Learn with and from peers
Join Eric Kriesch's graduate research and learn from colleagues about the rules of the game and the do's and don'ts with multi-site management systems.
Comm'ant supports this research. Our mission is to compile organizational development knowledge into best practices and share them with you. Comm'ant has been helping people apply this knowledge in practice for over 25 years. Only then does knowledge deliver its value.
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What can be learned
Setting up and maintaining multi-site management systems and certification is quite a challenge. You often grow into it as an organization as expansions occur, and at some point you have to put in place a proper structure and appropriate tools to get the management system ready and encourage people to behave appropriately for multi-site certification.
You will need to explain why the company needs to make that effort and investment, and what they need to pay close attention to so that as a multi-site organization you don't inadvertently lose certification.
If your organization has had a multi-site management system in place for a long time, it may happen to you that it no longer functions properly with all the risks and costs that this entails. For example, because the mountain of documents and patchwork of registration tools grows over your head and becomes unmanageable. Or that with the arrival of new people the good habits, working according to agreements, are forgotten. Then you can start again and again with explaining why 'they' should behave within the framework of agreements. "What's in it for me?" the managers and specialists involved are regularly asked. There is an excellent approach for that.
Costs or opportunities
You can think of the management system as a necessary evil for getting certified. It is an overhead cost and we should steer to minimize the time and cost it requires.
You can also see the management system as an operating system and analysis tool, the generator of opportunities for continuity and growth.
That consideration and interpretation, cost or opportunity, in all communications, matters particularly in getting sufficient buy-in from top management to local management. What makes it worthwhile for us? That starts with learning.
Challenges to overcome
For both new and existing multi-site management systems, these are the key questions:
- What is the value and what are the risks of multi-site management systems?
- How do you ensure sufficient knowledge, unambiguous agreements and good compliance?
- What tools will help us increase the chances of success?
- How do we best capitalize on opportunities such as knowledge development, assurance and knowledge sharing?
- How do we manage the risks and how to act when things go wrong with compliance and nonconformities?
In search of answers
For the best understanding, research is needed, on the motives and ground rules, on the interpretation by certification bodies and on their application in practice.
Your participation is processed anonymously.
There is the necessary knowledge and experience, yours and others'. The research and discussions of the outcomes in online and live meetings aims to combine this knowledge into best practices.
We want to help you learn from it and put it into practice effectively and efficiently.