A NEW MANAGEMENT TOOL

How does your company prepare in the best possible way?

With D4InfoNet, we help companies increase their efficiency, but before our management system bears fruit, we always advise our customers to prepare as best they can, because it can be a major project to establish a consistent structure in the company’s workflows in everyday life.

How does your company prepare in the best possible way?

A management system is a powerful tool for companies to increase efficiency and create an overview of the organization’s daily processes, but before the system can bear fruit, it is important that you prepare your company in the best possible way. For many, it can be a major project to establish a consistent structure in the company’s workflows.

Below we share 5 good tips on how to best prepare for integrating a new management system into your company.

1. Internal expectation reconciliation

It takes time and resources to integrate a new management system, and we therefore advise our customers to make some basic considerations about which parts of their business they want described and optimized in the new system. For some companies, it is solely about complying with the requirements for a certification, while for others it is also a tool to map the workflows of the various processes and thereby gain an understanding of where there is room for optimization. New workflows takes time to integrate. This is why we recommend that you plan and coordinate accordingly.

2. Know the users of the system

It is important to have a sense of the users’ needs and qualifications. If, for example, you want to integrate a new management system in a production company, we recommend that you make some considerations about how the system should be included in the production workflows. Many procedures continues to be recorded on paper and archived in physical folders, but there are many benefits to transferring it to a digital management system.
You should therefore be ready to invest in more computers or tablets so that the system reaches all relevant users in the company. Be aware that for some employees, using a computer can be a challenge. We therefore recommend that you set aside resources for education and training, and establish a supportive work culture, where you encourage employees to ask questions if there is something they do not understand.

3. Know the daily workflows

A management system is a positive tool for optimizing everyday workflows. In order to get the full benefit of what such a system can do for your company, we recommend that you map the company’s processes to reach a common understanding on how to carry out its work. The management system helps to describe the organization’s processes, so that you get a nuanced overview of what the workflows look like. Then you can optimize in the relevant areas because you understand where the critical transitions in everyday processes take place. Those critical processes is what you have to start taking care of, because that is where you get the biggest gain.

We also recommend involving users by asking them to visualize the work processes step by step. In this way, you get a realistic understanding of the employees’ daily lives at the same time as they gain ownership of the new system, because it is based on their everyday life and mapping.

4. Find your ambassadors

When embarking on implementing a new management system, it is always important that users are involved and informed about what new processes awaits. This also applies to employees who potentially do not thrive on change. It can therefore be crucial that you select a small group that represents the company’s various employees in the best possible way, to be the project’s ambassadors. They contribute knowledge and experience from their respective departments, and this forms the basis for an important understanding among the management of how the company can best integrate and benefit from the new tools. In addition, the ambassadors help colleagues to understand how they use the new system and how it benefits their daily workflows.

5. Understand the possibilities of a management system

Often, when you hear the words “management system” and “quality assurance“, it raises a concern among employees to be checked and measured. Therefore, it is important to prepare them for the fact that the new tools are not about controlling people, but instead about gaining an understanding of everyday processes, in order to be able to be as efficient as possible. The system also makes it easier to assess whether the registrations you typically make in a production are necessary or whether you need to do something else. The system is also there to facilitate the employees’ daily processes.
The latest ISO Standards supports the risk-based way of thinking, and a management system can help to locate where in the company you can optimize and strengthen your development.

A management system is a positive optimization tool.