WHAT IS A MANAGEMENT SYSTEM?

A management system describes the set of procedures an organization needs to follow in order to meet its objectives. In some small organizations, there may not be an official system, just “our way of doing things”, that is mostly kept in the heads of the staff. But larger the organization, the more likely that procedures need to be recorded to ensure everyone is clear on who does what. This process of systemizing how things are done is known as a management system.

The management system standards provide a model to follow when setting up and operating a management system. Like all our standards, they are the result of international, expert consensus and therefore offer the benefit of global management experience and good practice.

These standards can be applied to any organisation, large or small, whatever the product or service and regardless of the sector of activity. The benefits of an effective management system include:

AUDITS
Audits are a vital part of the management system approach as they enable the company or organization to check how far their achievements meet their objectives and show conformity to the standard. In order to help the auditing related to these standards, ISO has released ISO 19011:2011 providing specific guidance on internal and external management system audits.

CERTIFICATION
Certification to management system standards is not a requirement. You can still benefit from implementing these standards without having to be certified to them. If you are looking to get certified to one or more of our management system standards you must contact an external certification body. ISO does not perform certification. Read more about a certification to ISO standards. Please contact us to know how to implement any Management system requirements in your organization and seek our consulting in order to get certification from a third party write to us.

ROADMAP FOR TYPICAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM CONSULTING:

INITIAL PROCESS REVIEW/GAP ANALYSIS
The implementation precedes an Initial process review or Gap analysis. This intervention involves review by the Consultant wherein the Client’s current practices are assessed against the requirements of the Standard being implemented stand-alone or implemented as an integrated management system in combination with one or more compatible standards.

The purpose of this exercise would be to help in Identifying:
– Specific changes to be implemented in the existing practices in the organization in order to bring alignment with the standard requirements.
– New tasks that require to be initiated to achieve conformity with the standard requirements.
– Those Regulatory requirements, compliance with which is imperative for effective management system implementation, and achieving the purposefulness embracing the standards.
– Of specific training requirements to be able to set up an organizational set up capable of driving the management system implementation.
– Appropriate type of documented information considering the nature of the business and complexity of process interrelations and competence of the people at relevant tiers of the organization.

SETTING OF ORGANIZATION:
– Based on the initial review, the consultant will propose an appropriate Organizational structure to be set up tom facilitate effective management system implementation.
– The organizational set up to include assigning personnel with organizational responsibility for implementation as well as a functional or process level. The roles assigned may vary at the organization’s discretion.
– It is common to hear terms such as Lead Management representative, Site Management representative, Lead system co-ordinator, core team member, etc.
– The Management system governing set up may be required in certain organizations to steer management systems consistently across various sites and locations.
– Certain Management systems have an explicit requirement for a team formation: ex: risk management team, food safety team, energy management team, etc.

PS:
o Social Accountability Management requires a social performance team.
o Most of the standards explicitly or implicitly require participatory structures

AWARENESS, IMPLEMENTATION, AND INTERNAL AUDITOR TRAINING
– Awareness training on generic requirements of the standard with the reflection of requirements in the specific context of the organization.
– Implementation training acquainting the team with various templates and tools to keep documented information.
– Adoption of the standard requirements with the unique organizational context in relation to the nature of the product, processes involved, the complexity of the organization, and the competence of the people.

PS:
o Effort should be on developing internal Management system trainers to enable organization to vide training through a Train the Trainer (ToT) module.
o Conduct of internal auditor training to build internal capacity to perform audits.

DOCUMENTED INFORMATION
– Definition of policy.
– Determination of scope/boundaries relevant to the management system.
– Setting organizational and process level objectives in sync with the policy
– Documentation of processes and identification of documented information and type/form of such information to be maintained at various levels.
– Definition of key performance indicators-Baseline indicators and setting of performance goals
– Development of monitoring plans and monitoring tools.
– Ensuring control of document updating and transmittal.

IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING
– Communication of policy and relevant controls/procedures among internal as well as external interested parties.
– Monitoring of objectives set and other performance indicators.
– Tracking of deviations against documented requirements.
– Implementation of remedial actions where objectives are not met or procedures could not be implemented
– Conducting internal audits and Management reviews
– Implementation of corrective measures against audit findings as well as recommendations/decisions from the Management review

SELECTION OF CERTIFICATION BODY
– Techno-commercial evaluation of certification body guided by the consultant.
– Selection of certification body and formal contracting.

PRE-ASSESSMENT AND FOLLOW-UP EVALUATION
– Pre-assessment to assess the preparedness of the organization for a third-party audit
– Implementation of corrective actions to address any inadequacies identified.

CERTIFICATION AUDIT
– Stage-01: Review of adequacy of documentation and process overview by the Certification body.

Implementation of corrective actions to address any inadequacies identified during stage-01
– Stage-02: detailed review of implementation and capability of systems established to achieve the intent of the standard.
– Implementation of need-based corrective actions to address any inadequacies identified during stage-02.

RECOMMENDATION FOR CERTIFICATION
– Successful Recommendation for Certification.

POST –CERTIFICATION SUPPORT
– Enable change management through updation in documentation and practices in sync with organizational and regulatory changes
– Need-based training and capacity building
– Review and monitoring support