Originally posted by Claes Gefvenberg
I for one would dearly love to hear how your plans work out, because I'm out there on the improvement war path myself... How about short progress report every now and then?
/Claes [/B]
Plans?!?! I'm supposed to have a plan?!?! Darn, why aren't I informed of these things ahead of time?!?!
Actually, first step is look at all 769 documents in our system and figure out which ones
really need to be there. Already started at the beginning of the year (unofficially) and have rendered around 80 documents obsolete. But some really interesting ones remain.
I've told our QC Department I will work hand-in-hand with them as they own 20% of our company's documentation. They actually have a
controlled document showing fraction-to-decimal conversions! Now, Claes, I don't know how it works in Sweden, but over here in North America the fact that 1/4" = 0.25" hasn't changed in
at least the last five or ten years!
With our EMS piggy-backing off of the QMS portion of the BMS (ahhh...acronyms...gotta love 'em), I'd like to integrate them even closer together. Especially with 14K and 9K complimenting each other as they do. Using our Chilean sister facility as an example, I will hopefully have a good role model to help me merge the systems; like you, they have combined 9K, 14K, OHSAS 18K into one management system.
I also have plans to work with one of our dept's who owns 1/6 of the company. The plan is work on their heavily text-based documentation into flow charts for their six key processes. From there, supporting documentation will be developed for operational controls and non-routine situations. While their forms will most likely remainin the system, it is estimated they they will go from around 75 work instructions to 30.
Needless to say, stagnation won't be allowed to happen here!
It would be too easy to just get the certificate and do no more than is necessary to maintain the certificate. But it's not just about that piece paper. We want
all of our Stakeholders to be happy...Customers, Employees, Community, Vendors, and Shareholders. We have prided ourselves in the past for going above and beyond the stated "shall's" of the Standard. And to become complacent in how we do business, to accept our Management System the way it is now, is to fall behind...with Stakeholder Satisfaction and in the industry as a whole.