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Organisations often implements ISO 9001 QMS for a variety of reasons. However, the main incentive is to be more competitive in the intense competition of today’s economy. A majority of company leaders are pressured to stay competitive through improved offerings and the achievement of enhanced productivity, while at the same time reducing overall costs and advancing business processes.
Amidst the challenges, for small, medium and large companies are looking forward to the benefits that ISO 9001:2015 can offer. ISO 9001 helps organisations geared up for worldwide competition by helping organisations improve performance through a wide array of components, such as: analysis, proper design, careful observation and control as well as modification of business processes.
Improved Business Agility
Reduced Costs and Higher Revenues
Higher Efficiency
Better Visibility
Compliance, Safety and Security
The ISO 9001 standard also asks that you prepare any other documents information that you may need to for planning, designs, operation and control of your processes. The standard also asks that you have available the standard operational procedures (SOP’s) you feel are necessary. The answer to how many procedures or work instructions are required, this is decided by your organisation during the developing of the Quality Management Systems.
The standard specifically requires records for the following items:
We recommend as a minimum monthly meetings at operational management level and quarterly meetings at senior management level. This allows you to stay on top of upcoming issues and collect data between meetings that is meaningful to the organisation. We have found annual meetings are not acceptable. With annual meetings you may not be able to prevent issues or resolves problems in a timely manner.
Normally Job descriptions are one way of accomplishing this, there are also other ways by, including preparing organisational, job responsibility lists, and competency matrices, so forth.
Management involvement is critical. Management must support the project by providing resources, removing roadblocks, and watching the timeline. Employees must also be involved in evaluating and documenting the processes in which they are involved.
Employee involvement is critical in getting a buy-into the process throughout the organisation. Their support will help successfully implement the new policy, procedure or processes.
A consultant can help you use your time and resources effectively. Consider using a consultant:
Auditing a process or system by element verifies compliance or conformance to requirements. The value in this type of auditing technique is the direct linkage to license, contract or regulatory requirements.
Auditing a process by element ensures people are aware of the requirements and the organisation is adhering to them. It helps prepare employees for external audits using the same criteria.
Auditing by element also ensures a state of readiness and compliance or conformance to external requirements. It is a management tool for sustaining conformance to safety, health or environmental and quality requirements.
This is good, but for management this technique defines auditing in the cost of doing business category.
Auditing by Process
Auditing a process or system using process techniques verifies conformance to the required sequential steps from input to output across departmental. Process auditors use models and tools such as simple flowcharts, process maps, swimming lane charts or process flow diagrams or process flow diagrams.
A process diagram, the squares (Process) could represent a flowchart of a sequential steps. Flowcharts typically identify inputs, people, activities, departments, supporting documentation or steps, measures and outputs. The auditor normally gets this information from a procedure or flowcharts provided by the audited organisation.
During the first part of the audit, auditors should record current customer names, order numbers, routing numbers and project numbers so they can link and verify process steps during the audit.
The durations for implementation a management system will vary from company to company. Organisation size is often a big predictor on how long it take to implement ISO 9001:2015 management system.
Recommendation: Start with a gap analysis, this should help determining the approximately timeline for implementation a Management System also engaging a consultant will assist organisation in reducing the timeline of implementing a Management System(s).
The Environment Protection Act 1970 was at its inception only the second Act in the world to deal with the whole of the environment in a systematic and integrated way. The environmental Protection Act 1970 is administered by EPA.
Integrated Management System shares common documentation such as: policies, management responsibility, training, documented information, records, corrective action, internal auditing and risk-based thinking.
Risk management involves assessing the risk / harm of those hazards. It is the process of:
A risk assessment is not about creating huge amounts of paperwork, but rather about identifying sensible measures to control the risks in your workplace. You are probably already taking steps to protect your employees (workers), but your risk assessment will help you decide whether you have covered all aspect of the hazard.
There are many types of hazards and methods for assessing the hazard. Refer to OHS/WHS Regulation’s that provides information about assessing the risks. An employer must:
Under the Regulations, employers must identify hazards:
In particular the employer must take reasonable care to identify hazards arising from (but not limited to):
Others must also undertake risk management in relation to hazards and risks that arise out of their activities, for example, designers, manufacturers, suppliers, and controllers of premises all have obligations.
Involving employees in risk management can be done through the consultative arrangements that have been agreed to at the workplace (e.g. health and safety committee, health and safety representative or through other agreed arrangements).
Consulting with employees about the hazards and how to eliminate or control them will help:
Injury management plans focus on early intervention. As an employer you must:
The PCBU (Company) must give Health and Safety Representative paid time off to attend a course and pay the course costs and reasonable expenses, within three months of the request.
Training courses approved under section 21 of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011, are:
Obligations for risk management remain the responsibility of the employer regardless of any delegation or contracting arrangements that may be made in carrying out the risk management process.
A hazard is anything in the (workplace, office, construction site, etc.) that has the potential to harm the health and safety of a person. Hazards can arise from but not limited to:
A general risk assessment of the hazard is enough, however you will need to examine the different places or circumstances in which the hazard occurs and make sure that your risk assessment outcomes are applicable. You will also need to check that the risk is eliminated or effectively controlled for each place or circumstance.
Really, it could be any situation, substance, activity, event, or environment that could cause injury, ill health or death to a worker or other people in the workplace.
Health and safety legislation, requires you to be proactive in identifying and controlling hazards before they cause actual harm to anyone. Your aim should always be to be proactive – reactive hazard identification processes such as identifying the cause of an injury after it has occurred, are less effective and have failed to prevent the workplace incident. They can also be costly if courts impose penalties.
Remember that a workplace is any place that a worker carries out a work task for your business, so even when your workers are offsite or travelling on business, for example, you need to be sure that they are not exposed to health and safety risks.
Employees (workers) can be consulted in a variety of ways, including by setting up a health and safety committee or by holding regular meetings. If employees have elected a health and safety representative (HSR), the HSR must be involved in consultation.
OHS consultation involves: