A quality process is an approach to controlling a company’s activities. This approach is based on the ISO 9001 standard and the implementation of process management software such as BPM (Business Process Management) or workflow software.
In this article, after a first theoretical part, we’ll give you a method and some advice on how best to approach a quality process.
What is a quality process?
Process definition
A company, whether it is aware of it or not, is made up of multiple processes. These are used to cover activities and serve customers.
Each process represents a set of steps or tasks: consecutive or simultaneous, carried out individually or in a team, with or without tools...
For example, when a prospect makes an inquiry, a pre-sales process begins and a chain of tasks is set in motion:
- Collection of requirements by a sales representative
- Costing by sales and engineering staff
- Production of a proposal by the sales person
- Validation of proposal by sales manager
- etc.
As you can see, everything in a company is a process, even if the company isn’t aware of it: procurement processes, recruitment, scoping and design, production planning, invoicing, vacation requests…
Definition of a quality process
A quality process is an approach to controlling and ensuring the conformity of a company’s processes. Each approach focuses on a single process.
The use of a process management system, BPM (Business Process Management) or workflow software, greatly facilitates this quality approach.
The quality approach may or may not be based on ISO 9001.
What is ISO 9001 for the quality process?
ISO 9001 is a list of requirements for a quality management system (QMS). It guides companies in improving efficiency, customer satisfaction, quality and regulatory compliance.
Compliance with and formal implementation of this quality standard has led to ISO 9001 certification.
Unlike other standards, the list of process requirements is relatively flexible. Indeed, if a company takes its customers’ needs into account, involves its staff in the quality approach, documents its processes and implements continuous improvement, then it can claim certification.
ISO 9001 is not mandatory for all companies. However, some organizations may require their suppliers or partners to be ISO 9001 certified to guarantee the quality of their products or services. It is also used by some companies as a marketing tool.
The process sheet, the ideal tool for ISO 9001 quality processes
The process sheet is a crucial tool for guaranteeing the long-term viability of an activity and ensuring simplified improvement whenever necessary. It brings together key information such as process mapping and performance indicators.
The process sheet will also facilitate the implementation of new projects, audits, controls and reviews.
However, there’s a fine line between “having a useful process sheet for your company” and “having an unused, obsolete sheet lost in the depths of your storage space”.
To explore this topic further, we have written another resource to help you produce a simple process sheet (with a sample process sheet).
Process types and their graphical representation
Business or operational processes
These processes cover the company’s entire business value chain. Each process is often consecutive to another. For example, the output element of the pre-sales process leads to the input element of the design and production planning process.
Example of a company’s value chain made up of multiple business processes
Examples of business processes :
- Sales administration
- Studies
- Production planning
- Quality control
- Delivery / Logistics
- Billing
Business support processes
These processes are not directly linked to customer satisfaction, but are necessary, even mandatory, for the smooth running of the company.
Example of support processes
Examples of support processes :
- Marketing and communications
- Accounting
- Human resources
- Legal
- General services
- Information system
Management processes
They represent the company’s steering, planning and strategic organization activities.
Example of a management process
Examples of management processes :
- Strategic planning
- S&OP
- Digital transformation
- Finance
- Performance analysis
- Internal communication
All of a company’s processes can be represented in this way:
Don’t forget outsourced processes
Indeed, even if a company outsources part of its operations. It’s important to take this into account in the documentation, and to formalize it as much as possible. In particular, this organization enables you to control your own know-how and, if necessary, easily change service providers or internalize the activity, while limiting the effort involved.
Graphic representation or modeling of a process for the quality approach
Process mapping is a visual modeling technique that helps optimize operations by identifying connection points, obstacles and opportunities for improvement. Instead of a simple list of steps, a well-designed map provides a visual representation of the events, participants and actions involved in a process.
There are many different ways to model a process (BPMN, SIPOC, VSM, flowchart…), and I’m not even talking about the many graphical representation tools. In this article, we’re going to introduce you to a simple modeling approach that draws on the best of all the different ways of modeling. If you’d like to explore this subject further, we’ve written a dedicated article: Process modeling – How it works in practice.
Presentation of one way of modeling a process in a quality approach
The key elements of this quality process map :
- Events : Mark the beginning and end(s) of your process with red circles.
- Participants: Use different colored dots to represent the people or groups involved in the process.
- Tasks and stages: Illustrate the actions required at each stage of the process with rectangles. Here we use an infinitive verb. You can do otherwise, but remember to be consistent.
- Conditions: Represent simultaneous decisions, conditions and actions with diamonds to show the options available at each stage.
- Links: Indicate the relationships between elements, including sequence and message flows, to show how the process evolves.
Additional information: you can accompany your map with an additional document or another map including additional information for each process, such as :
- Tools, software and applications used.
- Oral, paper or software interactions.
- Procedures to follow.
- The time needed to complete the actions.
- The completion time for each task.
- The frequency with which they are carried out.
- Available stock at each phase.
- Employee satisfaction with each operation.
- The difficulties and shortcomings encountered at each stage.
Tips and tricks from the quality process to help you improve your performance.
Define a manager and, depending on the size of the company, a number of contributors
The quality process must have a person in charge who can guarantee the success of the approach to stakeholders. The person in charge must have a certain level of power and credibility within the organization, otherwise the project is likely to fail. Of course, it can also be led by business or support managers.
If the person in charge is operational, that’s fine, but if he or she has little time to give, he or she can be assisted by contributors who will be responsible for different aspects of the process.
Coming back to the level of credibility, it may be preferable to define a director as responsible, then managing contributors within a defined timeframe, rather than giving responsibility to an employee with no power and only a partial understanding of how the company works.
Define objectives and performance indicators
Objectives and indicators are first and foremost factual communication tools to be shared with the company’s stakeholders. They can be used to demonstrate successes and failures, and to convince employees .
What’s more, they enable us to compare ourselves with industry standards and implement continuous improvement.
However, this can quickly become a tug-of-war, with dozens of indicators to be tracked in all directions, with no real coherence.
We recommend that you start by defining 1 or 2, and then add or remove others as you go along.
Set up automated systems
Whether to automate information gathering or to automate certain tasks in processes, these solutions enable quality gains, reduce errors and improve performance.
Find out more in our article on process automation
Conduct mini audits and inventories
Even if you have a precise vision of how things work, it’s always important to compare it with the reality on the ground. It’s a good idea to talk to key company staff, or toobserve a process from A to Z, by going out into the field and following the processing or transformation stages.
You have to prepare for a process audit, even if it’s a small one (in terms of scope). We recommend reading this article, which gives you all the tools you need to succeed: Process audit – which method to use?
Uniting teams
Quality processes are often scoffed at by teams because they find them burdensome, with little added value for them. It is therefore important to communicate with teams, reminding them of how this will improve the company, their comfort at work, and so on.
Different forms of communication are possible, but what works best is to go out and talk directly with employees. Audits and recurring or one-off meetings help to keep employees firmly in their thoughts and show that they are an important part of the project.
Use process management software or BPM
Workflow or BPM (Business Process Management) software is a platform built around a process or workflow engine.
Thanks to this engine, a company can replicate the current operation of a business process (as close as possible to the existing one) on a 100% customized workflow. This workflow takes into account simultaneous steps, conditions, validations and automations.
This means better collaboration between teams, fewer errors and shorter lead times.
These tools also enable you to document the process and keep it up to date automatically. So you don’t have to worry about pdf files.
Now you know all about the quality process. Now it’s your turn! See you soon for more content!
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