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Denver, CO (PRWEB) April 14, 2009 -- A new article by quality and
environmental management systems expert Mark Kaganov discussing ways to
simplify ISO 9001 quality management manuals in large corporations is
now available from Quality Works. In the article, Kaganov discusses a
new model that allows large corporations with multiple facilities to
achieve quality improvement and reduce the amount of documents used
corporate wide.
When satellite locations develop their own quality assurance manuals
independent from the corporate manual, the differences often lead to
disconnect between the corporate and local policies and commitments
From corporate identity and business consistency points of view, it is
beneficial for an organization to have consistent commitments of its
facilities to quality and applicable regulatory requirements.
QW Enterprises, LLP's Management Team
ensures that the responsibilities and authorities are defined and
communicated within the organization per the Resource Management
Procedure and site-specific organizational charts per the Manual
Reference Matrix ToC.
Many large multi-location companies are struggling to connect their
corporate quality manuals with supporting, location-specific documents.
To develop a manual for a company with numerous facilities,
organizations typically take two routes: site-specific manuals as copies
of the corporate manual or quality manuals independent from the
corporate manual.
When a site-specific quality manual is developed as a copy of the
corporate quality manual with modifications specific to a given
facility, mechanisms to keep the site's quality manual coordinated with
the corporate quality manual are rarely defined. Difficulties of keeping
these documents in sync are due to the fact that corporate manuals are
controlled by the home office, while local manuals are the
responsibility of the site's documentation control functions.
Creating a location quality manual as a copy of a corporate manual or
creating independent manuals is not practical. The main difficulty in
creating a common quality manual for numerous locations is the necessity
to reference in the common quality manual not only corporate documents,
but also corresponding documents of various facilities.
"When satellite locations develop their own quality assurance manuals
independent from the corporate manual, the differences often lead to
disconnect between the corporate and local policies and commitments,"
Kaganov says. "From corporate identity and business consistency points
of view, it is beneficial for an organization to have consistent
commitments of its facilities to quality and applicable regulatory
requirements."
When an organization needs to reference numerous documents including
those controlled by satellite locations, Kaganov advises companies to
establish a reference matrix to connect corporate manual commitments
with site-specific supporting documents. This document may be titled a
Manual Reference Matrix and be used in the following document reference
structure: Corporate Manual element > Manual Reference Matrix Table of
Contents (ToC) > Site-specific Manual Reference Matrix > Corresponding
site-specific document.
This model is illustrated through documenting element 5.5.1 in the
corporate manual with references to site-specific organizational charts:
"QW Enterprises, LLP's Management Team ensures that the responsibilities
and authorities are defined and communicated within the organization per
the Resource Management Procedure and site-specific organizational
charts per the Manual Reference Matrix ToC."
The example states that the company uses common Resources Management
Procedure and site-specific organizational charts. To locate a
site-specific organizational chart, one needs to refer to the Manual
Reference Matrix Table of Contents (ToC). The table of contents
represents a list of all locations' Manual Reference Matrixes, as shown
in the illustration below:
Manual Reference Matrix Table of Contents:
Home Office (Denver, Colorado, USA)
Ontario (Canada)
Guanajuato (Mexico)
…etc.
Following a hyperlink on "Ontario (Canada)", as an example, one will
find a site-specific Manual Reference Matrix. Locating element 5.5.1 in
the Ontario Manual Reference Matrix, one will find that the Ontario
location uses for this clause of the manual a document titled
Organizational Chart Ontario (see the attached file "Quality Manual
Reference Matrix Sample").
Call us for more information on how to
implement a quality manual for a multi-location company.
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