Essence Of Management System Standards

THE ESSENCE OF MANAGEMENT SYSTEM STANDARDS

The purpose of existence of any organization is to satisfy the requirements of its customers and stakeholders. The organization can continue its existence if and only if it operates effectively and efficiently. Effectiveness can be defined as ‘Extent to which planned activities are realized and planned results achieved’. Efficiency can be defined as ‘Relationship between the results achieved and the resources used’. Organization that cares for effectiveness and efficiency reaps the benefit of excellent Quality and high Productivity. However, in the name of quality and productivity, our Mother Earth suffered tremendously especially during the 20 th Century. Various industrial and non-industrial activities caused irreversible damages to her elements and harmed even the extreme fringe of our atmosphere that threatens the existence of life of all forms in the long run. Bitter experience has made us wiser! Today, across the globe we realize that combined The strategy for simultaneously enhancing application of appropriate productivity and productivity and environmental environmental management tools, performance for overall socio-economic development that leads to sustained techniques and technologies that reduce the improvement in the quality of human life is environmental impact of an organization's termed as Green Productivity. activities, products and services while enhancing profitability and competitive advantage is the only way for sustainable development. Wise organizations are ‘Humanity focused’. Such organizations ensure that products they make a ‘safe’ for use and the ‘risk’ due to work related occupational health and other hazards are of acceptable level. Quality, Green Productivity and workplace safety result from good management of numerous interlinked processes within the organization. Any activity or operation that receives inputs and converts them to outputs can be considered as a process. Essentially all production and/or service activities and operations are processes. Often the output from one process directly forms the input into the next process. The systematic identification and management of the various processes employed within an organization, and ensuring that the interactions between such processes are effective is the key to good management practices. Wise organizations are ‘Prevention oriented’. These organizations are proactive. Efforts within such organizations are always towards prevention of occurrence of errors so that defectives are not produced, environment is not adversely affected and human health is not affected due to the activities carried out within their control. Prevention oriented organizations manage their activities through appropriate management system model(s). Management system means the set of interrelated or interacting elements to establish policy and objectives and to achieve those objectives. A management system of an organization can include quality management system, a financial management system, environmental management system, safety and occupational health management system etc.

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International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from some 150 countries, one from each country. Its Central Secretariat is located in Geneva. ISO is a nongovernmental organization, established in 1947. The mission of ISO is to promote the development of standardization and related activities in the world with a view to facilitating the international exchange of goods and services, and to developing cooperation in the spheres of intellectual, scientific, technological and economic activity.

An organization can develop its own model for management system(s). Fortunately, there is no need to re-invent the wheel. ISO and collaborative effort of accredited management system certification bodies have already developed a number of models to assist organizations, of all types and sizes, to implement and operate effective management systems. Commonly, we refer to these models as Standards. In order to build a management system, organizations apply the methodology called ‘Plan – Do – Check – Act’

(PDCA) to all its processes. PDCA means: 

Establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with customer and stakeholder requirements and the organization’s policies (Plan)



Implement the processes (Do)



Monitor and measure processes and product against policies, objectives and requirements for the product and report the results (Check)



Take actions to continually improve process performance (Act)

An illustrative list of popular Standards are stated below: Standard

Focus

Author

ISO 9000 series

Quality management

International Organization for Standardization

ISO 14000 series

Environmental management

OHSAS 18000 series

Occupational health and safety management

British Standards Institution, Bureau Veritas Quality International, Det Norske Veritas, International Safety Management Organisation Ltd, Lloyds Register Quality Assurance, SGS Yarsley International Certification Services, South African Bureau of Standards, Standards Australia etc.

ISO 22000 series

Food safety management

International Organization for Standardization

IS 15700

Service quality of public service organizations

Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)

ISO 27001

Information security management

International Organization for Standardization

ISO 20000

Information services quality management

International Organization for Standardization

In order to facilitate communication among the members of the organization, standardize the method of work and provide a basis for audit (check), organizations prepare a set of documents as per the requirements stated in the relevant Standards. The documents are variously termed as policy statements, objective statements, system manual, procedures, work 2

instructions etc. To provide evidence of conformity to requirements organizations also maintain records. However, organizations should give ample thought in preparation of its management system documents and design of its records. Each document and record must add value to the organization’s processes. Inconsiderate documentation may prove to be burden to an organization rather than a facilitator in achieving its intended purpose. Very often, in organizations the people ‘frantically fills up records’, ‘un-bundles and dusts the documents’ just a day or two before a forthcoming audit! This is not desirable at all. Management systems require a ‘documented system’ but not a ‘system of documents’. The effectiveness of management system in any organization, to a great extent, is dependent on the attitude of the individuals. Attitude towards work are reflected through an individual’s concern for effectiveness, efficiency, reliability, discipline, cost control, waste reduction, innovativeness, teamwork etc. These attributes develop from positive thinking – a belief that “There is always a better way”. Thinking is done in people’s mind. So in an excellent organization everyone must mind the mind. Ignited minds lead to – Working together with focused objectives  Self-motivation for organizational and global goodness  Complementing each other to do a good job  Continual improvement for sustainable development. 

This is the essence of management system standards.

Author: Sanjeeb Kakati. He is an active member of Assam Productivity Council. He is a Director of Third Eye Infosys (P) Ltd. and leads the management training and consultancy division of the company. He can be contacted at [email protected].

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