In 2018 I met Bev. Bev owns an active wear manufacturing business. She had just spent $20,000.00 purchasing a ready-made quality management system. She was told that all she had to do was go CTRL F and REPLACE ALL with her own company name and the system would be ready to go!
I met Bev as I was visiting the business as the certification auditor, therefore my job was to review this ready-made quality management system to see whether it met ISO 9001 requirements, and that the business was actually doing what they said they were doing. Simple right?
As I was reviewing the system, I was so confused. The business had 7 people employed and the system was thousands of pages and in multiple hard copy folders. What the system was saying they were doing may have suited a global business with thousands of employees, but not this small family business.
When I asked Bev to show me how they had Implemented the dispatch process that was written in the system, she took me out to the dispatch area and proceeded to show me while I tried to follow the procedure. Nothing she showed me matched the procedure. Don't get me wrong, what she was actually doing was great and it conformed with the Standard, however their own system did not reflect the actual process they followed and used.
None of Bev's employees were familiar with this massive documented system and had just continued to use their own existing processes. The system did not reflect what they actually did. There was a huge disconnect between operations and systems level. This was all due to the purchase of this ready-made quality management system that had not been reviewed and modified to reflect the actual processes of the business and identify any gaps.
This meant that I was not able to recommend the business for certification as there were too many major gaps identified. Bev's 'quick fix' had actually ended up taking longer to Implement and achieve certification. If only Bev had realised that she more than likely was already meeting a large part of the Standard and just had to tweak a few things to meet certification.
I have to admit that I'm a lazy cook. I can't say I enjoy cooking so after a day at work I am always looking for a simple dinner solution. I also don't like waste so I love seeing what we have in the fridge and the pantry and seeing what I can do with what we have. Earlier this year, my husband and I did not go grocery shopping for 2 weeks and just lived off what we had. We had some amazing meals during that time! Risotto, burgers and soups. Just like with a management system, you will be pleasantly surprised with what you find you already have, so use It and be creative!
-10 - you have decided to build a system from the beginning, not taking into consideration what you already have
0 - you have utilised some of the existing procedures in place, however have largely not taken into consideration what you already have
10 - you have utilised all of the existing procedures with some needing a small tweak to meet requirements
The research study Reusability Assessment of Business Process Models: A Systematic Literature Review concludes that reusing existing business process models offers the advantages of cost reduction, time savings and Improved process quality. By leveraging existing models, organizations can avoid reinventing the wheel and capitalize on previous work, thereby increasing efficiency and effectiveness.