QMS costs are important. The article “QMS implementation. QMS cost.” is not about how to buy a certificate, how to develop a quality management system quickly. The article is about our experience of working in enterprises, with consultants and already as consultants. I am sure that if you rationally approach the implementation of quality management systems (QMS), and the implementation of management systems in general, you can spend on the implementation of the QMS and further maintenance several times less than the enterprise usually does.

How QMS is usually implemented

In the usual “menu”:

• many attempts to start implementing the QMS by own means. It did not work, because there is no time, urgent tasks for the main functionality constantly appear.
• attempts to contract specialists from third-party organizations, who all turned out to be strange, provoked resistance from the staff. In fact, nothing happened.
• attempts to hire a specialist who carried out the implementation and maintenance of the QMS, the meaning of whose work no one understood. Periodically, the rate of a QMS specialist is reduced during periods of crises, isolation, and then a new one is hired again, everything is repeated in a circle.

The time is wasted, not a single employee in the company wants to hear about the implementation of the QMS.

Further we will consider working and economically viable approaches to the implementation and cost of a QMS for an organization.

What does it mean to rationally calculate the cost of QMS?

Rational calculation of the QMS cost means:

• take into account all expenses, that means, to know what it means to implement the QMS and maintain it. The implementation of the QMS is not only the cost of creating documentation, certification costs. For example, actions may be required to improve or change the infrastructure (organization of jobs, redistribution of flows, etc.).
• calculate the cost of the QMS and its payback.

Let us take an example of a typical small or medium-sized business that requires an ISO 9001-2015 certification. The announced cost of the QMS:

• 8,000.00 – 10,000.00 Euros for the QMS implementation project,
• an additional specialist in the staff with a salary of 1,000.00 Euros. The cost of wages for this specialist, excluding his training, maintenance of the workplace, will amount to more than 1 million rubles per year.

The question is, whether

the costs of implementing the QMS for 10,000.00 rubles and the QMS costs per year over 20,000.00 Euros pay off.

The answer to this question depends on several factors. In order to get the result from the implementation of the QMS and its payback, it is necessary

1. Analyze what a quality management system is, what resources the system will require. Not necessarily in detail, at least in general terms. Knowledge can be obtained:

• at a good training, for example, in our company OREX;
• as a result of a diagnostic audit from our experts.

The amount of resources for maintaining the quality management system will depend on the industry in which the organization operates (there are additional industry-specific tasks in the QMS, for example, drafting Quality Agreements, Quality Plans, notifying regulatory authorities, etc.), on the initial state of the management system, on the coefficient of “complexity” of the system being created, the requirements for it from all interested parties (for example, the development of processes can occur simultaneously with their automation, this is even advisable).

2. Answer the question: “What do we want from the management system, which result?” The expected result should be expressed in financial numbers.
3. Answer the question: “What are the deadlines until which we need the result from the management system?”
4. Determine the economically correct way, how to achieve the set goal, implementing the QMS, building a real and functioning system.

Below we provide working and economically viable options for quality management systems for small and medium-sized businesses. If your option is not presented among those described below, please write to us using the contacts following the link, we will provide you with an individual justification. All options are determined by a combination: the time to implement the QMS, the availability of resources (personnel), the availability of competence.

Let us begin:

If the system is needed PROMPTLY (obtaining a contract or order, or participation in a tender depends on the presentation of a functioning quality management system), but

• THERE IS NO competence, THERE ARE NO resources for the implementation of the QMS, then the effective cost of the QMS is a project with a consultant on QMS implementation, the use of an outsourced quality manager in the future.
• THERE IS NO competence, THERE IS personnel who can be entrusted with the work on the creation of a quality system, an effective model-project with a consultant for the implementation of the QMS, training of personnel in the course of a consulting project to maintain the quality management system.
• THERE IS competence, THERE ARE NO resources for the implementation of the QMS, then the effective cost of the QMS is a project with a consultant on the implementation of the QMS, further independent maintenance of the quality management system by own means (in the future, a large diversion of resources is not required).
• THERE IS competence, THERE ARE resources for the implementation of the QMS, then the right decision would be to develop and implement a quality management system independently.

If there is NO EMERGENCY for the development and implementation of a quality management system and

• THERE IS NO competence, THERE ARE NO resources for the implementation of the QMS, then the effective cost of the QMS is a project with a consultant on QMS implementation, involving an outsourced quality manager in the future.
• THERE IS NO competence, THERE ARE resources for the implementation of the QMS, then the most appropriate approach for this option would be to train the organization’s specialists in accordance with the requirements of the quality management system, monitor the implementation of the project. In our company, this model is implemented through individual QMS training for 3-4 months. See the training program in the figure below.

• THERE IS competence, THERE ARE NO resources for the implementation of the QMS, then the effective cost of the QMS is to immediately contract an outsourced quality manager, who, in a planned mode, without haste, will work through all the company’s processes in cooperation with responsible persons. This option does not require budget planning for an operational project to develop a QMS.
• THERE IS competence, THERE ARE resources for the implementation of the QMS, then the cost of the QMS will add up, as in the first option with an urgent need, from the costs of the independent implementation of the QMS in the organization.

Do you have any questions yet?

Do not hesitate to write to us!

LLC OREX

expert@orexpro.com

25.02.22