RISK ANALYSIS – ORGANISATIONAL

The workshop above will introduce the team to risk analysis and attempt to identify the risks associated with the operation.
A more thorough assessment will need to be done with the assistance of all process owners and managers to get an organisational perspective of the exposures.

The assessments will also need to be approved by the various process managers. The output of this will be submitted to the Project Manager for information and quality assurance. The duration of this activity will be as per the approved project plan This will be process owner driven.
The Project manager will supervise and monitor this activity to ensure deadlines are met and the right level of quality is achieved.

INTERNAL AUDIT TRAINING WORKSHOP

An in-house 5 days training workshop will be organised by the Project manager to train auditors. The numbers to be trained can be up to twenty. However, management will make a decision on the number required.

These are general awareness workshops for all staff members who are not part of the Executive (steering committee) or the working committee (development team).
The purpose of the workshop is to create buy-in with all eventual users of the system. It provides them with required basics to enable them to meaningfully assist and participate in system development and implementation.
A day is required for a group of up to twenty participants. A number of these workshops will be required, depending on the size of the organisation and will run for the major part of the duration of the project.
For organisations with more than two hundred employees, internal capacity is developed to carry-out the remainder of the project buy-in workshops. Only eight workshops will be contacted by the project manager with the resource personnel being present as part of training.

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION WORKSHOP

This is normally a five day workshop with the working committee or system development team to impart an in-depth understanding of the requirements of the standard as well as the practicalities of developing, documenting and implementing a management system. The team will further develop the broad plan drawn up by top management, from the Executive workshop, into a detailed plan. The detailed plan is subject to Executive (Top) management’s approval before implementation.

GAP ANALYSIS

This is a fact finding intervention to the various operating stations to identify and report the gaps between the standard’s requirements and the current methods.
The gap analysis identifies the main areas of concern and indicates where maximum impact can be obtained from a management system. It is advisable to start the project with a gap analysis followed by the Executive workshop. In this order, client details, requirements are verified by the Project Manager aganisit the quotation before signing of the contract.

EXECUTIVE or STEERING COMMITTEE WORKSHOP

This is normally a one day workshop for senior management which is meant to give them an appreciation of their responsibility and how the management tools contained in the management standard will work for them.This will enable them to make significant decisions for the project such as choosing or reviewing the choice of a team and a champion to spearhead the project, mapping out or reviewing corporate processes and their interactions (identifying inputs, processes and outputs), drawing up or reviewing a policy statement as well as drawing up and approving the master project plan (broad outline).

MANAGEMENT REVIEWS

Management reviews will be scheduled according to agreed plans with top management during the executive workshop above as well as according to documented procedures when they get approved.
The project Manager attends initial meetings to give guidance as well as ensure effectiveness.

INTERNAL AUDITS

Internal Audits will be scheduled for all processes that will have completed implementing their documented procedures according to the approved project plan.
Trained staff will be used to carry out these internal audits under the guidance of the Project manager and or Management representative, especially towards the end of the project.

SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION

Once the system is documented, it is ready for implementation. This will be a process owner driven activity and its duration will be according to the approved project plan.
The output of this process will be reviewed by the Project Manager through, the receipt of Implementation milestones from process owners, internal audit results as well as through the project closure audit.

DOCUMENT REVIEW AND CLOSURE OF REVIEW COMMENTS

All documented systems will be subject to review by the Project manager. A review report will be done and submitted to respective process owners.
All comments classified as non-conformities will need to be addressed by process owners and closed out by the Project Manager.

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION

The development team will lead a process owner driven effort to review, update as well as document all required procedures and records using the gap analysis report,risk analysis and the system development workshop as inputs.
Its duration will be according to the approved project plan. The outputs of this process are to be submitted to the Project Manager, on an on-going basis as a means to monitor this activity to ensure deadlines are met and the right level of quality is achieved.

CERTIFICATION AUDIT BY ACB AND FOLLOW-UP

An ACB will be called in to carry out the certification audit. This second stage audit is a comprehensive examination of all processes. This stage will be managed by the internal capacity that will be created by The Project Manager’s intervention. The Project manager will be available to support, the management representative and their team during the audit, if required by the client. If certification is not achieved during the first visit, the project manager will be available to support the team to ensure certification is achieved at no additional cost to the client.

PROJECT CLOSURE AUDIT AND FOLLOW-UP

A Project closure audit is designed to identify problems that could prevent certification before the formal certification audit process starts. The audit duration will be planned to cover every aspect of the organisation. The Project Manager will be responsible for this audit as his final inspection of the project to confirm readiness for certification. A report will be produced. A follow up audit to close out or down-grade all identified major Non-conformances will be planned and done before the certification audit.

DOCUMENT REVIEW BY AN ACCREDITED CERTIFICATION BODY(ACB)

An ACB will be called in to carry out a document review. This first stage audit (as it is called in ISO 17021) is a review of the management system’s documentation.
It will be done on site. This is done to confirm that the documented system conforms to the certification standard‘s requirements.
Any findings from this will need to be closed out at the second stage audit. The Project manager will be available to support, the management representative and their team during the audit, if required by the client.

SELECTION OF AN ACCREDITATED CERTIFICATION BODY(ACB)

It is the responsibility of top management to decide on the appropriate ACB for their organisation.
The project manager can do an evaluation of the services provided by the various competing ACBs and provide a recommendation for management based on the criteria provided by management.