Integrated management systems: on the path to maturity and efficiency assessment

The results from an online survey focusing Portuguese integrated management system (IMS) ruled companies are presented in the present article. These are partial results from an ongoing project aiming the maturity rating and assessment of IMS and companies where implemented. Surveyed companies match partially the national Portuguese profile, namely, on geographic location and company dimension characteristics. Results suggest that motivations, benefits and obstacles related to integration are internal or mainly internal. A sequential over a step by step or “all in” integration sequence as been reported as the most common one among the surveyed companies. Integrated audits seem to be the model adopted by the majority of the companies. Systems managers found implementation sub-systems standards easy or, at least, reasonably easy, to integrate. A major dividing point between surveyed companies is related to the identification of organizational items not susceptible of being integrated. Approximately 55% of the surveyed companies identified those items while 45% did not. Systems managers’ majority did not felt that an ultimate excellence level of integration had been reached by their companies but rather a high integration level corresponding to common organizational structure plus policies and goals, management tools and documental integration. All respondents felt that the overall company performance would be lower (79%) or at least equal (21%) if running through separate management sub-systems. Almost totally agreed that IMS is an add value to the company. Related to responsibility it seem that companies option rely on traditional pyramidal model with an IMS coordinator and a QMS, an EMS and/or an OHSMS sub-systems responsible providing feedback. Finally, process, operations and management monitoring was assessed by the survey. Almost all companies agreed that monitoring was performed by key process indicators (KPI’s), operations process indicators (OPI’s) or management process indicators (MPI’s). Similar results were found when asked about integrated indicators

A model proposal for integrated management systems maturity assessment

Maturity models enabling the assessment of integrated management systems (IMS) are crucial in order to provide a comparison between IMS from different companies. This paper intends to report the efforts made and the methodologies followed to develop an IMS maturity assessment model. Additionally, the paper aims at presenting such model, illustrate its usefulness, and demonstrate how companies may implement it as an organizational guide focusing an ultimate excellence level. Two surveys have been developed. An online survey with 30 questions/statements was held focusing Portuguese companies with more than one certified management subsystem according to the following standards: ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001/NP 4397. The survey was supported on Likert type scales, with categorical and multiple option answers/statements. A pre-test was performed in three companies in order to validate the survey. A second survey was developed and submitted to the appreciation of an experts group to assess in what extent each parameter could reflect the management system integration level. The maturity model reported in this paper provides companies with a guiding path in order to achieve an ultimate excellence level. The final model version is sustained on two components, namely, a back office component, describing the statistical relationships between variables, and a front office Capability Maturity Model integrated (CMMi) based component, enabling companies to interact with the model. The back office component was developed through linear and multiple regression models and by statistical significant variables identification affecting an “IMS maturity level” latent variable. Additionally, Pearson correlation was assessed among those variables not statistically related to the latent variable. Front office component has five maturity levels and a “zero level” acting as a pre-requirement and enabling, or not, the access to the maturity assessment model. To access at higher maturity levels the IMS should comply with excellence management requirements, external factors requirements and key process agents’ (KPAs) requirements

Integrated management systems: survey results from Portuguese companies and experts

The proliferation of several certifiable sub-systems among different type of organizations lead companies to excessive departmentalization. This fact turned out to be, due to several reasons pointed out by numerous authors, disadvantageous. Hence, organizations optioned by integration of their management sub-systems. Academic awareness to this sociological event is mainly related with the fact of integration of management systems (IMS) had been performed empirically, that is, by each organization on their own due to the lack of an International Normative. In this paper it is intended to present the refined results from an online survey focused on Portuguese companies ruled by integrated management systems (IMS). These results will be crossed against a questionnaire under taken through a panel of academic and industry experts in order to weight the parameters surveyed online through a perspective of management system integration degree. The conclusions from this work also address Occupational Health and Safety issues in an integrated environment

Management systems integration: should quality be redefined?

Concepts like interfaces, synergies, fuzzy logic, organisational synapses and networking rule our days. These concepts orbit around the term “interactions”. Literally, interactions are everything. For instance, graphite and diamond are just carbon atoms “interacting” differently. Currently, customers demand a broader vision from organizations. In order to fulfil this demand organizations implemented and certified their management systems focusing different stakeholders’ requirements and according to several organisational standards, being the most reported ones ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001. Despite of the difficulties to achieve a consensual definition, if we consider concepts like quality tools, “Quality” is mainly an “action” concept. Thus, the main challenge faced by quality management systems (QMS) in an integrated environment would be philosophical: to leave the spotlights of an “action” based approach and to embrace the subtleness of the “interaction” approach. It is common sense that the system defining, promoting and stimulating interactions should not be involved in the action itself. Implications of this new role to play by quality management system are huge. Traditional organisational structures place quality transversally to production processes. It is expected that quality management system adopts a more vertical organisational orientation in order to accomplish new objectives posed by management systems integration. Human behaviour towards item production or service performance should change according new organisational placement by QMS. Each worker despite their organisational function should have a priori and a posteriori quality requirements knowledge, being critical a precise boundaries definition among elements constituting the responsibility chain. Auditing procedures should be adjusted too. Potential synergies between processes, internal and external communication flow, objectives redefinition, policies adjustment and a new vision horizon are among some check-points to be assessed by the audit team. It should be assure that top management commitment is not with a system but with an organisational philosophy. Processes indicators should be available at all time and by several persons. This requirement is not far fetch in our days due to the currently available networks and information systems. Non conformity detection, treatment and correction, under an integrated approach, should not be a middle management meeting of the affected process. In this case, quality procedures should assure that Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety representatives are involved and empowered to discuss decisions to be made. In this article we analyze the reposition of the quality management system after an integration process pointing out the practical implications of this newly perspective. It is intended to be an initial contribution to a newly task already achieved by other systems and sciences: the assessment of “interactions” in management systems

Management systems integration: a Renaissance organizational era

Holistic approach to management, fullfilling all the stakeholders’ requirements, characterizes management systems (MS) integration. Other distinctive features are the interactions enhancement between several sub-systems and the hiper-technological context where it develops. All these characteristics mimic a sociological, cultural, political, artistical and intellectual era: Renaissance. Taking into account the polymath or Renaissance man concept we may converge through the analogy: science and art harmoniously integrated in the same entity focused on the achievement of several objectives at the same time. An organizational Renaissance era, enabling a Middle Age to a Modern Age organizational evolution may be forecasted providing a successful management sub-systems integration. Taking into account this assumption, some lingering questions raised among MS community: Which is the best strategy to management systems integration? How to comparatively assess an integrated management system (IMS)? Which are the most efficient IMS? How many evolutionary (maturity) levels should be considered? Should a polymath profile be required for employees in this newly organizational context? It is intended that the present extended abstract be the first on reporting some preliminary results of an ongoing project aiming the maturity and efficiency levels assessment of IMS

Benchmarking on behalf of management systems integration

The integration of management systems, to be effective, requires several organisational features. An integrating concept enabling a common language, a proactive approach, a holistic vision, sustainable objectives and consistence and coherence on action are among those features. All these features will be properly and efficiently achieved considering concepts linked to benchmarking, namely, teammanship, self-management, democracy in management and collaborative benchmarking. This paper is based on an ongoing research project focusing the development of a tool/methodology to assess maturity and effectiveness levels achieved by organizations that implemented an integrated management system (IMS) being its purpose to report and to enhance the potential synergies between benchmarking methodologies and management systems integration. The research, and implicit results, aims organizations that are considering an IMS implementation being the findings transferable to in field environment, being useful to practitioners willing to implement an IMS

Integrated versus non-integrated perspectives of auditors concerning the new ISO 9001 revision

The process of integration of management systems is being unfolded by a great deal of companies nowadays. A crucial feature of it relates with the audit function and the integrated perceptions of the auditors. This issue is of utmost importance if one takes into account the remarkable effort developed by ISO in the last revisions (2015) of the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards aiming at the standards integration by adopting a common high level structure, identical core context, and common terms and common definitions. The available drafts of the new ISO 45001 standard suggest the same effort. This paper aims, within a global research study on ISO 9001:2015, to report the integrated versus non-integrated perspectives of auditors concerning the new ISO 9001 revision based on the results from a survey conducted among IRCA auditors. It is intended specifically to assess if the perceptions from the auditors holding several certifications are different of those from the auditors that hold solely the QMS certification. Results suggest that the auditors holding several certifications foreseen more benefits from this new revision, i.e., auditors with a wider integrated perspective rate systematically higher the different dimensions assessed in this survey.The authors would like to thank to all the responding auditors for their great collaboration and will pursue this study by applying more powerful statistical tools and adding a time perspective by replicating the survey in the future. This study had the financial support of FCT-Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia of Portugal under the project UID/CEC/00319/2013. Pedro Domingues is supported by FCT Post-Doc Grant Reference SFRH/BPD/103322/2014.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evolução dos resultados perinatais em gestações triplas

PURPOSE: To evaluate the obstetric and perinatal outcomes evolution of triplet pregnancies. METHODS: A prospective observational study was conducted in triplet pregnancies delivered over 16 years in a tertiary obstetric center with differentiated perinatal support. Evaluation of demographic factors, obstetric complications, gestational age at delivery, mode of delivery, birth weight and immediate newborn outcome were done over a 16 years period. A global characterization of the sample was performed considering the listed parameters. Variables were categorized in three groups according to year of occurrence: 1996-2000, 2001-2006, 2007-2011, and all parameters were compared. RESULTS: Of the 33 triplets included, 72.7% resulted from induced pregnancies. All except one patient received prenatal corticosteroids and five received tocolytics. All women delivered prenatally and no significant differences were seen in the mean gestational age at delivery or birth weight towards time. There were three intrauterine fetal deaths. Neonatal immediate outcomes were not significantly different over the years. CONCLUSION: Despite remarkable progresses in perinatal and neonatal cares, no noticeable impact in triplet gestations' outcomes was seen, sustaining that triplets should be avoided due to their great risk of prematurity and neonatal morbidities, either by limiting the numbers of embryos transferred or by fetal reduction.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Maturity models: a useful solution to assess current OHS management system

Occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS) are implemented worldwide and by an increasing number of companies. Usually this management sub-system is not the first one to be implemented and is seldom the only management sub-system implemented by a company. Therefore, the OHSMS performance is most appropriately assessed if one considers it within an integrated management system (IMS) and, usually co-existing, with a quality management sub-system (QMS) and/ or an environmental management sub-system (EMS). Furthermore, OHSMS actions are often, if not always, constrained by quality and/or environmental requirements. The dynamics of complex systems, such as IMS, have been targeted by numerous researchers in different scientific domains. All of them pointed out that these systems are characterised by a non-linear behaviour and a large amount of variables often related to each other. Maturity models have been adopted to minimise our complexity perception over a truly complex phenomenon. In this sense, maturity models are tools based on a non-deterministic methodology, which enable the assessment by the identification of the most relevant variables that influence their outputs. Ideally, besides this identification, a maturity model should provide information concerning the qualitative and quantitative relationships between variables and how they affect the latent variable, i.e. the maturity level of the maturation object. Regarding OHSMS (maturation object) assessment, one may assess it based solely on OHSMS indicators, but further improvement actions should also rely on the contributions of other implemented management sub-systems, thereby reflecting an integrated context. This fact reformulates the purpose of OHSMS within a company and demands a systemic vision by the OHSMS manager. Some other issues should be considered, too, such as the implementation of integrated indicators, audits and procedures, and the harmonisation through adoption of a common ‘language’ between the sub-systems. Some features concerning the intrinsic philosophy from each sub-system may be benchmarked for the remaining sub-systems, as the systematic risk approach that characterises the OHSMS. It is intended in this paper to report several maturity-model characteristics that enable such models to act as suitable tools for assessing management systems’ maturity and, specifically, that of the OHSMS. Additionally, it is also intended to synthetise all the main features found in the literature review performed, namely: which are the key questions to consider prior to model definition; which limitations should be expected; the definition of the main relevant concepts, such as maturity, capability, maturation and maturation object; and the classification of existing maturity models. Finally, a maturity model enabling integrated management systems assessment will be presented, as well the main advantages of adopting this model, concerning OHSMS features. This model, based on front-office and back-office components, considers the key process agents (KPAs) identified through a systematic literature review, and by the conduct of several case studies of companies, as well as the qualitative and quantitative relationships between these variables and their contribution to the latent variable (IMS maturity level). Ultimately this model translates the OHS management sub-systems’ current reality – namely, the fact that their implementation and daily management are not independent from other management sub-systems and their requirements