In the last decade, we have experienced great growth in the number of companies certified in a quality management system according to the ISO 9000 family of standards.
Although obviously, it is already reaching a time when most companies are already certified. This is reflected in the study of the Quality Forum in which it reflects that growth this year has been only 18% compared to 60% the previous year.
As in almost all management innovations, the certification of quality management systems was first adopted by large companies and in recent years it is when almost all companies, of almost all sectors and sizes, have ended up being certified.
Companies have embarked on the development and implementation of a quality management system according to the ISO9000 family of standards for one of the following reasons
- Because he really believes in the philosophy of total quality and how it has a positive impact on the company's results Due to the demands of its customers and / or present and / or future markets Due to "fashion"
After seeing the reasons that companies have had to be certified according to ISO 9000, we see two large company profiles:
- Companies that are in the first case, totally committed to total quality and that in a significant number already work with the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) Business Excellence Model. This is a much broader model than the ISO 9000 standard and that includes: leadership, policy and strategy, people, alliances and resources, processes, results in people, results in clients, results in society and key results. They have been certified due more to “external” circumstances than their commitment to total quality.
The problem with this second approach is that, in general, they have quality systems that are quite underdeveloped and appropriate to the company and that they have turned out to be a “glob” within the company's processes.
In this case, instead of improving the results of the processes and the company, they have ended up making them worse. Why?
The answer is simple. In most of these cases, the systems have been developed totally focused on obtaining certification and not as a means to achieve the improvement of the processes and results of the company following the principles of total quality.
In fact, it is common to find companies where in the system implementation process, the specific case of the company has not been considered with its particular characteristics in terms of culture and processes, but rather a "standard" solution that has been developed has been adopted. for other companies.
On other occasions, there are quality systems developed by people with little knowledge and / or experience in the concepts of total quality and in the development of quality management systems, which results in a "heavy" system with documentation and unnecessary processes.
The consequences of this situation are that, due to the inefficiency of the processes and that on many occasions the correct work has not been done in the training areas, the members of the company do not believe in the system or that it is of any use. This clearly leads to degeneration.
In these cases, the revision of the year 2000 of the regulations will not solve the situation either, since although this revision entails an improvement in the approach of the standard, the one we describe here is a problem of the company management and not of the standard.
The solution to this problem can only be one, even if it is drastic: redesign the quality management system starting with the house from the foundations and not from the roof.
How?
Starting from a deep analysis that includes the following points:
- The processes of the company The inefficiencies generated by the current quality system The existing information system and how it interacts with the quality system and with the business processes Knowledge and motivation of the members of the company regarding the quality system Degree of focus on organization client Human resource management
After that, define an action plan that leads to the quality management system being a first step to improve business results and that, in many cases, will end up using the EFQM model as a basic tool for evaluation management and its results.
We all agree that change has become a constant in organizations: globalization, customer-focused organizations, the Internet and new technologies, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), changes in human resource management, management supply chain management, etc., but the problems come when, after having defined what needs to be changed, this change has to be managed.
It is common for the managers of an organization to see clearly how the organization has to change, but they cannot do it correctly since a lot of time and knowledge is invested in the development of the plan and very little time in how to get the organization to implement, get involved and develop that change.
The result of this is that it fails miserably when that vision that the manager has, has to implement it and manage to change the processes and culture of the organization. Our advice, although each specific project "is a world", is to invest 65% in how to manage change and 35% in the development of the plan.
The problems in change management are always due to the "fears" of the people in the organization, at all levels (management, middle managers,…)
These «fears» are due to the uncertainty and loss of control of the new situation, lack of confidence, breakdown of the routine, loss of acquired rights… in general, fear of the unknown.
And it is for several concepts:
- Lack of strategic planning and definition of objectives in the change process Lack of methodology in the process. Inadequate structure Lack of resources. Poor internal communication Not having correctly thought about what each employee will gain from the change
On many occasions, processes are changed and investments are made without having planned or communicated what the process's objectives are, which greatly reduces the chances of success.
