Wednesday, July 27, 2011

THE IMPORTANCE OF STANDARDIZATION

In consulting to various clients I've been watching some shortcomings, which are not related to software or hardware, but the lack of and standardization: Processes, Service Instructions, and Trainings.

The consequences of this are usually the loss of efficiency, higher operating costs, and the difficulty in developing a corporate image more homogeneous, which could be observed by their customers as a factor that differentiates the company from their competitors.

I do not want to lecture here on how to define and document a Process, Service Instruction, or Training, but to draw attention to the importance of each one, because there are rules and procedures detailing them, as are the Quality Assurance principles, outlined by the ISO 9000 family of standards (which the ISO 10000 series is an integral part) emphasize the importance of managing human resources and the need for adequate training, so look carefully at the ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 10015, to name some of them.

It is recommended that all people of all levels of the organization are trained to meet the organization's commitment to provide products according to the quality required by a changing market, where requirements and customer expectations are increasing continuously. However it will be effective only if your company already has their Processes, Service Instructions, and Trainings, standardized, documented and easily accessible to everyone. This, therefore, will be the beginning of a process of continuous improvement towards Total Quality, exceeding expectations of your customers.