Internal Quality Auditing and Process Mapping
Training that Defines or Improves your Business Management SystemWe believe that the following four steps can be successfully implemented to initiate or improve your business management system:
Step 1 – Training to help define your business management system
When process or value stream mapping techniques are successfully taught to employees and managers while the business management system is undergoing its initial definition and creation the following advantages are often seen by our organization through our client’s success:
Work process stages and workflow can be examined,- Accurate details for quality management documentation are established,
- A systematic view of the departmental or organizational operations are created,
- Employees become more comfortable with your quality management system (QMS) initiative or your continual improvement activities and participate more willingly,
- Decision making functions can be pinpointed for continual improvement in effectiveness and efficiency at the operational level.
After your organization completes the process or value stream mapping activities the business management system goals and objectives should be defined. The purpose here is to ensure that your organization has constructed the proper benchmarks that are both realistic and relevant to your organization for long-term continual improvement and also to align your processes with the chosen objectives of the organization.
Knowing how to use your factual information obtained from the process or value stream mapping activities has taught us over our consulting years that details will come to the surface that may otherwise remain obscure until a much later date. 
The following types of problems come into clear view, which is the true value-add of installing a business management system into your organization:
- Production issues,
- Process bottlenecks,
- Inefficient repetitive tasks,
- Insufficient resources for required work or tasks,
- Broken and nonproductive communication and workflow,
- Non-value added functions that can also contribute delays and lost time,
- Waste,
- Extraneous cost incurring activities.
Once the process or value stream mapping is completed, and your newly constructed objectives are now being measured and monitored consistently at the proper frequencies, (weekly, monthly, quarterly, semiannually or yearly) with senior management involvement, then it’s time to move to the next training step.
Step 2 – Training to verify the effectiveness of your business management system
Process input information taken from the process or value stream mapping activities is now used to complete your process documentation and also to assemble the supporting process outputs such as records and forms that are needed. We then recommend the next level of training that should be applied.
This type training is used during the implementation stage of the business management system, and is quite simply known as internal quality auditor training. It is one of the quality management system training courses that we offer.
Step 3 – Training to establish the corrective and preventive action system
The next level of training that is needed is Corrective and Preventive Action and Root Cause Analysis. Why… Well, the answer stems from the ongoing use of your business management system.
The goal here is to enable a formally documented and implemented closed-loop system around some of the most important internal and external inputs of your organization’s business management system. This approach then allows the organization to capture, analyze and drive continual improvement from the following trigger sources:
- Customer visits,
- Supplier and or Subcontractor events,
- Customer complaints,
- Internal process and product nonconformities,
- Future internal audit results,
- Outputs from management reviews and meetings with actionable events,
- Results of data analysis and trends from product or process events,
- Customer Satisfaction Feedback.
Your business management system is more adequately defined and also easier to implement when your quality management training includes:
- Process Mapping or Value Stream Mapping,
- Quality Management Objectives,
- Internal Quality Auditing,
- Corrective and Preventive Action,
- Root Cause Analysis
The aforementioned training provides your employees with the capability to examine how effectively and consistently the interaction and sequence of the quality management system processes are working inside your organization.
Step 4 – Training on continual improvement and the corrective and preventive action system
Finally, to finish the task of linking the business management system to continual improvement, a formal tool such as, a Network Database or Intranet Form would be established that enables the organization to capture, track and sort, possible continual improvement opportunities as they arise for later analysis and recommendation. We would also recommend that adequate continual improvement and One-The-Job (OJT) process training also be provided.
Your executives, managers and employees should use the system as previously mentioned as a baseline for starting your continual improvement initiative. Your baseline continual improvement system should now enable the organization to begin to acquire continual improvement opportunities from the corrective and preventive action process inputs (See Step 3).
If your organization is considering quality management system certification and would like more information on preparing for certification in addition to our training services, please contact us.
We also invite your organization to learn what additional types of quality management training can go beyond quality management system compliance and build an even stronger continual improvement platform for the future of your company’s products and processes.