How to integrate the three major management systems of quality, environment, and occupational health and safety?

Date：2021/3/4　　Clicks：1094

How to integrate the three major management systems of quality, environment, and occupational health and safety?

How to integrate the three systems is a relatively systematic and complex problem. In addition, in recent years, the standards have been changing from ISO 9001 to ISO 14001 to ISO 45001. The new standard has new changes and requirements. Therefore, today’s article will reflect on the integrated ideas, steps, etc., for reference only.

Why integrate
Based on their desire for improvement, market situation, and customer requirements, in the past ten years, various enterprises in my country are implementing ISO9001 quality, ISO14001 environment, ISO 45001 occupational health and safety, lean production, 6SIGMA and many other management systems, ranging from two to three. There are as many as eight or nine management systems.

With the needs of domestic and foreign situations, more and more companies that have established and implemented quality management systems have begun to introduce other management systems, such as environmental management systems, occupational health and safety management systems, etc., and apply for third-party certification.

To establish and maintain two, three or N management systems and certification qualifications, enterprises have to invest considerable manpower, financial resources and time resources each year.

Since the operation of the three independent management systems is not conducive to the business development of the enterprise, integrated management and certification have become inevitable. In addition, other management systems have strong relevance in standard ideas, standard elements and other content. They are all built on the framework of the quality management system, and they all run through the eight basic management principles, system operating modes, and documents. The structure is basically the same, which provides technical possibilities for the integrated management system.

The practical significance of the integrated management system lies in the following aspects.

1. The use of a set of system documents for unified control is conducive to simplifying the internal management of the enterprise, reducing the cost of enterprise management, and achieving value-added enterprise performance.

2. The management function and efficiency of an enterprise depend on the overall effectiveness of the management system. An integrated management system is conducive to improving the level of corporate management, improving corporate management efficiency, and improving execution.

3. The integrated management system covering multiple certifications is conducive to enhancing the self-development and self-improvement of enterprises, and enhancing market competitiveness.


Problems with independent operation

The establishment of the three systems has effectively promoted quality, environment, and occupational health and safety work. In the operation management, we follow the requirements of the system standards, system elements and laws and regulations, aiming at the quality, environment, safety and other issues that may occur in the production process, implement full, all-round, and full-process operation control, and use PDCA to run The means and methods of the model, strengthen management, continuous improvement, so that corporate management continues to rise. At the same time, we also found the following problems during operation:

1. The same department implements three sets of systems at work, resulting in inconsistent responsibilities and inconsistent actions.

2. When there are requirements in the three sets of system documents on the same production process and unified working procedures, it will cause repetitive development and duplicate records.

3. During the internal audit, the three systems are carried out separately, forming the same record and repeating the same work.

4. During the management review, the three systems are carried out separately, increasing the number of reviews and the number of meetings, and the quality and effect of the review are not ideal.

5. The system documents prepared by the three systems at the beginning of the standard implementation certification are inconsistent with the actual production and operation in some aspects, resulting in the phenomenon of "double skin".

6. The intensity of knowledge training for the three systems is insufficient, and there is still a gap in the importance of leadership and full participation.

7. The traditional management’s decision-making and methodological habituality is sometimes inconsistent with the relevant requirements of the three systems. Some managers and employees cannot correctly understand and use the tool of the three systems, which is applied to the whole process of production and operation, namely, quality. , Environment, occupational health and safety.

It can be summarized as the following three aspects:

1) In order to meet the needs of different standards and certifications, some organizations have to do repeated work. As a result, there have been three manuals, three sets of procedure documents, repeated internal audits, and repeated management reviews, resulting in low management system operation efficiency.

2) Due to the inconsistent certification audits, in order to obtain the three types of certificates, companies have to accept three types of audits, which may sometimes be conducted by 2-3 certification agencies. This not only increases the company’s audit fees, transportation costs, and hospitality costs, but also consumes the time and energy of managers and employees. The waste of resources and the repeated investment of manpower, material and financial resources will greatly increase the cost of applying for certification. Crack down on enterprises' enthusiasm for management system certification and hinder the progress of certification work.

3) Establish three different management systems based on different management frameworks to form a large amount of work for mutual coordination within the enterprise. There will also be quality, environment, safety and health management departments starting from their respective professional scopes and management responsibilities. Competition for resources, inconsistent government orders, inability to share information, or even mutual exclusion.

How can an enterprise establish a comprehensive management system that not only effectively meets the requirements of the three standards at the same time, but also reduces the number of jobs and operational levels, and integrates the quality management system, environmental management system, and occupational safety and health management system into a comprehensive management system?


Requirements for integration

As an enterprise, integrating the three systems must have the following basic conditions:

1. The products of the enterprise involve the requirements of quality, environment, occupational safety and health, and the enterprise has the desire to implement comprehensive control.

2. There are human resources and other resources needed to meet the needs of system integration.

3. The resources of the organization can be fully shared.

4. The organization needs to carry out training on the promotion and implementation of relevant standards.

Basic principles of integration

1. Contents with the same management objects and basically the same management characteristics should be integrated. For all three standards that have the same management objects and basically the same management requirements, the enterprise must integrate system documents, resource allocation, and operation control.

2. The management requirements after integration should cover the content of the three standards, and the higher is the lower, and the highest requirements of the three standards shall prevail. An integrated management system is a management system that meets the requirements of the three standards. Only when all the requirements of the three standards are met, can the integrated management system established by the organization ensure that its quality management, environmental management, and occupational safety and health management meet the specified requirements , Can achieve the quality, environment and occupational safety and health goals set by the organization.

3. The integrated management system documents should be operable, and the coordination and pertinence between the documents should be maintained. The integrated management system procedures are not as many as possible. On the premise of operability, they must be easy to operate.

4. Integration should help reduce the number of documents and facilitate the use of documents; facilitate the unified coordination of system planning, operation and testing, and realize resource sharing; help improve management efficiency and reduce management costs.

Integration steps

The general steps of enterprise system integration:

1. Organize the leadership to unify ideas and make decisions;

2. Establish a leadership team and a work team for the integration of the management system;

3. Training is conducted at different levels, with the focus on training related standards and document writing;

4. Develop an organization-integrated management policy in accordance with laws and regulations, the requirements of customers, related parties, society, and employees, the purpose of the organization and the current management situation;

5. Identify the processes required by the quality management system, identify and evaluate environmental factors and safety risk factors;

6. According to the management policy, formulate management objectives and indicators;

7. Assign the functions of the integrated management system and clarify the corresponding responsibilities and authorities;

8. Develop quality plans or management plans for product realization, environment, and occupational safety and health according to the objectives;

9. Compile integrated management system documents;

10. Publish and publicize the integrated management system documents;

11. Equip and implement the manpower, infrastructure and other resources required by the integrated management system;

12. Trial operation for 3-6 months;

13. Train and hire internal auditors who meet the requirements of the integrated management system;

14. Conduct at least one internal audit based on the three standards, covering all management departments and requirements;

15. Follow-up review and corrective actions for non-conforming items;

16. Convene a management review meeting to evaluate the suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of the integrated management system, and propose directions for continuous improvement.

17. Implement improvements and maintain the effective operation of the management system.

The integration of the three systems facilitates our understanding and mastery of the regularity of management. Under the condition that the organization establishes a consistent management foundation, it can scientifically deploy human resources, optimize the organization's management structure, coordinate the development of activities with consistent management requirements, and improve work efficiency, which is conducive to cultivating compound talents, reducing management costs, and improving management The efficiency of system operation.