentives and Rewards
Providing incentives and rewards is another vital element. You need to reward the behaviors that support the ISO9000 program without creating unnecessary competition. Tying employee support of the program to performance reviews and profit sharing is one way to do this. Hold all-employee celebrations such as a barbecue dinner after receiving the certification, which can boost morale and support for the effort. Similar celebrations can happen after achieving certain milestones. Hats, coffee mugs and other non-monetary rewards can be useful in driving standardization and improvement. Management accountability is also critical, as discussed under the promotion element above. If management does not follow the new program, this will act as a disincentive to the rest of the organization.
Incentives and reward items:
• Align the new behaviors you want by possibly modifying your old reward system.
• Tie organizational performance improvement goals to reviews and profit sharing.
• Use non-monetary rewards as appropriate.
• Ensure management accountability for implementation and following improvements.
• Celebrate the successes of completing the various milestones.
Element 7: Diagnosis and Monitoring
Diagnosis and monitoring is perhaps the most critical area. While the Certifying body will be conducting a pre-assessment audit (which gets you ready) and the certification audit itself, you must conduct diagnosis and monitoring internally to build a strong enough business system to warrant certification. I recommend organizations conduct a gap analysis fairly early in the program to identify major gaps against the standard. The audit team will also conduct audits; and the results, along with other key metrics and goals the teams have set, will be reviewed by the management review team. I recommend a monthly meeting to review progress against the key metrics, completion of 7 Infrastructures milestones, and audit results. Your 7 Infrastructures plan will not be foolproof and will need to be modified or augmented over time. Without Diagnosis and Monitoring of the plan, appropriate improvements will not be made.
Diagnosis and monitoring items:
• Gap analysis
• Internal audits
• Pre-assessment audit
• Certification audit
• Monthly review of the quality system audits
• Monthly review of critical business metrics
• Monthly review of the 7 Infrastructures game plan
Life after Certification
Since a successful ISO9000 program is not about getting the certificate, but about gaining the benefits of a formal business improvement program, it is important to evolve your 7 Infrastructures plan after you achieve certification. While many organizations almost lose their certification during their first surveillance audit, even more do not experience the business improvement they expected because they focus too much on the certificate itself. It will be even more important to build on the program after certification to really drive continuous improvement of your business results. A revised 7 Infrastructures plan focused on the appropriate business goals per goal setting can improve your odds of achieving the improved business performance you sought by certification.
For further information on this powerful change tool, please get a copy of the manual, Mobilizing Change Using the 7 Infrastructures,4 which includes more details of each step of the 7 Infrastructures as well as many tips for each step. It also contains a unique diagnostic tool you can use to assess what areas of your existing implementation could use additional attention. I believe framing your ISO9000 implementation into this model will lead to a much more successful and value adding ISO9000 program.
Benefits of ISO 9001:2008
Why do Companies decide to implement an ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System?
Top reasons given for registration:
• Internal operational efficiency
• Lower production costs because of fewer nonconforming products, less rework, lowered rejection rates, streamlined processes and fewer mistakes.
• Access to new markets
• Some markets require ISO 9001 Registration, some markets favor companies with ISO 9001 Registration
• Customer request
• Many organizations are asked by a customer to obtain registration as a requirement to continue or to start doing business with them.
• Reduced cost
• Organizations are recognizing that an effective Quality Management System leads to reduced costs and greater operating margins
What will ISO 9001:2008do for my organization?
A well designed and implemented Quality Management System, based on ISO 9001:2000 has been shown to provide organizations with the following benefits:
Reduced costs through:
• Improved product reliability
• Better process control and flow
• Better documentation of processes,
• Greater employee quality awareness
• Reductions in product scrap, rewords and rejections
When ISO 9001:2008 is implemented in an organization:
• Well defined and documented procedures improve the consistency of output
• Quality is constantly measured
• Procedures ensure corrective action is taken whenever defects occur
• Defect rates decrease
• Defects are caught earlier and are corrected at a lower cost
• Defining procedures identifies current practices that are obsolete or inefficient
• Documented procedures are easier for new employees to follow
• Organizations retain or increase market share, increasing sales or revenues
"Assess Your Organization's Readiness to Execute Strategy
The Balanced Scorecard has moved to center stage as the preferred approach for executing strategy but one major risk confronts all organizations who hope to achieve strategic success: Are you doing it right?
Is your strategy working?
Is your organization achieving the promised benefits of its strategy? If not, it's likely that you are doing something wrong. You may have a flawed strategy that requires some rethinking. Or, perhaps your strategy is a good one but you are not executing it well.
In either case you can't really be sure what the root cause is until you know that your strategy is being implemented. You can't test the hypothesis of your strategy in theory; you have to test it in the field.
Your strategy map lays out the strategic hypotheses you believe to be true and your periodic Balanced Scorecard reports, and strategic review meetings, provide opportunities to see how well these hypotheses are working.
But, if you aren't sure if your strategy is sound, or if you are having trouble executing it, it's not too soon to assess your approach to strategic management to understand whether you have done everything possible to achieve the promise of your strategy.
A proven approach for strategy execution
The study reports that companies are increasing their use of "compass-setting" tools such as strategic planning, benchmarking, and mission and vision statements as they search for growth opportunities in a tough economic environment. The Balanced Scorecard clearly provides an opportunity to integrate these "point" solutions.
Numerous factors explain the increased use of the Balanced Scorecard; foremost among them is the fact that it works. In fact, the level of commitment increases as usage becomes more sophisticated. Even for those just getting started, there is 100% commitment to continue the practice. Among the top five benefits associated with this management approach was the fact that it was shown to improve company results in the long-term.
Avoid the pitfalls
Many organizations fail to achieve the benefits of their strategy because they fail to make strategy execution a core competency. The pitfalls that await those who don't embark upon this journey with adequate understanding and executive commitment are well documented. Pitfalls that can put your scorecard program at risk include:
• Members of the senior management team are not committed
• Executives are not accountable for implementation
• The scorecard is treated as a one-time event
To help organizations successfully execute their strategies we have created a best practices database to document the management practices that contribute to strategic success. Organized around the five principles of the Strategy-Focused Organization we have identified 28 strategic management practices that, when implemented correctly, improve the probability of achieving strategic success. These management practices have been used to establish benchmarks for best practices.
WONDERING HOW YOU WILL BE ABLE TO REALLY USE THE BALANCED SCORECARD TO ACHIEVE RESULTS-AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, SUSTAIN THEM?
Executing strategy is about achieving results-and sustaining them.
Readiness Assessment and Progress Analysis
• Assess your strategy execution readiness
• Assess progress implementing a strategy-focused organization
• Learn how to continue and sustain it
Management Process Integration
• Integrate planning, budgeting, and resource allocation process with strategy
• Build a management process
• Integrate reporting processes with your scorecard
You benefit from these services by:
1. Improving your chances for breakthrough results
2. Making strategy execution a day-to-day reality
3. Avoiding the pitfalls and challenges to implementing a SFO
Organizational Infrastructures
Organizational setting is the resources you make available to make the change happen (teams, meeting rooms, money and time).
Training and education is the training you schedule to teach people how to achieve the change. Promotion is how you promote that the change will take place.
Unfortunately most companies stop here. They only push the change forward, and it stumbles and fails within a few months.
Push elements
We will begin with the push elements of goal setting, organizational setting, training and education, and promotion with some examples of items that need to be completed and then the critical items listed in the chronological order that they will be executed.
Element 1: Goal Setting
Under goal setting, I think it is critical to tie the reason for implementing ISO9000 to key business goals of quality, customer service and profitability. I believe the failure to do this combined with an unfocused approach is what has led to the current debate regarding whether ISO9000 is a value added business improvement system or an inflexible and unnecessary paperwork fiasco to put a piece of paper on the wall (ISO9000 certification). Certainly, ISO9000 can be either, depending on how you structure the implementation and the goal of the program.
Other goals that need to be set are the sub-goals under quality, customer service and profitability that are needed to ensure these major goals are met. These can be cycle time, inventory turns, customer satisfaction indicators, supplier goals, sales revenue, production goals, quality goals, training goals, etc. Needed ISO9000 implementation sub-goals are: when the different initial documentation will be completed (quality manual and work instructions), and when the critical ISO9000 requirements will be met through the task teams (procedures manual).
Goal setting items:
• Establish a value added business system as the reason for ISO9000 certification (not the certificate itself)
• Clearly tie the ISO9000 program to critical business goals
• Clearly set the organizational performance goals per ISO requirement 4.1, and
• Clearly set the ISO9000 specific implementation goals or milestones for documentation and standardization of key processes.
Element 2: Organizational Setting
Under organizational setting, key resources must be assigned to the implementation. This starts with CEO and senior team commitment to the ISO9000 program. The management representative and ISO9000 coordinator (sometimes the same person) must be assigned. The management steering team that will lead the implementation must be created and the management review team, which will review the audit performance and quality system performance, must be created (sometimes the same team). Task teams must be created to implement the documentation and standardization of critical processes in the organization. The audit team (sometimes only 1 person although I recommend a team) must be created.
A certifying body must be chosen who will come in, conduct the third party audits and recommend the company for ISO9000 Certification. Sometimes a consultant is selected to assist the management representative although I personally recommend you build the competency inside your organization through training. Training rooms must be allocated to train these individuals in their roles and time must be set aside for training and meetings regarding the implementation. Lastly, there needs to be an implementation time line with hard milestones and dates that will not be compromised because of the latest crisis of the day. You will need this included in your game plan (7 Infrastructure plan) to be able to execute this initiative. Remember "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."
Organizational setting items:
• CEO and senior team support for the ISO9000 program.
• Establish the management representative and ISO9000 coordinator (may be the same).
• Establish ISO9000 steering team and management review team (may be the same).
• Establish task teams to complete documentation/standardization and specific goals.
• Establish internal audit team and dates of audit program
• Select registrar and dates of audits.
• Select ISO9000 consultant to assist ISO9000 coordinator (optional).
• Select training rooms and times for training and meetings.
• Complete a comprehensive time line for your 7 Infrastructures plan.
Element 3: Training and Education
As part of training and education, several groups need to receive training. The management representative and ISO9000 coordinator will need training in how to implement ISO9000. In addition, they will need training on the ISO9000 standard itself (I recommend the five-day Lead Auditor Course). The steering team will need an overview of the standard and training on how to meet their specific requirements within the standards. All employees will require training on the goal of the program and what they need to do to implement and maintain the program. Training will be needed on how to write the quality manual and how to write procedures and work instructions.
Internal auditor training will also be needed for the audit team (recommend two to three days), and I would recommend at least two people in the organization have lead auditor training (five days) so you can be prepared for the level of audits the registrar will conduct. Individual task teams may require training in their specific areas of the standard, i.e., creating the calibration program and creating the audit program A training program may also be needed for many other areas of the standard (corrective action, statistical techniques, continuous improvement, preventive maintenance, supplier management, document and data control, design, and so on).
Training and education items:
• Train management representative and ISO9000 coordinator in how to implement ISO9000 (and possibly the 5-day Lead Auditor Course).
• Train steering team on overview of ISO9000.
• Train all employees on ISO9000 goal and their role.
• Train internal audit team on auditing ISO9000.
• Specific training for different requirements of ISO9000.
Element 4: Promotion
Promotion is rarely covered in ISO implementation courses, but is critical to the implementation. Common methods of promotion of the program I have seen are: hanging a ISO9000 banner with target date for certification in all areas of the organization, posting the quality policy of the organization and posting a barometer type scale with key milestones at different points up the scale that is colored in as they are completed. CEO meetings and department meetings are another way to promote the program. Employee newsletters are another way. You can post the 7 Infrastructures plan with milestones for everyone to see. Other ways are promotional videos or employee quality days or events. Perhaps the most important Promotion item is visible management support. Another ISO9000 saying is "Say what you do and do what you say" or "walk the talk". If a CEO or management person says, "I fully support the ISO9000 program" and then cancels meetings or does not follow the system, the employees will believe what they see over what they hear.
Promotion Items:
• Promote CEO support of the program
• Promote the game plan for implementation and milestones
• Visible management support for the program, and
• Pull elements of the 7 Infrastructures.
Unfortunately, a lot of implementation efforts stop after the push elements. Without the 7 Infrastructures pull elements the effort will fall down and never regain its feet. Many organizations have difficulties finding ways to share success stories, provide incentives and rewards and do diagnosis and monitoring because they do not have experience in these areas; however, these elements are desperately needed.
Pull Elements
Now we deal with the pull elements of the model: sharing of success stories, incentives and rewards, and diagnosis and monitoring.
Element 5: Sharing of Success Stories
Sharing success stories is a great way to get people to support the implementation. Many organizations post their key metrics and status of corrective actions in a common area. As results improve, this will drive further improvement. As chronic organizational problems get solved, this will build momentum and support. Employee newsletters and possibly website postings are another way to discuss what stage of implementation you are in and how it is working. You can also cite specific success stories in avenues above. If one team has standardized their area and saved the organization Rs.50,000 through cost savings, other areas may form teams based on the success stories. Sharing success stories can also be an excellent way to benchmark among divisions or even departments in the organization.
Sharing of success stories items:
• Post key metrics and corrective actions improvements.
• Share closure of each milestone to show progress.
• Share specific improvement stories to support teams and benchmarking.
Element 6: Incentives and Rewards
Providing incentives and rewards is another vital element. You need to reward the behaviors that support the ISO9000 program without creating unnecessary competition. Tying employee support of the program to performance reviews and profit sharing is one way to do this. Hold all-employee celebrations such as a barbecue dinner after receiving the certification, which can boost morale and support for the effort. Similar celebrations can happen after achieving certain milestones. Hats, coffee mugs and other non-monetary rewards can be useful in driving standardization and improvement. Management accountability is also critical, as discussed under the promotion element above. If management does not follow the new program, this will act as a disincentive to the rest of the organization.
Incentives and reward items:
• Align the new behaviors you want by possibly modifying your old reward system.
• Tie organizational performance improvement goals to reviews and profit sharing.
• Use non-monetary rewards as appropriate.
• Ensure management accountability for implementation and following improvements.
• Celebrate the successes of completing the various milestones.
Element 7: Diagnosis and Monitoring
Diagnosis and monitoring is perhaps the most critical area. While the Certifying body will be conducting a pre-assessment audit (which gets you ready) and the certification audit itself, you must conduct diagnosis and monitoring internally to build a strong enough business system to warrant certification. I recommend organizations conduct a gap analysis fairly early in the program to identify major gaps against the standard. The audit team will also conduct audits; and the results, along with other key metrics and goals the teams have set, will be reviewed by the management review team. I recommend a monthly meeting to review progress against the key metrics, completion of 7 Infrastructures milestones, and audit results. Your 7 Infrastructures plan will not be foolproof and will need to be modified or augmented over time. Without Diagnosis and Monitoring of the plan, appropriate improvements will not be made.
Diagnosis and monitoring items:
• Gap analysis
• Internal audits
• Pre-assessment audit
• Certification audit
• Monthly review of the quality system audits
• Monthly review of critical business metrics
• Monthly review of the 7 Infrastructures game plan
Life after Certification
Since a successful ISO9000 program is not about getting the certificate, but about gaining the benefits of a formal business improvement program, it is important to evolve your 7 Infrastructures plan after you achieve certification. While many organizations almost lose their certification during their first surveillance audit, even more do not experience the business improvement they expected because they focus too much on the certificate itself. It will be even more important to build on the program after certification to really drive continuous improvement of your business results. A revised 7 Infrastructures plan focused on the appropriate business goals per goal setting can improve your odds of achieving the improved business performance you sought by certification.
For further information on this powerful change tool, please get a copy of the manual, Mobilizing Change Using the 7 Infrastructures,4 which includes more details of each step of the 7 Infrastructures as well as many tips for each step. It also contains a unique diagnostic tool you can use to assess what areas of your existing implementation could use additional attention. I believe framing your ISO9000 implementation into this model will lead to a much more successful and value adding ISO9000 program.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Quality Management Principles
QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
Introduction
This document introduces the eight quality management principles on which the quality
Management system standards of the revised ISO9000:2000 series are based. These principle s can be used by senior management as a frame work to guide their organization towards improved performance. The principles are derived from the collective experience and knowledge of the of the international experts who participate in ISO Technical Committee ISO/TC 176, Quality management and quality assurance, which is responsible for developing and maintaining the ISO 9000 standards.
Applying the principle of customer focus typically leads to :
Researching and understanding customer needs and expectations,
Ensuring that the objectives of the organization are linked to customer needs and expectations,
Communicating customer needs and expectations throughout the organization,
Measuring customer satisfaction and acting on the results.
Systematically managing customer relationships,
Ensuring a balanced approach between satisfying customers and others interested parties (such as owners, employees, suppliers, financiers, local communities and society as a whole.)
Read Essence of Quality Management
http://essenceofqualitymanagement.blogspot.com
Introduction
This document introduces the eight quality management principles on which the quality
Management system standards of the revised ISO9000:2000 series are based. These principle s can be used by senior management as a frame work to guide their organization towards improved performance. The principles are derived from the collective experience and knowledge of the of the international experts who participate in ISO Technical Committee ISO/TC 176, Quality management and quality assurance, which is responsible for developing and maintaining the ISO 9000 standards.
Applying the principle of customer focus typically leads to :
Researching and understanding customer needs and expectations,
Ensuring that the objectives of the organization are linked to customer needs and expectations,
Communicating customer needs and expectations throughout the organization,
Measuring customer satisfaction and acting on the results.
Systematically managing customer relationships,
Ensuring a balanced approach between satisfying customers and others interested parties (such as owners, employees, suppliers, financiers, local communities and society as a whole.)
Read Essence of Quality Management
http://essenceofqualitymanagement.blogspot.com
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Food for Thought is a Blog for you to think about your business in different perspectives.
"Action with out responsibility just passes the time."
"It cost 5times more to get a new customer than it does to keep a current customer'
"More than 90% of the customers don't complain.'
"Quality is always the result of high intention,direction and skillful execution. It represents wise choice of many alternatives".
"If you don't measure it you can't improve".
"It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no idea at all"
"The world we have made as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far, creates problems we cannot solve, at the same kind of level of thinking at which we
created them"
"Human mind is like a parachute- it functions better when it opens".
"We are apt to think that our ideas are the creation of our own wisdom, but the truth is that they are the result of the experiences through outside contact."
"Even you are on the right track, you will get run over if you stand just there".
"There are no foolish questions and no man is a fool until he has stopped asking questions"
To raise new questions and new possibilities, to regard old problem from a new angle, require a creative imagination".
"What is now proved is once only imagined."
"One sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak".
"If you wish to advance into infinite, explore the finite in all directions".
"Life is trying things if they work".
"Silly questions is the first intimation of some totally new development"
"Necessity is the mother of all inventions, it is true, but its father is creativity and knowledge is the midwife"
Essence of business management, I have condensed as above. What you have to do is put bits and parts of above mentioned in right proportion and mix thoroughly and add into your business to enhance your ability to sustain and improve.......... Think and write to me at kartha.nandakumar@gmail.com, for further details.
"Action with out responsibility just passes the time."
"It cost 5times more to get a new customer than it does to keep a current customer'
"More than 90% of the customers don't complain.'
"Quality is always the result of high intention,direction and skillful execution. It represents wise choice of many alternatives".
"If you don't measure it you can't improve".
"It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no idea at all"
"The world we have made as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far, creates problems we cannot solve, at the same kind of level of thinking at which we
created them"
"Human mind is like a parachute- it functions better when it opens".
"We are apt to think that our ideas are the creation of our own wisdom, but the truth is that they are the result of the experiences through outside contact."
"Even you are on the right track, you will get run over if you stand just there".
"There are no foolish questions and no man is a fool until he has stopped asking questions"
To raise new questions and new possibilities, to regard old problem from a new angle, require a creative imagination".
"What is now proved is once only imagined."
"One sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak".
"If you wish to advance into infinite, explore the finite in all directions".
"Life is trying things if they work".
"Silly questions is the first intimation of some totally new development"
"Necessity is the mother of all inventions, it is true, but its father is creativity and knowledge is the midwife"
Essence of business management, I have condensed as above. What you have to do is put bits and parts of above mentioned in right proportion and mix thoroughly and add into your business to enhance your ability to sustain and improve.......... Think and write to me at kartha.nandakumar@gmail.com, for further details.
Monday, March 2, 2009
How I plan to help you in Business
Online Business Management is a humble attempt to help the business people and industrialists to make them think during their free time on improving the business through various perspectives.
An advertisement says "An idea can change your life.
For instance,
Have you thought about what the customers are thinking about you?
" Customers think differently about you!"
Is that relevant to your business to know what your customers thinks about you?
write to me in my e mail: kartha.nandakumar@gmail.com. I shall give you more information. Even we can communicate more often on customer pespective analysis relevant for your business Or industries.
An advertisement says "An idea can change your life.
For instance,
Have you thought about what the customers are thinking about you?
" Customers think differently about you!"
Is that relevant to your business to know what your customers thinks about you?
write to me in my e mail: kartha.nandakumar@gmail.com. I shall give you more information. Even we can communicate more often on customer pespective analysis relevant for your business Or industries.
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