You published the new versions, how to transition to the ISO 9001: 2015 and ISO 14001: 2015?
“What now?”, This is what many certified organizations will wonder after the publication in September 2015 of the new ISO 9001: 2015 quality management and ISO 14001: 2015 environmental management. It is now time to get down to work to plan the transition from one version of the standard to another in the most effective manner.
Steps transition ISO 9001: 2015 and ISO 14001: 2015
To make the transition effectively versions, the steps we propose are:
• Inform staff of the organization on the draft adaptation / s standard / s to the new version, since their participation is key to the transition.
• Conduct an assessment of the degree of compliance with the new requirements.
• Provide appropriate training to staff to make the transition as efficient.
• Plan the implementation of the new requirements, this will determine the steps and activities to be carried at all times, and responsibilities.
• Run the changes indicated in planning for compliance with the new requirements of the standard.
• Check the effectiveness of the implementation done through an internal audit.
• Correct deviations derived from the above.
If you look, for carrying out the transition from one standard to another, it is a PDCA itself: I plan, develop, verify and act.
Duration of the transition process in the organization.
A priori can not determine the fixed period of adaptation of an organization / s new / s management standards ISO 9001: 2015 and ISO 14001: 2015, as it will depend on internal factors of the company as mature management system , resources, degree of analysis on your current management system, etc.
The new changes in ISO 9001: 2015
The new quality standard 9001 in its version of 2015 represents, in my view, an extension of the approach to quality in the planning and development of the daily work done by companies.
Until the 2008 version, the standard had a series of very targeted requirements to the “internal” work performed by the various activities / processes that make up the customer organizations maintaining their focus in the process of continuous improvement of the organization.
This inner vision evolves with the ISO 9001: 2015 having to consider two important aspects; the context in which the company and the needs and expectations of stakeholders who have “relationship” with it, thus we have “moves”:
The context of the organization comes to represent the “battlefield” where our company operates and in relation to which we can consider:
• External aspects to consider: the legal and regulatory requirements and future that influence our production and / or service, the development of technology that can be applied in our sector as a source of competitive advantage, the actions of competition ( aspect to keep in mind if you want to remain on the market), the very trends marked and delimited market on many occasions by our clients (current and future) and cultural conditions and / or social very important in the process of implementing our business in other regions, countries, etc.
• Internal aspects the organization must analyze their values, culture, knowledge and level of performance reached its processes analyzing their strengths and weaknesses.
• Stakeholders (aspect developed in the EFQM model and models of Corporate Social Responsibility) in as the set of all those “agents” with an interest in our organization: the shareholders or partners (business owners) with a clear interest and crisp, workers as a driver of the entity and located at different levels of its structure (and whose interests are often very different), suppliers and subcontractors with a growing interest in recent years due to the high impact their good service and work influences our product and final service, administrations especially when they are customers and always present in filing taxes, unions (very active as social partners and very influential in many organizations), our relevant competitors to the extent that their performances and business models must be always present (you can learn a lot both good and bad), customers as a fundamental part of our work and primary source of information for the development of any business strategy (your satisfaction and overcoming their expectations must be always present in any quality system), society itself often very important to develop the company a social fabric in many municipalities around and clearly influence the development of many counties and regions.
Given these two factors, combined with the need for the determination and assessment of risks and opportunities and the structure of the organization, the standard evolves into the need to consider these points as prerequisites for planning and review in order to determine the quality management system of the company *.
Consideration. In my opinion the SWOT matrix is a good starting point for making the necessary analysis.
Thus the ISO 9001: 2015 defines the configuration of the scope of the management system taking into account both the context and environment in which the work of the organization as a whole and requirements of its stakeholders is developed and therefore the determination and parameterization his “process map *” (which also should be considered “risk” factor).
*Note. We discussed process map as it covers its complete determination (including inputs, outputs and resources) and the lines of relationship between them.
On the other hand (external and internal) changes that may occur and the “actions” undertaken in order to “combine” the risks and opportunities should be reviewed periodically (Management Review) by the company, which leads to a rethinking and “repurposing” newspaper Quality Management System implemented at those points where it is deemed necessary.
Observation. Change Management may need to be considered in organizations with Quality Systems implemented under the 9001 from now.
A particular level I have my doubts and reservations about some points of the new standard and especially the leadership requirements *. My position has been to defend (and I for one certainly keep) the figure of Responsible Management as chief architect in the operation of management systems and performance “master” as “pivot” between top management and middle management of the organization.
From my experience as a business consultant, I believe that the “approach” to the outside of 9001: 2015 is very positive “force” to break, say “bubble” and “parallelism” with which many institutions have developed their systems Management to create them and transform them as an “independent” (and often “tedious”) element of the organization and its business strategy.