How can I make the QMS (Quality Management System) interesting to employees?

[potdar]

While everyone has already told you that it is the disinterested top management who is causng this problem, it might be worthwhile to just try and peep into the management mind and assess WHY they are disinterested.

Majority of the times the reason is a poorly designed QMS. It might even be a QMS based on a readymade template downloaded from the computer / purchased in the flea market.

The QMS wants the organisation (employees) to maintain a lot of records and do a lot a activities in a specified manner. Every day in the morning the management want certain reports and certain information on their table. This is needed for running the day to day business.

What happens when the needs of the management and the needs of the QMS do not match? Exactly what you have described! Now, the management's needs are met on a day to day basis, and the QMS needs (if at all bothered about), get fabricated before the audit with a lot of grumbling.

The solutuion? If this is what situation you find yourself in, SCRAP your QMS. Rewrite it. Align Both management and QMS requirements. Your employees will automatically know the QMS and follow it, the management will positively track the implementation. No training, elevator talks will be required.

Try some patchwork, you will keep doing it before the audit for the rest of your life.

 

[arin_23]

Dear All,

So far the discussion had been too good and we learnt many good points from our experinced colleagues. From my experience , I have seen the quality game is always played in the top management level and the people at bottom level are reluctant in parcipating.For all the organizations I worked with till date I practiced some very simple methodology, which yielded some results. I want to share these points with all.

1. Please let all employees understand ,everyone has a significant role to play in the quality game explain each department's enquiry with specific example.

2. Rather than making everyone memorize the full quality policy and objective statements stress on the keywords like "Customer satisfaction" and "Continual improvement" in their own ways....and if possible then fish out some real life examples from their day to day activities.

3. Introduce the "Suggestion Scheme" in the strongest possible way, if possible go for a presentaion ceremony in front of all the employees.

4.Reduce the paperwork to as minimum as you can. Let the performance speak out , not the papers.

5. Make employees at every level understand that his / her role is how much important in the final performance of the product / service the organization is producing. For example the workers working in the railway wheel manufacturing units can be motivated by saying " You are the main contributer to the mechanical monster which carries 2500 persons safely at 250 kmph"

6.Convey the outcome of MRM's and Internal audits in lucid manner to respective departments /persons.

7. Involve the lower level employees in inspection of the outsourced process products and services , in that way they will feel elated that they are also part of quality campaign.

and most useful is

8. Divide the QMS in modular manner..make everyone understand who is the end customer ( Internal and external) of his product, what are the (internal / external) customer requirement quality wise, how customers (internal / external) can be fully satisfied, how value can be added to the product & services offered, how the lacunas can be narrowed..and so on.
The more questions you will ask, the more they will be enlightened and more views will come out.

last but not the least please take the top management in confidence before streching yourself hard. I guess if the monetory involvement is less then they will not have any problems.

Happy motivating.

Cheers

Arindam

 

[Coury Ferguson]

I would also try showing Top Management the "Cost Value Added" and the employees how it will benefit them.

The key to any success in the QMS is the "How it" will benefit their desires.

Top Management

Bottom Line, the Profit and Loss (P&L) statement

Employees

What is in it for me?

This is just my opinion, and I have found it very successful in my endeavors.

 

[qualitychic]

If you want to make the QMS interesting to employees, seek first to understand, then be understood (Stephen Covey). Learn from them, first. Then, make sure they understand it is their system; and it is not some untouchable edict from On High. Finally, always speak in terms the employees will understand, and how things can improve for them.

I agree with Brad. Thanks for quoting this, Brad! I've seen it quite often where the management does not pay attention of their audience when they are trying to communicate with the employees. In turn, the employees felt left out and don't think that their opinion matters after all.

This is going to be a challenging task as always....but once you get over this hurdle, things will go a lot easier...

Just a thought...perhaps you can get the employees involved by offering incentives....for example, if they achieve their objectives, they will earn some monetary rewards....

 

[SteelMaiden]

Good information so far.

they do not have their monitoring of Quality Objectives,

As stated, hold a management review, also make sure that management is aware of the necessity of documented evidence of monitoring.

most are not aware on their procedures,

If the procedure is relevant to a position, how do you let employees in that position know about it? Training, awareness and competency...more management review material?

their procedure where still on its initial issue which is year 2005

Is there a system in place to review the procedures periodically? We have some that haven't changed since 2001, but that doesn't mean that they should...(we can also show that we have reviewed)

don't know how to conduct RCA

Can you train them? Do you need to bring someone in?

do not implement C/P action...etc.

see above

Bottom line is they do not have interest on this system. The company is maintaining its certification because it is a requirement on the gobal office. I don't know how they maintain this certification despite of this situation.
Please help me how to make people be interested in QMS. Please help me! Thanks

First of all, you need to find a way to get management behind the program. Management needs to stand behind your efforts, but until you can show them some sort of benefit, you are not going to have much luck. You can try to get buy-in from the bottom up, but it is much harder.

 

[MichelleD]

I have to agree that we are all in or have been in the same situation. I have just started with a new company where I have to make the decision on whether to overhaul the current ISO system or scrap it and start over.

It's a major decision. Before you do anything, you must first find out why it isn't working for them. You can implement an amazing ISO System but without buy in from management - you will probably be in the same situation you are now.

My job at the moment is to find out why no one is following the current system (I already know a few reasons) and to show top management how a really good ISO System can work for us. It sounds simple but it's definitely not. Good luck!! :

 

[AndyN]

I have to agree that we are all in or have been in the same situation. I have just started with a new company where I have to make the decision on whether to overhaul the current ISO system or scrap it and start over.

It's a major decision. Before you do anything, you must first find out why it isn't working for them. You can implement an amazing ISO System but without buy in from management - you will probably be in the same situation you are now.

My job at the moment is to find out why no one is following the current system (I already know a few reasons) and to show top management how a really good ISO System can work for us. It sounds simple but it's definitely not. Good luck!! :

Hello MichelleD and welcome to the Cove!

Good luck with your assignment. I hope you will feel free to share anything you find as to why the system isn't as effective as it could be.....

 

[Red Bead]

For management folks, I like to point out that the "Quality Management System" is their "Business Management System" and that the processes and procedures defined in it are how we choose to run our business while meeting all external requirements. I can relate many big problems ("big" as in, "reached top management's attention") to someone trying to by-pass our QMS/BMS requirements and noting that if they'd "played by the book", the incident would not have happened. [Done very nicely and not in an accusatory fashion, of course ]

For the other folks, there are two things I like to do. One, make sure they know where the product ends up -- people like to feel that they contributed to something big and some identify with the person using the product. Two, I like to find recent news articles and relate them to Quality issues. For instance, a story about tainted foods or wrong ingredients in a medicine are easy to relate to the importance of receiving inspection, having accurate purchasing specifications, or having proper approval processes.

Good luck!

 

[Sidney Vianna]

Please help me how to make people be interested in QMS. Please help me!

This thread has some similarities with the one titled Keeping the Passion of ISO9001:2000 System - How to promote your QMS .

 

[Sidney Vianna]

With all the suggestions, advice and everything else I'm reminded of the story of a cow that was designed by committee...it's called a Wildebeast.

Maybe Marc can re-engineer the Cove in a way that, for each question, only 1 answer could be provided. After that, the thread would be closed. Multiple responses would be prohibited. Would that make you happy? Or even better, you can start your own blog, where only you can provide advice. The beauty of the Cove is our ability to bring different perspectives into a scenario. Most people build on other's suggestions. It is up to the requester to decide what advice makes sense and what doesn't. Not us. From the healthy open idea exchange process, we all grow.

And by the way, if you live in the African savannah, a wildebeest is much better adapted than the homo sapiens.