Integrated Management Systems (IMS)
In plain language, the business case for creating an IMS is simple:
- monitor the inputs to your business,
- reduce consumption and waste throughout your processes,
- make sure you satisfy your customers and
- meet all of your legal obligations.
- train your staff to ensure that they know how to do their job well and can assist you in making the business better and better over time; and
- strive to get better at what you do.
Every good manager knows that this is all part of creating a good business. But reality is usually far from the ideal. There is no coincidence that 'organisation' and 'organism' share a lot of the same letters.
Over time we watch, often with frustration, as our businesses grow a mind of their own. Each has it's own unique culture, idiosyncrasies, rituals and ugly bits.
Even if your business already has management systems in place - possibly even ISO certified systems - standing back and taking a holistic view of your operations can be truly beneficial - for both you and your staff.
Using both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 as the foundation for your own IMS - possibly as a start to a much broader way of operating that is uniquely suited to your business - has a number of benefits:
- Immediate international recognition for your system.
- Simple, non-prescriptive, non-proprietary frameworks for creating business structures and processes.
- No duplication, less work - implementing an IMS only adds about 20% overhead to implementing either ISO9001 or ISO 14001 in isolation.
- Improving the resilience and adaptability of your business to political changes - Kyoto is ratified. Carbon trading and emissions standards are beginning to come into force internationally - an IMS provides a solid foundation for further identifying environmental aspects, building Greenhouse Gas inventories and taking a whole-of-life view of your products/services.
