Role of Management Systems in Businesses
In this present scenario of COVID-19, almost all the industries has undergone a recession and the worst conditions faced by that is of the MSME’s in India.
Economic Shock:
The new restrictions on movement within the country will make it even harder for MSME’s who are heavily dependent on labour for manufacturing and production, especially in the largely unorganized MSME sector. In the coming months, these firms are likely to suffer a dual shock of supply and demand along with constraints of capital as well as labour
The first the foremost consequence due to COVID-19 scenario is economic shock.
The young start-ups are going to be the real sufferers because of lack of funding due to the investors will tend to save their cash in this scenario instead of investing.
Risk based thinking of QMS:
Risk has always had an implicit role in ISO standards, but newer versions are giving risk a more prominent place in quality and environmental management standards. Updated standards like ISO 9001:2015 and 14001:2015 require companies to apply risk-based thinking to a variety of processes across planning, operations and performance evaluation.
In clause 4.1 of ISO 9001:2015, the understanding of external context and internal context will be emphasized. Now this is what is exactly is the need of the hour. In external context, PESTEL analysis has to be done in which Political, Environmental, Social, Technological, Economical and Legal dimensions of the external context analysis has to be revisited by the MSME’s according to their geographical locations in which they are situated.
The government had come out the red, orange and green alert zones for COVID-19 and the MSME’s has to take this as an input for social and environmental context. Supposing a MSME is in a RED zone then naturally the lock down period is likely to get extended comparing to orange and green zones. Hence the risk assessment has to be done afresh. and the risks has to be identified based on the present scenario and properly assessed.
The Risk mitigation is the next step. The following are the inputs for risk mitigation:
1. The precautions to be taken with respect to Manpower – Physical distancing,
2. Health conditions of the worker,
3. The number of workers permitted by the government,
4. Sanitation facility of the factory entrance and other utilities
5. Cash flows
6. Reduction in productivity due to less number of workers
7. Vehicle movement guidelines by the government etc.,
Actions taken to address risk and opportunities:
An action plan has to be drawn based on the risk mitigation steps needs to be evolved addressing the resource requirements – Manpower, Money, Method, Machine, Materials and environment with the person(s) responsible and target time.
This action plan must be dynamic in nature and must be revisited and reviewed on a daily basis since the situation is changing day by day.
Journey to Next normal:
1. Awareness training on health, safety precautions, sanitation and physical distancing to all the employees must be planned and implemented.
2. Reviewing the plant lay out and making alterations to suit physical distancing
3. Working out a practical work hours so that at least 50 -60% productivity can be achieved
4. Working out the cost incurred towards health and safety of workers (consumables like sanitizers, soap, face masks, gloves , infra red thermometer, maintaining health records, provision for adequate first aid, etc). Allocating budgets for the same.
6. Liaoning with all the suppliers and get to know their status and revisiting the supply plans and match it with the revised production plan.
7. Making part payment to the suppliers so that during crisis they are with you.
8. Salary payment to employees and contract workers to preserve morale
9. Talking to the customers and explain them about your action plan to achieve next normal.
10. Daily monitoring of the situation
11. Quality parameters monitoring measuring analysis and evaluation. For maintaining and sustaining the quality
12. Revisiting the quality plan – for quality check frequency and make amendments if required.
13. Creating a quality plan for maintaining physical distancing and incorporate it in daily monitoring.
14. Form a cluster or group and study the schemes announced by Central Government and assess the eligibility to avail the benefits to keep the businesses running and preserve morale, not only for now but also for the foreseeable future.
About the Author :
Mr.Ram Kumar S
He is a post graduate in Science and Business Administration. He is a post graduate diploma in Business Law &Labor Law and also in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations. His total experience is around 22 years.
He is an ISO management systems consultant and trainer.
Lead Auditor in ISO 9001:2015, ISO 1400, ISO 27001, IATF16949,ISO 45001,TQM, TPM and Problem solving techniques and also a Lead auditor in Bonsucro – an international standard for Sustainable sugarcane cultivation
He is a qualified internal auditor in IS022301 – Business continuity management system and has conducted training programs in CAMS and a consultant for CAMS in QMS, BCMS,ISMS and ISO 31000 – Risk Management System.