Local Variations

Hi.
I work for a large corporation where the QMS systems and processes arent suitable for some parts of the business.

How are other organisations managing different ways of working within the silos of large organisations?

For instance, are they using temporary variations?

How are the changes and local variations managed and controlled to esure compliance?

Any tips / hints and how your organisation 'works in practice' are greatly appreciated.

Paul.

 

Hi Andy.

Thank you for the response - nice to know this isnt an isolated issue.

The company has historically been a hub and spoke type structure, this has led to a command and control culture, and bad decisions driven from a central office by people that are out of touch with the business. As you would expect, the performance and efficiency is badly affected (e&p are my responsibility). There is a movement away from this setup - downsizing the central resources, pushing power to the deveolved offices etc. However, there are still people, processes and systems in place for the old ways of working, this transformation is also my responsibility.

So, i have created local plans for h&s, quality and environment, made them work for the particular contract / project. This brings you to where we are today - setting the q / h&s / env objectives for each unit is hugely dependant on change from the head office - hq staff still beleive the contracts / projects arent 'allowed' to change things locally, the contracts / projects under pressure to perform and take ownership for setting and achieving their own objectives.

I have drafted a change policy that can be strapped onto the qms in place, and will bring the firm upto 2015 standards - I think there isnt the structure left in place at the hq to take on new ways of working and policy changes at the moment.

Hope this makes sense - let me know if you want any detail / information.

Thanks again, your message has been hugely helpful.

Paul.