Management and Quality Services

The Excellence Model

This is a standard of excellent organisational performance and a highly structured scheme whereby any organisation can measure how its operational performance compares with the best around. It is both a national and international standard of organisational excellence with a range of award categories.

Carshaw can help organisations large and small to assess their scores in three different ways:

a)     by proforma scoring individually or in groups
b)     by team activity scoring using a card system
c)     by questionnaire completion individually or in groups

The scores for each of the 9 sections of the model can then be related to the critical success factors of the organisation and a detailed improvement action plan can be derived. Spin-off benefits of working through self-assessment include a clearer understanding of the purpose and goals of the organisation, plus better teamwork, greater commitment and improved levels of communication.


Investors in People

This is a national standard of organisational quality recognised throughout the UK where it has been actively sponsored by the government. It is based upon a planned approach to:

Setting and communicating organisational goals
Developing people to meet these goals

So that

What people can do and are motivated to do
Matches what the organisation needs them to do

The standard has a strong common-sense appeal and has a simple structure and an uncomplicated assessment process. It has been successfully applied across a wide range of private and public sector organisations ranging from very small to very large. It has gained broad acceptance and is highly prized by the winners of the award.


Investors in Excellence

Carshaw works in support of Midlands Excellence to help in assessing their clients towards another award for excellent performance as a part of the UK Excellence Recognition Programme. For more details, go to www.investorsinexcellence.org.uk


ISO Family of Management Systems

There are several ISO standards that adopt the same framework and structure but have a difference in their focus. These managemenst systems are:

• ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Systems - Requirements
• ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management Systems - Requirements with guidance for use
• ISO 22000:2005 Food Safety Management Systems - Requirements
• ISO 27001:2005 Information Technology - Security techniques - Information security management systems - Requirements
• BS OHSAS 1801:2007 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems - Requirements

These systems all adopt a process approach to management, employ the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) improvement cycle and they require that risk assessments are carried out. They also have similar requirements in terms of processes for:

• Documented policies communicated to relevant interested parties
• Management responsibilities
• Document and data control
• Records control
• Control of non-conformities
• Corrective actions
• Preventative actions
• Internal systems auditing
• Objective and targets
• Competence and training
• Management reviews
• Continual improvement

Carshaw offers qualified, in-depth and experienced support in the implementation, maintenance and auditing of these ISO management systems and has a 100% success rate in implementing many dozens of systems across various sectors since 1987.


Risk Assessments

Carshaw can provide on-site risk assessments in the UK as required by the above Standards; such assessments also include a summary of priority improvement actions that would be recommended.

Also, Carshaw can provide on-site training in risk assessment customized to clients' specific requirements, including all templates, forms and procedures. This training is activity-based and addresses real issues, like most other Carshaw training.


ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Systems

The latest version of this standard - ISO 9001:2008 - is based upon 8 fundamental quality management principles available free from www.iso.ch. The new standard applies to the WHOLE organisation (rather than selected parts) and the customer-facing activities are specifically included.

All the organisation's integrated core and support processes need to be defined and documented, plus they need to have specified objectives and process measures. Measures of customer feedback also need to be in place.

This Standard also specifies the need for a quality manual plus 6 mandatory procedures as above. It all needs to hang together and operate like a joined up management system to bring about continual improvement.

Carshaw's ISO 9001 systems contribute successfully to the improved efficiency and operations of any organization in the private or public sector (including the third sector).


ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management System

Organisations are increasingly requiring to demonstrate effective concern for their environmental performance and sustainability - often because of pressures applied through the supply chain. As with ISO 9001, many larger customers are now demanding that their suppliers have some independently-assessed environmental management system. ISO 14001 provides such a system (EMAS is another system).

In simple terms, ISO 14001 requires an organisation to:

Control its impact* on the environment
(* An impact is any change to the environment - whether adverse or beneficial - wholly or partly resulting from business activities - products and services)

The organisation needs to explain - in writing - how it goes about controlling its impacts on the environment, provide evidence of doing it, recording what has happened and learning from the experience.

All businesses cause changes in the environment because they deplete energy sources and raw materials (often both are not renewable) and they generate products and waste materials (emissions to air, water and soil).

Identifying and assessing the significance of environmental impacts is a critical stage in the organisation's preparation for ISO 14001. This is usually achieved following a preparatory environmental review and the assessment itself must use methodology that is robust and technically sound. Everything else follows from this. Carshaw provides qualified support (consultancy and training) to clients who need help with this.

The requirements of ISO 14001 include:

• Development of an environmental policy that makes a senior management commitment to comply with appropriate legislation, minimise pollution, document its operations and continually improve the organisation's environmental performance
• Identifying the organisation's significant environmental impacts
• Establishing a relevant legal and regulatory framework
• Development and maintenance of environmental objectives and targets
• Appropriate awareness and understanding by the organisation's staff
• Implementation of a structured and controlled documented system, including mandatory procedures, work instructions, elements of training, operational controls and dealing with abnormal and emergency situations
• Monitoring and measurement of operational activities, including controls
• Environmental internal auditing
• Reviews of the system to ensure its continuing effectiveness and suitability

Organisations that have experience of ISO 9000 systems will find meeting these requirements relatively straightforward but there are some unique and major differences that ISO 14001 brings, particularly in relation to the identification of - and compliance with - applicable legislation.


BS OHSAS 18001:2007 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems

OHSAS 18001:1999 was modelled originally upon the ISO 14001 framework and has been adapted specifically to deal with the effective management of health, safety and welfare issues. The 2007 Standard has been enhanced and is more prescriptive than the earlier Standard, particularly in the areas where:

• The importance of "health" has now been given greater emphasis.
• OHSAS now refers to itself as a "Standard", therefore it can be independently certificated
• New definitions have been added, and existing definitions revised
• Significant improvement in alignment with ISO 14001:2004
• The term "tolerable risk" has been replaced by the term "acceptable risk"
• The term "accident" is now included in the term "incident"
• The definition of the term "hazard" no longer refers to "damage to property or damage to the workplace environment"
• A new requirement has been introduced for the consideration of the hierarchy of controls as part of OH&S planning
• Management of change is now more explicitly addressed
• A new clause on the "Evaluation of compliance" (as per ISO 14001)
• New requirements have been introduced for "participation and consultation"
• New requirements have been introduced for the investigation of incidents

In addition, there now needs to be consideration regarding:

• Interaction with neighbours
• Workers who are travelling or who are on the client's/customer's premises
• Consultation with contractors or other interested parties
• Human factors in relation to the potential for incidents

Carshaw can assist wit the development, implementation and auditing of occupational health and safety management systems to meet this Standard across all sectors, public and private.


ISO 22000:2005 Food Safety Management Systems

ISO 22000 provides guidelines for a hazard analysis approach combined with pre-requisite requirements to provide a framework to manage a food safety system and improve business processes in your food production operations.

ISO 22000 is an international standard developed by the Food Industry for the Food Industry. It aims to harmonize the requirements for food safety management throughout the food supply chain. Its development is driven by the increase in global trade, a wider variety of food products growing the number of customer safety concerns, and increased demands for companies to use food safety systems.

The standard incorporates the 7 Dutch HACCP principles of food safety. It also aligns with the 8 quality management clauses of ISO 9000:2000. Hence, ISO 22000 brings together the elements of safety and quality into the production of food products.

The advantage of this certification is that it uses food safety from HACCP principles as a baseline to help drive ISO 9000 quality management guidelines into the improvement of business processes associated with food production. The improved processes strengthen productivity efficiencies through waste reduction, lower production costs, greater responsibility and quality consciousness amongst staff, better use of time and resources, lower product failure rate, and greater consistency and traceability of products throughout the supply chain, all of which is accomplished with food safety assurance.

Additional benefits of the ISO 22000 standard include:

• Applicability to manufacturers and all other participants in the global food supply chain;
• It is auditable; and
• It enables communications about hazards with supply chain partners.

In the UK, the British Retail Consortium Packaging standard has proved the standard of choice in the UK food industry and was developed because it was felt hat the earlier ISO 9000 systems did not properly address food safety and hygiene concerns.

Carshaw can assist with all Food Safety Standards, including the European Food Safety Directive EU 852.


ISO 27001:2005 Information Security Management Systems

Based upon the earlier BS7799, this standard should apply - at least in principle - to all modern organizations that rely upon Information Technology for their routine operation. However, the uptake of certifications has been rather limited and may remain that way unless and until large purchasing organizations specify that they require such information security management systems from their preferred suppliers, as has happened with ISO 9001 and increasingly with 14001. This is in spite of the obvious benefits of having an effective IT and Information Security management system in place.

Where ISO 27001 scores above the other members of the ISO Management Systems family is that it includes a comprehensive checklist (in Annex A) of issues that need to be addressed and controlled; none of the other ISO family members are this prescriptive.


Internal Auditor Training (ISO 190011:2002)

Carshaw's internal auditor training has a very interactive workshop style that covers all the essentials of auditing of the above ISO Management Systems and is in accordance with ISO19011. What makes it unique is that:

a) it deals specifically with auditor and auditee behaviours
b) it addresses the requirements of both process (performance) and compliance auditing
c) it includes one or more live audits of the client's management system
d) it makes use of a range of performance-proven audit checklists that are particularly helpful to new internal auditors

Everyone completing this internal auditor training has two options for certification:

1. a certificate of training and attendance
2. a certificate of competence, where each trainee a needs to demonstrate that they have performed at least one live audit to the trainer's satisfaction.

Integration of ISO Management Systems

In principle, because the above managements systems all use a similar framework, they can be integrated with each other in almost any combination. This can save appreciable amounts of time and effort, and can make the integrated system more businesslike. For example, if an organisation has an existing Quality Management System that meets ISO 9001, it can build upon that by adding the necessary processes to cater for health, safety, environmental and other requirements of management system standards.

These additional processes include:

• risk assessment - this should address safety risks, environmental impacts and process failure modes.
• regulations management - this should cover the capture of regulations on environment, health, safety, security, etc and their analysis and impact
• continual improvement - this should focus on specific improvement programmes such as safety, environmental and security improvement
• public awareness - this should address the notification aspects of health, safety and environment

If the organisation does not currently have any of these ISO systems in place, it is recommended that a process engineering approach is taken. This approach starts by looking at the business as a whole and establishing its purpose, mission and the core and support processes which achieve this mission. The steps which follow on from this are as follows:

• flowchart or process map the organisation's processes (ie core and support processes)
• analyse the organisation's processes and decide the key success factors (for process inputs) and KPIs (for process outputs)
• document operational policies which will govern the processes and use these to define process objectives (it may also be helpful to assign process owners for accountability)
• develop procedures to control each business process which define who does what where, when and how
• capture existing documentation and identify documentation needs by linking the existing documents to the control procedures
• co-ordinate the documentation and implement the system

With this approach, existing descriptions of processes, tasks etc are in use when they serve the process objective. If they do not they should be discarded and rewritten.

BSI has introduced a publicly accountable standard PAS 99 for the integration of two or more ISO management system standards.


Carshaw Approach to Implementing ISO Management Systems

Since Carshaw first started operating in 1987, we have developed and refined our methods of implementing ISO management systems so that the process is highly efficient while remaining totally effective - a 100% certification success rate it testimony to this. Moreover, in all this time the various certification bodies have between them only managed to raise one major non-conformity - corresponding to a rate of about 1% - during their certification audits.

What is the secret of this success? Well, there is no secret really, just a solid approach to the implementation process, which includes the following steps:

• Carry out Gap Analysis with client - Carshaw uses gap analysis documents for all the ISO standards and involves the client in the implementation process from the beginning
• Devise an Implementation Action Plan base upon the Gap Analysis - we use either flow charts or MS Project for this, where every important step of the implementation is quantified, costed and put on a time-line
• Use the Implementation Action Plan as a project control document - it is important that the client maintains a sense of control over the project, particularly in relation to costs and time-frame
• Involve the Client in the management system - this is particularly important because of the need for management to take over full ownership of the management system and get the most from it in terms of improving operational performance
• Train Internal Auditors and audit the whole system - Carshaw uses many different performance-proven audit checklists to help new auditors cope with the demands of internal auditing. Completing the audit programme confirms to both client and certification auditor that a proper system is in place and it is working properly.
• Management Review - this enables all senior management to have confidence that their management system is there to help them to run their operations more effectively
• Certification audit - for clients who are new to this process, the prospect of the first certification audit can be sometimes daunting; therefore, Carshaw is always ready to support such clients and "defend their honour" in a very competent and experience manner
• Certification Achieved - Carshaw helps clients to maximise the value of the newly-won certificate - after all, it may well open doors that would have been otherwise closed to them or it may increase their probability of success in the tendering process, all of which must be good for the organisation.

It has been the feedback from many of these clients over several years that has resulted in Carshaw gaining the prestigious British Accreditation Bureau's Gold Award (see Press Release).


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England
Tel: 0044 (0)1889 584147 - Fax: 0044 (0)1889 585416

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