How to implement a management system in the organization?

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There are three ways to implement a management system. We will introduce all three and evaluate their pros and cons.
 

1. Self-management system (recommended for organizations with sufficient qualified staff)

Pros:

• clearer and more precisely defined processes of the organization and the whole concept of building a management system,
• preparation of materials, documents and training of employees regarding the implementation of the management system on their own.
   

Cons:

• subjectivity, the so-called “corporate blindnes in the analysis of the current state of the organization and the implementation of the management system,
• an attempt to describe the activities in too detail at a later stage, leading to frequent changes or non-compliance with the criteria,
• problems with determining the right methods of analysis of the current state and implementation,
• non-compliance with the principles of standards due to little experience in this field,
• We often encounter a superficial approach on the part of employees, or the company's management, if the system is built by employees or middle management without the full support of the board.

This method of implementation seems to be a cheap option, but this is not always true, given the time and experience required. In terms of costs, it is necessary to take into account the amount of time that staff spend on self-study, or the cost of external training, time to create documented procedures and implement the system in practice.
 

2. The organization will implement a management system with the help of a consulting company (the role of consulting companies is to prepare organizations for certification)

Pros:

• professionally prepared training for employees,
• pre-prepared materials and questionnaires for the analysis of the organization,
• consultants use appropriate management methods to control the implementation of individual elements of the management system (Pareto analysis, Ishikawa diagram, 5S, Six Sigma, etc.),
• reduction of the complexity of performing a certification audit with the participation of a consultant,
• faster implementation of the management system.

Cons:

• the customer has the management system "tailor-made" by an external company without his own intervention, which can cause the following problems:
  • workers have not adopted the rules and consider them foreign,
  • after implementation, documents are processed formally before the certification, supervisory audit,
  • when choosing a consulting company, it is chosen only according to the price, which to a large extent encourages the formal approach of both parties to implementation,
  • the consulting company will implement the system only on paper according to its own designs and does not respect the customer's specifics and requirements.
  •  the risk of not achieving the objectives of implementing the management system due to poor selection of the consulting company
• when implementing a management system, not all interrelationships of individual processes may be immediately identified.

3. The third way to implement a management system is a combination of a stand-alone implementation with the partial support of a consulting company. This option combines the pros and cons of the previous methods.

It is possible to highlight mainly:

• the consulting company provides advice on the implementation of the management system and the employees bring special features of products and processes to the system,
• quality implementation achieved by the synergy of the experience of the consulting company and the experience of the staff,
• mutually appropriate selection of managerial and statistical methods for system, process and product improvement,
• It seems to be the most expensive way of implementation, but given the quality of the results achieved, a high rate of return and savings is possible.

The biggest risk is the selection of a low-quality consulting company and the selection of a consulting company only on the basis of price at the expense of quality and experience.

It often happens that the customer wants to have a management system quickly, i.e. within a week or three months, just for the purpose of awarding tenders or winning a contract. Because the management system requires a customer, the customer chooses the implementation option at the lowest possible price. If both parties agree to such a compromise, they just ruin each other's business and the implementation of the system is mostly on the side-lines. Subsequently, a certified supplier with a lower price is always sought. Thus, over time, the agreement is usually disadvantageous for both parties.
 

In the next article, we will introduce you in detail to the risks and the most common mistakes in implementing a management system.
 

Our goal is for the certification to make sense to you, so if you have further questions, write to us and we will be happy to answer.