IMS (Integrated Management System) AND THE MANAGEMENT BY PROCESS

Hello, my dear friends!

It is well known that us, the IMS (Integrated Management System) specialist, have many difficulties in conducting our activities through the several departments of any organization.

The fact we can perceive in most cases, unfortunately, is the IMS department or QM (Quality Management), depending on the company, being directly responsible for ensuring that all requirements are met in all departments of the company. This is nothing more than "fake management just for presenting to auditor". It is a kind of situation where nothing happens until an audit of the system is scheduled. So, we have a terrible "race against the clock" in order to assure that everything is working well. But, in those cases, the most "sacrificed" is the IMS team.

When we implement a management system, whatever it is, the idea is assure the whole organization has this system working well, each department being responsible for ensuring that the pertinent step of its activity works perfectly. This creates interaction between departments, making each one realize the impact of their activities on the whole process implemented. This positive stand is essential to the absolute success of any implementation process, and is the basis for Management by Process.

According to the renowned expert Gart Capote, the concept of management by procss could be defined as follows:

"Business Process Management is a disciplinary approach to identifying, designing, executing, documenting, measuring, monitoring, controlling and improving business processes, automated or otherwise, to achieve consistent results aligned with the organization's strategic objectives."

Under the point of view of another well respected author, Roger Tregear, management by process is a concept that can be understood as follows:

"Business processes are the channels through which organizations deliver value to external customers, themselves, and other stakeholders. There is no other way to deliver such value. Functional areas alone are not able to deliver value. Therefore, each organization executes its strategic sight, through its business processes."

When it comes to an IMS, for example, consisting of Quality, Environment and Labor Safety, it must be not different. These policies only can work fully if each department fulfills its part by managing those aspects in its activities.

The role of the departments that compose the SGI, in fact, is the same as an "internal consultant." That's it! An "internal consultant"! The MR's (Management Representative of each standard), or those directly responsible for the implementation of each system, should be focused on the following aspects:

1) Train all departments;
2) Create and manage procedures;
3) Conduct audits;
4) To guide during the progress of the processes;
5) Work together with departments at the beginning;
6) Follow up the system after implementation.

It is important to emphasize that we are not trying to exempt the MR's responsibility in the implementation process, quite the contrary. In order to have a positive outcome, the process must be conducted by everyone with a full focus on meeting each requirement across the organization.

Once the IMS is implemented, each department is responsible for its maintenance. Obviously, the IMS Manager has a great responsibility in this step, not performing all the activities, but rather acting together with the departments, in a proactive and available way to solve any doubts.

Implementing a system, where only the responsble department has the obligatin of assuring its working, is a great failure, because it's going exactly in the opposite direction the expectation of the results of an implementation project. Projects implemented in this way, generate rework, cost, cause several internal troubles, as they do not show the reality of a full implementation, which is the search for improvements, value chain vision, follow up of tasks and processes in real time, proactive management of the tasks, better utilisation of human resources, significant reduction of costs, and other results of high added value.

If you want to implement a Management System in your organization, think about it. You must elaborate and conduct a project that focuses on Management by Process. Otherwise, as we said above, you will just set up a scenario filled with rework and only for "presenting to auditor."

PILLARS FOR A SOLID ORGANIZATION - PLANNING

Hello, my dear friends!

Have you ever thought about those times, when you finish an exhausting day of work, where you are focused on keeping all your routine up to date, anticipating up to a few activities, so that the next day you can come and spend much of the time working for some improvements that you have idealized? You go home exhausted, but with a sense of "duty fulfilled," motivated, looking forward to the next day, right? But when you arrive at work the next day, you are faced with so many other last-minute problems, failed routines, emergency requests, unexpected events and problems, which ones, even though coming from other departments, they have a direct impact on your activities and, because of them, you'll have to spend hours and even days to help solve. In fact, in the example I mentioned above, I believe that there is neither PLANNING nor organization, but a DISORGANIZATION!

By this way, we will start the series of articles about PILLARS FOR A SOLID ORGANIZATION, with PLANNING as the theme.

Well, in order to begin and understanding better the idea that we want to convey, let's analyze the meaning of PLANNING.

Planning is the way to systematically formulate the objectives and alternative actions, among which, in the end, the best action will be chosen. It can also be related to the future impact of decisions taken in the present, since it is a process of reciprocal and independent decisions, whose focus is to reach previously established goals. It is to project a set of actions aimed at achieving a clearly defined result, having full certainty of the circumstances in which the actions will take place and almost absolute control of the factors involved in guaranteeing the success and attainment of results.

Therefore, we can understand that, in order to have a minimum of organization, we must define results or goals, determine actions, reserve resources, point to defined targets, seek opportunities, manage issues and monitoring all critical KPI's. So, with all of these items working properly, we can say that an organization actually has a PLANNING. spend hours and even days to help solve. If you have experienced or experience nowadays this unfortunate reality frequently, I feel sorry to say, but the organization in which you work has a very serious problem regarding PLANNING!

Based on the above considerations, in order to have a healthy organization, it is vital to have an adequate infrastructure, qualified human capital, resources and inputs both available, all in order to sustain an operational and administrative routine, so that they do not undergo constant unexpected changes, besides providing conditions to search for continuous process improvement.

Another vital point to assure the solidity of the PLANNING in a healthy organization, is the indispensable existence of some alternative ways, AKA the famous BACKUP PLANS. It is not an option. It is mandatory! Many say it makes the process more expensive, making the organization unsustainable. But what is expensive? In my conception, it is more expensive to have rework, it is more expensive to pay for last-minute services and the worst, stop attending the customer is priceless! It ruins the credibility of the company in the market!

Gentlemen, good planning is one that is well done, focusing on all possibilities. It covers maintenance, suppliers, employees, equipment, logistics, in short, all steps of the process.

Maintenance has to be well planned to avoid breaking equipment, vehicles, machinery and everything else that could disrupt any process. If there is any breakage, it is necessary that there be a part, machine or equipment for immediate replacement. If nothing is in stock, you need a vendor with prompt delivery. But in both cases, there will probably be a customer waiting for the product or sevice. Therefore, there must be also an alternative to not delaying production, either by replacing the damaged equipment until its complete recovery or any other plan. But it must exist!

When it comes to suppliers, whoever has one, has none! It does not matter if it's because it has the best price conditions. If it fails, everything the organization has saved will be lost! It is up to the supply department to negotiate with several suppliers. Although there are some companies that make use of specific suppliers, establishing millionaire fines in the event of non-attendance, I'd like to talk again about the credibility of the Company. No matter how big is the fine, nothing cover the commitment of the image, when there an unsatisfied customer. Unless the fine is able to cover some extra cost, disbursed to ensure service.

Even in customer prospecting, where service and supply contracts are defined, planning must be the focus. Those responsible (usually the commercial department and account managers) must be fully aware of the production and sevice capacity of the company in which they work. They must be fully up to date about any kind of project (if any) and all other routines, processes, in the smallest details, even for evaluation if there is a need for changes (NEW PLANNING), in order to assure that all the products and services offered to the customer, can be fully met, without any inconvenience to the organization, let alone to the client.

In short, an actuall PLANNING must be based on the following points:

What to do? If won't be possible doing it, what is the alternative?

How to make? If won't be possible doing it by the stablished process, what is the alternative?

When to do it? If won't be possible meeting the expected date, what is the alternative?

How much to do? If won't be possible reaching the estimated volume, what is the alternative?

Where to do it? If the plant or resource is not available, what is the alterntive?

Who is going to do? If the employee in charge is not available, what is the alternative?

How much? If there is no resource ($) available, what is the alternative?

What are the alternative plans, in addition to all the itens described above?

Once Again: INDISPENSBLE THE EXISTENCE OF BACKUP PLANS. If an employee is absent, there must be another able to replace him, without prejudice to other routines. If there are any logistical problems, whether with routes or ways of transportation, there must be an immediate alternative to service. And this goes for all processes.

Is it difficult? Of Course it is! After all, nobody said that it is easy to sustain an ORGANIZATION. But if we want undertaking into the market, if we want to establish a company or keeping one already existing strong and solid, if we want to "take up" a trend, region, product, etc. and facing all the challenges, our thinking can not be different.

To conclude, it is obvious that eventually some situation will slip away from the standard, it will require a change of plans or the need of changing what was planned. After all, we live in a dynamic market. However, if these changes are constant, occurring daily, I'm sorry to tell you but, as was quoted at the beginning of this article, there is a very serious problem happening, and, in that case, I can tell that it is a DISORGANIZATION, because it lacks PLANNING!

Well, my dear friends, I hope you make good reading and good reflection.

See you all in our next article on the PILLARS FOR A SOLID ORGANIZATION.

PILLARS FOR A SOLID ORGANIZATION - INTRODUCTION

Hello, my dear friends!

It's been a while since I've matured the idea of writing about this subject.

In all of the organizations I've worked in, I've always been extremely emphatic about these points, alerting about how important they are to the health of any company.

So, from this post, we will start a series of articles on what I call PILLARS FOR A SOLID ORGANIZATION. The pillars I am referring to are:

PLANNING - Priority!

PROCEDURE - Basic!

TRAINING - Essential!

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS - Must not be questioned. Just Comply!

LEADERSHIP - Indispensable!

In our dissertations we will see how the interaction between each of these pillars can contribute to the solidity, sustainability, and growth of an organization, if followed to the letter, or to its setback if treated without due emphasis.

We will also see how a well-done alignment between these items could mean building high-performance teams, real "winning warriors", or contributing to team failure, fueled by the ghost of demotivation if there is no discipline in conducting each of these points.

We will learn together that it is no "bogeyman" to conduct our day-to-day activities by consistently and disciplinedly, performing them based on these pillars, which are essential to the good performance of any organization.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the theme. See you at the next post!