Measuring quality management system ROI

[E Wall]

Other Threads Covered this In quite some Detail

I recommend you search on 'Process', there are a number of threads that have addressed this.

I'll, of course, lead you to a detailed post I provided:
Evaluating Required Processes

Hope this helps to shed light.

 

[Judi - 2003]

Measurement regarding a Service sort of Company?

I am attempting to develop a QMS for a company that provides technical services to the government. Anyone else doing something similar? I am wondering how to define the measurement criteria.

 

[JodiB]

Judi, my company also is primarily a service provider. Most of the measures of our processes are going to be a result of some of the quality objectives we've set for ourselves. For example: reduction of downtime to less than 2% of operational time. Downtime is a big issue to our clients to whom time is money and if our equipment is down, then they are losing big bucks and so can we. So Quality to them is an operational crew at maximum time.

We then do a fishbone to figure out what contributes to downtime and find ways to address the causes. There will be actions that we take that can be measured. For instance, let's see if more frequent maintenance activities will improve equipment performance. Or let's see if additional training provided to personnel will reduce task-related damages. We then set up a way to monitor these things.

I hope that this helps. (And I hope that I'm right about this sort of measurement meeting the "improvement of processes" requirement!)

 

[George Opacic]

The question of Return On Investment (I really try to avoid jargon - yeah, even in this business!) is, as far as I'm concerned, one of the 3 reasons I do "ISO consulting".

First reason - make a living and something I like to do.

Second reason - provide my client with a better way to do things.

Third reason - make it worth his investment!

Analysing processes from the payback perspective can be done as a separate endeavor - "cycle time management". Or it can be done in conjunction with the discipline that already analyses processes (from a conformance perspective). Or you can do the client a favor, if they agree fron the start, and do both.

Yes, it is harder. Yes, it is not traditionally "part of my job". No, I don't give it away. But if you want to make a good living and really give a client significant benefit from the disruption in their business that will go through anyway during implementation, advise them that instead of just doing a "cosmetic renovation", you can also show them which "machinery" could be changed to improve things.

How is the value of a new QMS calculated? CSI, when all the smoke and mirrors are swept away, doesn't give any better answer than a wide-area weather report. You have to wrap time and cost around those processes that are to be measured.

My present company wrote a book on that, called "Cycle Time Management". Even that book can't provide enough info on the specifics of how to calculate the value of a QMS, so I certainly won't bore y'all with it here. But it can be done!

 

[Neelanshu Varma]

I have now some idea as to what can and should be done for the production processes in my company. I am still a bit lost as far as measures for the mandatory procedures are concerned.

Can someone suggest measures for the mandatory procedures namely:

• Control of Documents
• Control of Quality Records
• Internal Audit
• Controll of non-conformity
• Corrective Action
• Preventive Action

I am trying to define measures for these, suggestions from you all will facilitate my work.

I'll keep posting these measures as and when I finalise them.

 

[Al the Elf]

The inevitable answer is it depends on what your stakeholders want, and what your own objectives are. For example :

Measurements of Effectiveness of Control of Documents -

- How many times we get caught for findings in audits.
- How frequently someone uses the wrong document according to non-conf reports.
- The trend of no.of problems found in Monthly management checks on a sample of documents in the work area.
- The amount it costs us.
- The number of non-conformances highlighting that the contents of documents are incorrect.
- the gut feel of the Management rep.
- the number of undocumented activities.
- the number of documents reviewed this month.
- the results of a survey of document users or owners.
- the number of docs overdue review.
- how many customer complaints can be traced back to incorrect documents.
- how satisfied are my customers with the overall delivery.

Some of these get rather close to the cross over into efficiency measurement.

I think the cardinal rule is to decide on measures that add value for you (as many of the contributors have already stated).

Good luck, Cheers - Al.