Quality Management Systems (QMS), like ISO9001, shouldn’t result in excessive paperwork, lack of flexibility, or be a financial burden to your business.

However, if your mobile workforce is required to adhere to a QMS you’re likely facing the following issues as a result:

• You rely completely on your mobile workforce to correctly fill out paperwork and get it back to you promptly.
• You are always on the back-foot; chasing up key documents from various sources.
• You spend your time finding and managing information gaps, instead of proactively running your business.

In this month’s blog, we outline how you can take control of your mobile workforce to ensure compliance to ISO9001. 

Is your paper-based system weighing you down?
It’s likely that information flows in your organisation rely heavily on your external workforce and are primarily paper-based. However, such a system creates numerous compliance risks for your organisation.
How can you make sure that every form, every daily diary entry, and every report is completed and sent back? How can you make sure, any entry is complete and accurate? Without the right systems in place, you can’t.
 
What does the right system look like?
Without the right systems in place, your ability to comply with ISO9001 will be dictated by the diligence of your mobile workforce.
The more you rely on your guys out in the field to correctly fill out their paperwork, the higher your risk of non-compliance is likely to be. 

From our years of research and experience, any quality management system which relies on the collection of data from a mobile workforce should:
1.    Provide a simple way to gather data from everyone on the team;
2.    Provide information to the right people, at the right time,
3.    Force workflows to capture all information;
4.    Be tailored to your needs;
5.    Promote a company culture which understands the benefits of compliance measures;
6.    Be mobile based; and
7.    Consider all legislation and compliance requirements.
By designing a system that considers the above elements, you will be able to take control of information flows, ensuring everyone on your team is actively meeting compliance requirements.

The impact: compliance, customer experience and culture

Implementing a new system is a big undertaking, and there’s lots of elements for you to piece together. However, the benefits of doing so will be invaluable to your organisation.

As a result of redesigning their ISO9001 processes, one of our clients saw positive flow on effects that would never have been possible with their old, paper-based systems.

When a team member on site noticed a fallen branch, he immediately completed a simple form on his mobile device, which included forced fields to ensure all necessary information was captured and was even able to include images of the incident. He was then able to export a prepared incident report, and forward this information to those who needed to know – within both his company and at his client’s business – in real time.

This change allowed our client’s mobile workforce to comply with ISO9001 requirements, without unnecessary administrative work. This also eliminated the perceived burden compliance systems had once placed on their team, leading to improved customer and business efficiencies across the board.

What are my next steps?

At Kontrol4, we recognise that there’s a much better use of your time than managing the transition from paper based processes to a digital compliance management system.

We’ll work with everyone on your team to ensure we design the right system for your QMS requirements, and ensure everyone across your workforce is on board.

Email us at contact@verticalmatters.com.au or give us a call on 1300 99 67 67, so we can have a conversation around how you can use our technology to reduce your compliance risk.