Introduction/Overview

Integrated Management System is a unified approach to integrate multiple management frameworks consolidated into one. IMS helps to streamline business operations, compliance management and enhance efficiency. IMS usually consists of standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, etc. The outcome of IMS is beneficial to any organization implementing but at the same time must take heed from committing certain generic mistakes to ensure long term benefits.

Purpose/Importance

Main purpose of the article is to address some common mistakes that organizations make in the course of implementation of IMS. It can impact

• Efficiency

• Resource Management

• Compliance Management

• Decision Making

• Stakeholder Management

Components 

Few mistakes include:

• Insufficient Planning: Lack of planning can cause disruption in implementation.
  
  

• Lack of Leadership Commitment: Can lead to lost focus, resource allocation issues.
  
  

• Less Employee Engagement: Not involving employees at various levels can lead to inconsistent implementation.
  
  

• No Standardization of Documentation: Inconsistency in documentation can lead to long term issues, hamper productivity, create confusion.
  
  

Key components of to avoid mistakes are:

• Commitment from the Leadership: Engage the senior leadership from the very beginning to drive the integration of the management system in the organization. 
  
  

• Policy Structure and Alignment: Unified approach to a policy addressing all management system under consideration.
  
  

• Documented Information: Ensure to maintain consistencies and avoid duplication when it comes to standard operating procedures, manual and records.
  
  

• Risk Based Approach: Identification, assessment and management of risks that can affect business areas that are crucial for the success of this integrated system.
  
  

• Performance Evaluation: Define clear goals and targets, evaluate its effectiveness to ensure continual improvement.
  
  

• Reviews: Create a mechanism to conduct periodic audits and reviews that will continuously help to identify the gaps and improve.
  
  

• Competence Building: Ensuring employees are properly trained for required competence development and active engagement.
  
  

Steps for the Implementation/Guide

Ensure following steps for the implementation include: 

• Existing Processes and Management Systems: Review and evaluate the existing management system, identify the gaps, realign to integrate or improve as needed.
  
  

• Define and understand Business Objectives: Clearly defined business goals and objectives, 5-year strategy/other strategy and derived key performance indicators for business helps to understand the structure of IMS that can be laid to enable that these objectives can be achieved.
  
  

• Leadership and Commitment: Clear strategy, resource allocation key for IMS.
  
  

• Unified Approach: Design a framework to integrate objectives and processes of QMS, EMS and OHS&MS.
  
  

• Roles and Responsibilities: Define role and responsibilities ensuring all the three management systems are under consideration.
  
  

• Focus Area: Identify key focus areas that are crucial for the business so that same can be properly integrated in the IMS as well.
  
  

• Documentation and Process: Standardizing processes across the three management systems.
   

• Stakeholder Involvement: Engaging with stakeholders is important to have an integrated approach towards organization’s objectives.
  
  

• Planning Process: A detailed plan to be chalked out that outlines the process of integration of different management system including defining responsibilities, timelines, required resources, breakdown of larger tasks into smaller ones, etc.
  
  

• Leverage Technology: Utilize digitalization tools to ease the process of integration, real time tracking, communication, documentations, reporting, etc.
  
  

• Competence Building: Map competence requirements as per the QMS,EMS and OHS&MS and develop training matrix and evaluate periodically.
   

• Process of Management of Change: Ensure all changes relevant to respective stakeholders are timely intimated and informed for effective communication.
  
  

• Monitoring and Evaluation: Ensure that key performance indicators are monitored periodically and reviewed to understand the progress path, this will help to identify any risks and mitigate as required.
  
  

• Pilot System Prior Implementation: Mock up trail for the implementation of IMS as per the plan laid out.

  

Best Practices/Benefits

IMS provides an organization array of benefits from tangible to non-tangible gains.

1. Unified Approach: When the goal and objectives of the organization are clear, it becomes a solid foundation on which IMS builds. This allows for bringing everyone, right from leadership to operations team to the same ground.
    

2. Risk Based Approach: IMS in itself is designed to develop processes using risk-based approach thus business risks are taken care.
   
   

3. Compliance: IMS ensures that integrating processes eventually helps in taking care of compliance either regulatory or industrial needs.
   
   

4. Maximize Productivity: IMS is bound to maximize the productivity of not just the operations but the people, machines, equipment, etc. It has a 360-degree impact on the organization. ISO standard does not ask for separate procedures to be established if an organization has started the path of implementation. Instead, it is up to the organization to establish a process to integrate but ensure the requirements of applicable standards are complied. Processes are eventually optimized.
   
   

5. Eliminating Duplication: Single most important benefit of IMS is eliminating duplication, not just in the documents/records but also multiple reviews that management or the leadership had to conduct to review effectiveness of standards individually. One single management system that includes unified policy, goals and objectives, etc. save a lot of time, effort and money.
   
   

6. Consistency: IMS approach provides an organization to create more consistent singular management system. This results in less complexity of processes, easy to understand and more focused approach towards organizational goals in large. Consistency here means even in the tiniest factors such as a common format for training records, common processes of training needs identification, communications, resource planning etc. When consistent processes are maintained to that level is when gaps between standard requirements and actual on ground implementation shrink.
   
   

7. Cost-Effectiveness: Organization’s productivity also lies on the fact how effectively one manages resources. IMS allows to integrate processes, optimizing manpower utilization, maximize machine utilizations, integrated assessments and audits and at the same time optimize on resources too. IMS helps in eliminating redundant processes, saves time and reduces cost eventually. This also means one can have one single certification audit as per the periodicity rather than engaging resources multiple times during the year. 
   
   

8. Enhance Customer Satisfaction: An aligned management system ensures that needs of the customers are met through set processes.
   
   

9. Foster a Culture of Continual Improvement and Collaboration:  help to build processes that promote continual improvement and cross functional collaboration.
   

Conclusion

IMS is an important tool for organization when it is trying to streamline processes, manage compliance and scale overall business performance. But few mistakes such as skipping planning process, less or no employee engagement and lack of leadership commitment can become a roadblock in IMS Implementation. A structured framework for implementation paves a path to ensure seamless integration of multiple management systems. It will help organizations in longer run either it terms of efficiency or customer satisfaction.