System Development
What is a Management System?
A management system is the way in which an organization manages the interrelated parts of its business in order to achieve its objectives. These objectives can relate to a number of different topics, including product or service quality, operational efficiency, environmental performance, health and safety in the workplace and many more.
The level of complexity of the system will depend on each organization’s specific context. For some organizations, especially smaller ones, it may simply mean having strong leadership from the business owner, providing a clear definition of what is expected from each individual employee and how they contribute to the organization’s overall objectives, without the need for extensive documentation. But growing from small to medium/bigger and more complex businesses may need extensive documentation and controls in order to fulfil obligations and meet organizational objectives.
Management systems distinguish professional companies from those in which things happen randomly and on-demand.
Why do management systems exist? What is their goal? And what is the intellectual basis? There is a rather simple philosophy behind the development of management systems: To create a mechanism that allows companies to reliably do things that are important for the company’s success, and to continuously improve in the process.
Management systems are tools for managing complexity. It is about setting goals, considering the framework conditions, deriving actions and measures from the goals, and reliably completing tasks through clear processes and responsibilities.
Quality management example: In order to continuously deliver high quality in all areas of a company, measures are required that affect all areas – from top management to trainees. A quality management system, therefore, deals intensively with the four phases according to the PDCA cycle: Plan, Do, Check, Act.
Plan | Corporate Planning Measures
Corporate activities do not arise spontaneously or as a result of individual customer requests but are carefully planned. Planning is the largest and most important part of the ISO 9001:2015 quality management system. If, for example, all core processes of a company are to be documented, this means nothing more than that the company plans what it needs for processes to achieve its goals.
Do | Execution of Planned Activities
Management systems are based on the philosophy that the execution of planned activities is (almost) independent of individual persons. If all necessary measures and business processes are defined, if responsible persons are named and success indicators are defined, then – according to theory – tasks will almost take care of themselves. This is not always the case in practice, but it is the ideal state that companies strive for by introducing a management system.
Check | Checking Whether Goals have been Achieved
Management systems are based on the philosophy that everything is measurable. Has the sales department achieved its goals? This can be measured, for example, in the number of customer meetings, the closing rate, or the value of newly acquired orders. Customer satisfaction with a company’s products, offers, and services can also be measured. This is an important component of management systems: Success is not left to chance but measured.
Act | Continuous Improvement
In management systems, every deviation between “target and actual” is not an error, but a deviation that can be optimized. Accordingly, continuous improvement is an important part of a management system. It is about companies asking themselves again and again, down to small detailed processes, the question: Is it running optimally?
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