You have decided you need policies and procedures, but which business policies and procedures do you need?  Assess the business impact of each of your core business processes to generating revenue or introducing risk and then rank the results.  Core business processes that greatly impact your revenue or risk are where you want to start.

The Bizmanualz CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals are designed with your core business processes in mind.  The nine business procedures manuals in the series provide your entire company with examples of the primary procedures used in writing your company procedure manuals.  How do the nine procedure manuals address the core business processes?

1. Customer Strategy & Relationships (Marketing) is a good place to start.  Most businesses talk about the customer being the most important part of any business.  Well, if your customer is so critical, have you mapped out a clear customer strategy and customer relationship process?  Do you have customer strategy procedures for developing awareness and education of your business in the marketplace?  The Bizmanualz Sales and Marketing Policies and Procedures Manual provides sample policies and procedures to help you set marketing strategy, marketing tactics, and marketing planning to cover the first part of your marketing sales funnel — awareness and education.

2. Employee Development & Satisfaction is essential to your business because your employees are the ones that talk to and develop your customers.  The Bizmanualz Human Resources Procedures Manual provides example procedures for hiring, administration (e.g., personnel records, compliance), compensation, and — the most important part – developing your employees.

The HR manual also includes a sample Employee Handbook and an HR Manager’s manual to provide a complete discussion of human resources.  Keeping employees and facilities safe is the focus of the Bizmanualz Security Procedures Manual, which includes coverage of guard force management, employee conduct, emergency operations, protection, and safety.

3. Quality, Process Improvement & Change Management is driven by competition, your desire to excel at what you do and make your customers happy.  The Bizmanualz ISO 9001 QMS Procedures Manual provides a sample quality manual, the six quality procedures required by ISO 9001, and additional supporting procedures to provide a foundation for your process improvement and change management initiatives.

4. Financial Analysis, Reporting, & Capital Management is critical to fast growth companies.  Cash is the lifeblood of your company and a fast growth company consumes cash quickly.  The Bizmanualz Financial Procedures Manual has example procedures for financial administration, raising capital, managing capital, financial statement reporting, and the internal controls necessary in a fast growth company.  A controllers manual is included to provide the direction and organization for controlling your company cash.

5. Management Responsibility addresses all of your core business processes and is integral to every area of your company.  Every manual in the “CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals” covers the management of that departmental area.  Each manual provides a departmental (functional) manager’s manual that describes the departmental organization structure, major responsibilities, departmental guidelines, ethics, policies, and – of course – the primary business processes for that department.  The Bizmanualz Business Procedures Manual provides a simple, fast, and easy way to provide immediate oversight for all of your operations.

6. Customer Acquisition (Sales) is about engaging the customer and closing the sale.  The Bizmanualz Sales and Marketing Procedure Manual contains procedures for the entire sales funnel, sales process, sales administration and sales management common to organizations that have to oversee a sales force.  The Bizmanualz Accounting Procedures Manual contains procedures for controlling cash and the revenue cycle, which is a parallel and supporting activity to the sales process.

7. Product Development must obtain requirements from sales and develop products that satisfy the customer.  Therefore, product development procedures are found in both the Bizmanualz Sales and Marketing Procedure Manual and the Bizmanualz ISO 9001 QMS Procedures Manual, which contains procedures for customer requirements, as well as the design and development of new products.

8. Product/Service Delivery The Bizmanualz Accounting Procedures Manual contains procedures for shipping, receiving, and inventory control.  But since delivery is part of ISO and quality, the Bizmanualz ISO 9001 QMS Procedures Manual also provides coverage of this critical customer facing area.

9. Accounting Management is about accounting transaction management, as opposed to finance which is focused more on raising, managing, and using cash effectively.  The Bizmanualz Accounting Procedures Manual focus is on controlling operating cash receipts, cash disbursements, inventory and assets, the revenue cycle, and general accounting administration.

10. Technology Management is about all of the technology in your company.  The Bizmanualz Computer, Network and IT Procedures Manual contains procedures for IT administration, IT asset management, IT training, technical support, IT security, IT disaster recovery, and software development.  More in-depth continuity planning coverage is provided with the Bizmanualz Disaster Recovery Procedures Manual.

Business Process Policies Procedures

The Bizmanualz CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals collection is the best overall deal — you save 45% when you buy the set, compared with purchasing all nine manuals individually.  The series covers all of the core business processes in one simple bundle.  It includes manuals for:

• Financial Policies and Procedures
• Accounting Policies and Procedures
• Computer & IT Policies and Procedures
• Human Resources Policies and Procedures
• Sales & Marketing Policies and Procedures
• ISO 9001 Quality Policies and Procedures
• Security & Disaster Policies and Procedures
• Business Policies and Procedures Sampler

Every critical area of your company is now covered with the Bizmanualz CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals set.  Coverage is now easily at hand for Accounting, Administration, Customer Service, Disaster Management, Engineering, Environmental Management, Finance & Credit, Information Technology, Manufacturing, Personnel, Sales & Marketing, Security Operations, Shipping, Purchasing, Inventory, and ISO 9001 conformance.

Delivering Global Value and Excellence through Lean and Six Sigma

The ASQ Lean and Six Sigma Conference will be March 8-9, 2010, at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort in Phoenix, Arizona.  The theme of this year’s conference is “Delivering Global Value and Excellence Through Lean and Six Sigma.” Register Now

Preceding the conference (on the evening of March 7), the Six Sigma Forum is hosting a reception, at which attendees can meet the keynote speakers: Roger Hoerl, Ronald Snee, Rob Bryant, and Forrest Breyfogle III.

Leaning Out Your ISO 9001 QMS

Chris Anderson from Bizmanualz will be speaking on how to lean out your ISO 9001 QMS to ensure your ISO 9001 QMS is reducing your cost of poor quality.  At the conference, you’ll learn how to use lean principles to:

• Continually improve the effectiveness of your organization;
• Continually improve the capability of your workforce; and
• Reduce your organization’s reliance on procedure documentation.

See how the minimum requirements of ISO 9001 can be met using lean visual management techniques.

Keep those dates (March 8-9, 2010) open!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009, is the fortieth World Standards Day.  Every World Standards Day has a theme — this year’s is “Tackling Climate Change Through Standards”.

What Is World Standards Day?

In 1946, representatives of twenty-five countries gathered in London, England, to create an international organization focused on facilitating standardization. ISO was formed one year later but it wasn’t until 1970 that World Standards Day was first officially observed.

Organizations primarily responsible for World Standards Day include the:

• International Organization for Standardization – ISO;
• International Electrotechnical Commission – IEC; and
• International Telecommunication Union – ITU.

These and other organizations developed World Standards Day to raise awareness among regulators, businesses, and consumers about the importance of standardization to the world economy.

Each year, ISO determines a theme for World Standards day based on one key aspect of standardization.  Last year’s theme was “Intelligent and Sustainable Buildings”.  The year before that, it was “Standards and the Citizen: Contributing to Society”.  This year, it’s Climate Change.

The environment has been a recurring theme of World Standards Day (1990, 2001, 2008, and again this year).  In addition, this year’s WSD serves as a lead-in to the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference taking place this December 7-18 in Copenhagen, Denmark. ISO, ITU, IEC and others have been working to ensure that Climate Change conference participants are aware of the solutions offered by existing — and future — International Standards, such as ISO 14001 and ISO 9001.

Do you plan to take part in the UN Climate Change conference? Are you doing something special to observe World Standards Day? Or, do you have a question about standards or how to implement them?  In any case, I’d like to hear from you.

Here’s a question we’re asked from time to time: “Are your products ISO 9001 (or other standard/guideline/regulation) compliant?”

The short answer to that is “Not exactly.”  ”Well, why not?!”, you might ask.  Well, the long answer is:

First, the ISO standard does not specify what a document must look like but, instead, specifies what must be contained in the document (as in the “results and action” of a review).  Documents themselves do not comply with ISO 9001, though they can conform to the standard.  Bizmanualz documents do conform in that they include the required procedures, records, etc.; however, compliance comes from how you use your documents.

Quality management systems are what must comply to the standard.  To be certified ISO 9001-compliant, your quality management system, or QMS, has to be audited by an independent external body (certification auditor) who verifies that the QMS conforms to the requirements specified in the standard.

Documents and records are evidence of a system’s conformance to requirements.  Your quality policy, quality manual, and other quality documents and records are all forms of evidence — part of the proof the certifying auditor needs to see in order to verify, or confirm, that your company has a quality management system in place.

Furthermore, it’s not just a matter of whether you have documented processes (procedures) or whether you’re keeping records.  The effectiveness of your quality management system is ultimately determined by how — and whether — your organization uses the information it gathers to continually drive improvement in the system.

Having an effective quality management system means your organization is gathering information from (and about) its processes and is using that information to continually improve:

• The quality of its products and services;
• Business process effectiveness;
• Its quality management system; and
• Its customers’ overall experience.

Second, the content Bizmanualz provides in its policies and procedures (PnP) manuals hasn’t been developed with a specific organization or category in mind.  Our policies and procedures are written in a general tone so that any organization may adapt them to its unique circumstances, issues, and needs, as well as shape them to the requirements that all organizations have in common.

This is exactly what ISO has done — and continues to do — with all of its standards, designing them in a general fashion to assist any organization — not just manufacturers, not just service organizations, not just large or small companies, but all of them.  How much benefit you derive from ISO standards or Bizmanualz PnP products is entirely up to you.

Of course, we want to hear from you on your experiences — good and bad — with our products.  Just like you, we’re always looking for ways to improve our products and services and we need your help.  Like the TV pitchmen say, “Call NOW!”

If you’re tasked with preparing a project management plan, one of the elements of that plan is a test plan. Your test plan should include three distinct tests that you’ll need to perform: verification, validation, and acceptance.

Verification testing ensures that the expressed user requirements, gathered in the Project Initiation phase, have been met in the Project Execution phase. One way to do this is to produce a user requirements matrix or checklist and indicate how you would test for each requirement.  For example, if the product is required to weigh no more than 15 kg. (about 33 lbs.), the test could be, ”Weigh the object – does it weigh 15 kg. or less?”, and note “yes” or “no” on the matrix or checklist.

Validation testing ensures that any implied requirement has been met.  It usually occurs in the Project Monitoring and Control phase of project management. Using the above product as an example, you ask the customer, “Why must it be ‘no more than 15 kg.’?” One answer is, “It must be easy to lift by hand.”  You could validate that requirement by having twenty different people lift the object and asking each one, “Was the object easily to lift?” If 90% of them said it was easy, you could conclude that the object meets the requirement.

We call this an implied requirement because the answer to “Why?” was not stated: the ”easy to lift” requirement was not clearly specified or defined. Another way to validate an implied requirement is to produce some test objects, or prototypes, and have the customer evaluate them in the field.

Next comes Acceptance Testing, the official approval of your deliverables by the customer. Your customer may accept your verification and validation test results and accept the object. The customer may also have their own “easy lifting expert” on hand and use them for the acceptance test. Acceptance testing often occurs at the end of the Project Monitoring and Control phase, but it can also take place at the beginning of the Project Review and Close phase.

So what is the difference?  Verification is a test performed to ensure stated requirements have been met, Validation is a test performed to ensure implied requirements have been met, and Acceptance Testing ensures the customer has received what they asked for.

Getting a job done requires more than just the work.  Often times, there are inputs provided and paperwork handed over, not only before the project, but also between tasks within the project. Now, paperwork may take the form of electronic documents, or records in a database. But either way, handing off or accepting documents is often how we set the boundaries between tasks and transfer control from one party (or project step) to another.

The map used to show the flow of paperwork is one of the seven most-used process maps that we are describing in our process map series.  The document map displays visually what information you should expect to receive, and from whom. It also shows you what information you are expected to produce for someone else. For an example, let’s go back to my family vacation story. One of my usual stops before any family vacation is AAA for a TripTik. You get a custom-printed series of roadmaps showing the territory that you plan to traverse. Tall skinny pages are comb-bound into a book. The route is highlighted, usually with an orange highlighter that is easy to see in daylight and darkness.

Handing off a simple document like a highlighted road map leaves little doubt about what is intended and that control is being handed off from the navigator to the driver.

In our vacation travel example, a TripTik map page could serve as an output document from the navigator to the driver at the “provide directions” step.  Sure, after several hours on the road my wife might just tell me where to go. But she might better show me where to go. With experience, we have agreed that a highlighted TripTik removes all ambiguity between right turns and left and otherwise clarifies the navigator’s intentions.

In this small area of the swim lane map, the navigator "provide(s) directions" to the driver. The navigator is actually handing off a highlighted roadmap, or TripTik, to the driver. This hand-off shows up on the document map shown here. See the previous blog post for the full swim lane map where this example comes from.

Document Maps Help You Recognize Hand-Offs

A simple document map like this one makes it clear what documents are inputs and outputs at each process step. You can see what documents you get, and which ones you need to hand off to others.

Look at the first row labeled “Navigator.” She obtains a TripTik map and tourist brochures (received from outside the process).  The navigator executes the ‘plan route’ process step and produces a ‘highlighted route’ and ‘turn-by-turn instructions’ for the Driver. All four documents are, literally, physical documents, and thus are shown on the map.

Next, the driver uses the documents obtained from the navigator in his ‘driving’ step and produces a status report showing the current location. Notice that a parallelogram is shown instead of a document symbol, indicating that the status report is not a written document, but a spoken one in this case.

The passengers, who don’t really own any process steps, produce a break stop request as part of a pre-defined process called “break process.” That is, the break process comes from somewhere outside of the Driving process. Here, passengers produce a spoken request for a break. Again, a parallelogram is shown, indicating that no actual written document is produced.

Document maps should show all the important written documents so that you could audit your inventory of reports for compliance purposes. The document map is not a recreation of the swim lane map. Decisions and process detail can be left out. You are showing the main steps in rough order.

Document maps come in handy in quality systems like ISO 9001, which require that certain records (like product requirements) be created and maintained. Since they show the records your process creates, documents maps remind and remind process owners to generate output documents without having to name someone as the “document police.” And if you’re in the middle of the process, document maps can tell you if you have the inputs you need to do your job.

No matter how much you want to please your customers, you will not please every one.  That’s not news to anyone out there (I hope).  But, pleasing customers is especially difficult when there is no dialogue.

Again, not a breathtaking revelation.  It’s just that when I was recently given a rare opportunity by a customer, I wondered, among many things:

• Why is it that only dissatisfied customers get in touch?
• Why are their expectations often far outside the norm?
• What about the “silent majority”?  Why don’t they dialogue with us?

This particular customer — who I’ll call “Hans” (not his/her real name) — did not like that our policies and procedures manual did not contain a complete, up-to-date listing of every national law affecting or related to the subject matter of the manual.  He asked when our product had last been updated.  I replied that it was less than two years ago.

To Hans, this was unacceptable.  For what he paid, he should have received much more than he got, in his estimation.  If new laws were enacted in the last year and a half or so that could impact the way he does business, he needs to know about this.

While I agree in principle with his last statement, I pointed out several things working against us in that regard.  We have an international audience; the number of laws on any given subject must be in the thousands, if not millions, and countries are adding new laws all the time.

(NOTE: This is one reason why we feel international standards — like ISO 9001 — are critically important.  Every market you can think of (but especially food and health care) is heavily regulated in most countries.  ISO standards do a very good job of harmonizing laws around the world: that is, if a company complies with international standards like ISO 9001, it will very likely comply with relevant regulations, too.)

It is not possible for us to keep up with all the regulatory changes that go on around the world, so we defer to established authority.  And, we’re continually getting better with regard to international coverage.  For instance, in the Finance Policies and Procedures manual, we don’t just mention GAAP and leave it at that.  We also include reference to IFSB and explain its importance.  Rather than restate the applicable rules, regulations, guidelines, etc., we include links to some web sites.  (I invite you to check out a few legislative web sites.  If we tried to be all-inclusive, we might never get a product to market and if we did…imagine the shipping charges!)

We can’t possibly include everything on every subject covered in our manuals.  In fact, we caution purchasers in our manuals against assuming that our P&P manuals have everything they could possibly need.  That, and we caution them to have qualified legal counsel check their work prior to implementing and distributing it.

Finally, I told Hans we design our products to provide the greatest good for the greatest number.  It might be prohibitively expensive for many of our customers if we were to tailor the P&P manuals to their unique circumstances.  We can do that — and have done it — for companies on a for-hire basis.  Still, many companies, I suspect, purchase our products because they are a low-cost alternative and provide a solid framework for their unique circumstances and documentation requirements.  I closed by apologizing to Hans that our product could not meet all of his needs.

Now, it’s your turn.  What do you expect of our products?  Surely, there’s something you feel like we could be doing better…but what?

There are few people in the U.S. — and not a lot more around the world — who are unaware of the health care insurance crisis in this country.  The answer, for whatever reason, is as it always has been: let’s make a law!

But what kind of law?  ”Too many people are without health care insurance!”, cries one side.  ”We can’t have ‘socialized medicine’!”, cries the other side.

“We must seek compromise!”, cries a voice from the middle.  Politics is the art of compromise, right?  If compromise is “the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes that he or she has the biggest piece” (bonus points if you can guess who said that)…yes, I suppose politics could be an answer.

In reality, we know it is not.  We know that whoever writes the laws stands to gain the most if those laws are passed.  This is true not just of the USA, but of every country on the planet.

There is an effective solution out there that we seem to be conveniently overlooking.  That solution is ISO 9001, “Quality Management Systems-Requirements”.  According to the standard, key to an effective quality management system is meeting — or exceeding — customer requirements.  The product — in this case, health care insurance — must satisfy customer requirements above all.  The customer is so important that three clauses are devoted exclusively to the customer: clauses 5.2 (Customer Focus), 7.2 (Customer-Related Processes), and 8.2.1 (Customer Satisfaction).

And just who is the customer of health care insurance?  Well, who’s supposed to be reaping the benefits of the product?  There are two customers, actually…

• The people being insured, and
• The health care providers.

Who aren’t customers?  Pharmaceutical companies, medical equipment manufacturers, lawmakers, lobbyists, ad nauseam.  My advice to President Obama — and to any other world leader, for that matter — is to develop a health care system that complies with the requirements of ISO 9001, and ignore anyone and everyone who calls for legislation.  Don’t forget — the ones insisting that legislation is the answer are often the ones who stand to profit the most from it.

Whether you agree or not, let me know what you think.

Red meat consumption in the US is down quite a bit over the last couple of decades.  However, we Americans still manage to get our fill on major holidays, like the Super Bowl, Independence Day, and Thanksgiving.

Every year at about this time, the FDA, CDC, etc., reeducate the American public about the dangers lurking in improperly handled, stored, or cooked food.  They’re right — the public needs to be reminded of its critical role in the food safety and the food supply chain.  We, the consumers, are the last link in the chain…the last line of defense.

We are definitely not the only line of defense.  The US Congress thinks — or, more accurately, has been told — that other links in the chain (i.e., producers and government agencies like the FDA) need considerable strengthening.

Question: Will Congress’s proposed remedies (HR 875, HR 2749, and so on) be enough?  Or, will they be too much, as small family farms and organic producers claim?  Would we all be better served if producers were certified to universal standards like ISO 22000 and PAS 220?

Growers, producers, consumers, legislators — I know you have opinions.  What are they?

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

In ‘Top Ten Reasons’, we looked at why policies and procedures don’t work.  In this post, I’ll share a little about what we do when companies ask us to help improve their policies and procedures.

“Too long”, “unclear”, and “complicated” generally top the list of “Reasons Why Procedures Don’t Work”.  We often find that clients have complex flow charts, swim lane diagrams, and subway maps, usually with no clear starting or ending point or communications objective.  When workers look at these diagrams, they don’t know how to read them — they don’t know what the author is trying to tell them.

Get Organized, Then Consider Your Communications Objectives

While capturing everything you learned while studying your process may help you, you don’t need to show that around.  Think of your spaghetti diagram as homework, but think of your procedures as having a job to do. Your procedures are responsible for communicating know-how to someone who may have an alternate view of how a task should be done.

Think of your procedures as stories, with a beginning, middle, and end.  After discerning your intent, we look in our library for something we have composed already that tells a similar story. But our procedure communicates flow, or how raw materials, information and labor come together to create value for customers. By organizing the story around flow, we can simplify your procedures, not to mention the underlying processes. Flow should be a theme in all your procedures.

When we review a client’s procedures, we compare them to stories (e.g. procedures) that we have already written. We simplify client procedures so that they communicate flow. And we add measure and balance information at transition points to keep the underlying processes running smoothly.

Procedures Should Help Work Flow

Think of work flow as the current in your favorite fishing or boating stream.  When the stream moves at a “normal” pace, the water stays within its banks.  However, if a larger-than-normal volume comes downstream, or if the normal volume encounters an obstacle (like a bunch of fallen trees), the stream rises.  Soon, the stream has nowhere to go but out of its banks. What a mess.

To maintain work flow in your company, you need to know the measure and balance that should be maintained at each transition point in your process. For example, how much raw material should Receiving hand off to Production every hour?  Every day?  Such concrete measure and balance information determines the tempo of your processes. Workers need to know the appropriate tempo to prevent production managers from being inundated with material, and prevent inventory from backing up.

Procedures communicate flow.  And other kinds of documents and communications tools have other jobs. Thinking about and achieving all the communications jobs needed to roll out a process and keep it humming along is what we call “implementation”.

After Developing Your Procedures, You Have to Tell the Story

When we review a client’s procedures, we compare them to procedures, or stories, that we’ve already written. We simplify client procedures so they communicate flow.  And we add measure and balance information at transition points to keep the underlying processes running smoothly, at the appropriate tempo.

That may end up being a lot of information — more than you would want to write in text form as a procedure — so we deploy communication tools: maps, job aids, visual work boards, training, videos, etc.  These tools get the right information to the right people at the right time, so they can do their work at the right tempo and stay in sync.  Deploying communications tools in this way is how we achieve implementation.

I’ll cover implementation in a future blog post.