Can Management Systems Be Effective If They Are Not Integrated?
The purpose of any management system is to provide a tool to manage the organisation. Where an organisation has more than one system, these need to be integrated to prevent confusion and duplication. The structure of the various standards cater very well for this integration and the processes involved in risk management can and should be consistent across all areas of business risk.
Environmental management ISO 14001, occupational health and safety AS/NZS 4801, Quality ISO 9001, HACCP or food safety (ISO 22000) and financial management can very readily be integrated. All the systems except Quality (ISO 9001) are risk based and should use the same risk management tool.
What is crucial to making an integrated management system work effectively is having straightforward procedures that are process based and cover all risks and provide a single reporting mechanism for initially reporting incidents, near misses and suggestions. Workers easily become confused by too many forms and instructions with the result that they ignore them. In many cases having more than one different stand along systems can even be directly conflicting.
The biggest pitfall is inflexible Government inspectors from organisations like AQIS and to a lesser extent, WorkCover because these inspectors are only interested in seeing their own area of jurisdiction and they have no real concern about the effective operation of the business outside their narrow tunnel. A sensible approach is to file the incident and corrective action records in separate files for safety, quality , environment and food safety to minimise problems with regulatory inspectors but these inspectors need to respect the right of the business to management its business in the most effective manner.
It is hard to see how a mix of management systems can be effective if they are not integrated.
Technorati Tags: AQIS, AS/NZS 4801, Environmental management, HACCP, ISO 14001, ISO 9001, ISO22000, occupational health and safety, Quality, WorkCover
Save Money with Simple and Effective Management SystemsJean Cannon is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want to save money by implementing simple and effective management systems. Sign up to discover how YOU can save money with sensible energy management and ISO 14001.
