How to choose a Business Management System (BM...

How to choose a Business Management System

 

Your choice of approach really depends on what you intend to get from it.  If all you want to do is appease the ISO auditor every 6 months then a text based set of procedures controlled by a central Quality team will be the least cost route.

 

However, most Quality professionals are looking to move from being a COST to the business to being an ASSET.  They want to support the business so it can perform better. They are even changing their titles – “Head of Process Improvement”, “Head of Performance Management”, “Director of Operational Excellence”.

 

The problem with the old ways of capturing, documenting and making the information available is it has failed to get any buy-in and ownership from the business.  The information gathers dust on the shelf, or in a dusty corner of the company intranet.

 

One simple word will change that: ADOPTION.  If the focus of the BMS is to get adoption of the processes, working practices, procedures and work instructions, then a very different approach is needed for creating the BMS, for accessing it, and for maintaining it. 

 

The BMS needs to be described in terms of end to end processes.  Broken down hierarchically from the Board level to the shop floor.  In a format everyone can understand. Captured in live workshops to ensure adoption and consensus.    Links to supporting documents, forms, work instructions and applications (systems) attached to the relevant activity.  Maintenance of processes is delegated owners in the business. Finally performance metrics displayed with the activities that drive the numbers.

 

The benefits are compelling – Lockheed Martin UK: £21m of process improvement savings, £30m of new business won.

 

This approach, supported by case studies drawn from over 200 clients is in Ian's latest book – “Common Approach, Uncommon Results”, published by Ideas Warehouse (www.ideas-warehouse.com)

 

 

 

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