CFO (Chief Financial Officer) as Management Representative

Okay Cove here is a odd one for you...
With changes in our company those in power decided that the C.F. O. should be our mgmt. rep. for ISO. AS you can imagine we have had comments from our third party about this but there is nothing that I can find that states our C.F.O. can not be the mgmt. rep. Does anyone have any insight, ideas, comments on this? I have argued that it should be someone within the company who deals with the quality aspects on a daily basis.

Great idea!!

I think this is a smart move myself. Too many times the only folks that get involved are the Quality and Environmental (for EMS) guys. I have repeatedly stated that we are talking "Business Management" when we start talking QMS (and EMS). Involving someone from another field (such as Finance, HR or whatever) will tend to diminish the tendency for what I call "Tunopia" (tunnel vision & myopia). Those in power should be commended for forward thinking.

I remember seeing an article a couple of years ago about the coming convergence of Quality Auditing and Financial Auditing, and why it would be a good thing.

Is the future here already?

My only possible question would be if the CFO actually has enough time to really perform the function of MR -- but let the objective evidence speak, and not the opinions.

(and no, I don't remember where the article was. The most likely places would be Quality Progress or Quality Digest, but I'm not sure.)

Great idea Mr Pres/MD/CEO.
And when it all turns to 5h!t, the consultants who believe it's such a good idea can rush in and slug you a mint to fix the mess up.

I'm not anti-accountant, they just don't get turned on by QMS stuff.

????????

I would have to question the appointment of a CFO though. I don't think a bean counter would be a wise choice. Ensuring the customer requirements are being met, etc. doesn't seem to mess with the "real job". Although having the financial backing for initiatives would be interesting to deal with!

Ensuring the customer requirements are being met, etc. doesn't seem to mess with the "real job".

Click to expand...

Then where else are the beans to come from?

1st and foremost any MR should be an organizer, a person capable of managing a Project and Project Implementation. Why does it matter a rats as- whether or not the MR has a quality background? It seems to me like this organization and its leadership understand that a QMS has a more far reaching potential than just ensuring the widgets are made correctly.

Let's think about this

I know of a situation where a company's quality policy stated that they wanted to "compete in time". Lead times are a real problem in their industry, and they felt that if they could be a leader here, it would make a real difference.

The purchasing manager's performance objectives were centered around cost reduction, which in many cases directly competed and conflicted with the quality policy.

If the CFO, who's primary objective is $ driven were to suddenly have to balance the QMS with the $, what impact would that have on the organization?

If it were my decision, one of the factors would be the size and complexity of the organization. I have found in small, non-publicly traded organizations, you could involve the CFO more than in larger publicly traded companies.

Re: Management Rep.

Brad Serangeli said:

Okay Cove here is a odd one for you...
With changes in our company those in power decided that the C.F. O. should be our mgmt. rep. for ISO. AS you can imagine we have had comments from our third party about this but there is nothing that I can find that states our C.F.O. can not be the mgmt. rep. Does anyone have any insight, ideas, comments on this? I have argued that it should be someone within the company who deals with the quality aspects on a daily basis.

Click to expand...

We have the same situation. I don't understand how someone beside the person doing all the qualtiy related duties (including planning and guiding the managment review) should not be the management rep.

MGMT Rep

It seems to be a split. My concern was that with all of the financial importance that falls on the CFO how can she be able to evaluate and perform what is needed for the QMS? Maybe I could talk the upper management into promoting me and giving me a big raise so that I can be the mgmt rep. But has I have been told when the third parties come to audit they are going striaght to our upper mgmt. and then all **** will break loose.

From Experience

I'm just going from experience I've had. I know I can't see our current CFO as the MR. I'm not saying that it can't be done, I just don't see the benefit.