QMS 1st Cycle - Indicators and Data

[BethP]

Since your quality is based on how your deliverable satisfies your customer, you may want to consider looking at factors like contract renewal rate, referral rate, and repeat business. Also, you may want to consider regular customer surveys whether formal / informal to measure satisfaction and gain feedback.

I would be careful on the revision count metric, possibly balancing with on-time delivery. By making more revisions a negative, it may increase the time spent to generate first revision and then the chances of that first revision being possibly off track. A different model might be to generate a rapid first draft, getting bones on paper, and then having a review session to hash out questions and confirm next steps. This is more of an Agile sprint approach, which may or may not fit into your company culture.

Whatever the metric, try to consider what behavior the metric encourages, both positive and negative. I used to work in distribution. One of the key metrics for distribution center managers was return rate where the return was coded as a picking or related error. Some managers had a full time analyst reviewing / contesting the return coding with customer service to improve the metric since bonuses depended on it. More time seemed to be spent in juicing the metric than in improving location accuracy and picker skills.

 

[Steve Prevette]

In my past life in the Navy I was subjected to our procedures support organization was judged on how many procedure changes were made, more being "bad". As a result, it was hard as heck to get needed procedure changes through the system, because it required the procedures group to approve them, but every approval made the procedures group look "bad".

 

[dianamendes]

hello!

thanks to all of you for the feedback!
i have also questioned myself if this indicator measures process or product and i think it measures a bit of both. i am happy to find out that i also thought about all the other indicators you have suggested me.
in general, for production processes, i have the following indicators:
- nr. of internal revisions;
- nr. of projects finished on time;
- nr of projects with further work (that generated further work);
- clients satisfaction with consultants;
- client satisfaction with deliverables.

this information will be divided by client, type of industry, type of project. also on each project we will collect data indicating if the Clients accepted to be our reference and to use their information for marketing purposes.

Steve, I understand what you are saying that, we need to be careful on how we "use" our indicators so they don?t have a negative effect in the team?s moral. But i think that if I measure the reviews + the delivery time + clients satisfaction then i can actually see if the nr. of reviews had a negative result or if, the reviews actually confirm we are interested in delivering a "perfect" product no matter how many times we have to review it.

Fortunately we have a small team (18 pp) andvery relaxed atmosphere. If results would be "bad" nobody would think about "who" did wrong but on "how can we improve".

Now another question I had about this 1st cycle of QMS: do I need to have all the data collected and analyze before I go for certification? for some indicators it does take time to collect a reasonable amount of data....

Once again it is very interesting to share all these ideas with you all and finally find a place where i can have practical, realistic support!

thank you!

 

[dianamendes]

correction:

- nr. of REVIEWS ( and not revisions)

 

[dianamendes]

ISO9001 refers on 8.2.3 we should have method to monitor our processes. So can I have processes that are not monitor by any indicator?
EX: Equipment/Software management, Management of Infrastructure and Office Supplies and Financial Management. These are processes that need to be part of the QMS however their meaning to the overall System efficiency and performance is rather small...

Can I just say they are somehow monitored on company QMS meetings and by collecting any recommendations/complaints for our employees in regards to these topics?

I have total 21 indicators and I still think they are way too many...

 

[Big Jim]

ISO9001 refers on 8.2.3 we should have method to monitor our processes. So can I have processes that are not monitor by any indicator?
EX: Equipment/Software management, Management of Infrastructure and Office Supplies and Financial Management. These are processes that need to be part of the QMS however their meaning to the overall System efficiency and performance is rather small...

Can I just say they are somehow monitored on company QMS meetings and by collecting any recommendations/complaints for our employees in regards to these topics?

I have total 21 indicators and I still think they are way to many...

The standard says that you need to monitor and measure when applicable your processes. Monitoring is required. Measuring may not be if not applicable. If you choose not to measure a process, you should be able to clearly explain exactly how you monitor it.

 

[Steve Prevette]

The standard says that you need to monitor and measure when applicable your processes. Monitoring is required. Measuring may not be if not applicable. If you choose not to measure a process, you should be able to clearly explain exactly how you monitor it.

Monitoring could include periodic management observations, self assessments, independent audits, personnel surveys, interviews. I assume you need some form of documented evidence that you "monitored" the process.

By the way, 21 may not be "too many metrics". I am a big advocate of - if you are already paying to collect the data for some purpose, you ought to put it to work. The additional (marginal) cost is minimal.

Now, if you are ONLY paying for the data collection for the purposes of the ISO clause, I'd look at those expenses carefully and see if you are getting sufficient "bang for the buck".

 

[BethP]

I have total 21 indicators and I still think they are way too many...

It sounds like you are in early stages of developing your processes and systems. One thing that might help is to start with your outputs - what needs to be produced and why? This includes both the final product delivered to your customer AND any indicator / metrics that allow you to monitor and track success. Once you determine the outputs, move backward to confirm that you have processes in place that will allow you to deliver the output. When a system is created from the input to the output, often critical outputs are missed or not captured.

Here is an example: On-Time Delivery. A minimum of 3 pieces of data are needed for this: Project / Deliverable, Agreed Delivery Date (target date) and Actual Delivery Date. If the agreed delivery date is buried in a Statement of Work, then it will be very difficult to calculate On-Time delivery on a regular basis. However, if your project tracking process includes the Agreed Delivery Date and the Actual Delivery Date, the collection and reporting of this indicator is part of your regular processes and not an onerous once a quarter or once a year exercise in frustration.

If you feel like the number of indicators are too many, it may be that they are artificial - not direct outputs of your processes. The art of indicators is to figure out what really matters and then weave them into your processes. Especially in early stages, it may be difficult to fully define what matters and what was once deemed critical is now unimportant. Indicators may evolve just as your business and team evolves. Ask your management team - what is needed on a regular basis to determine that the business is operating well?

 

[dianamendes]

hi!

Thank you all, once again

The processes are identified and inputs and outputs confirmed. I have how to get data for all these indicators. However, we are a small team and all of us (including the quality responsible) will have duties besides the QMS. This means we must really go for the KISS philosophy or we will end up with no time to calculate the indicators.