Yes, Quality Managers
Do Have a Role in ISO 14001

by Gregory J. Hale and Caroline G. Hemenway

Organizations
are looking
to quality professionals
to help with
ISO 14001 implementation.

Well, you did it. You survived the three-day refresher course on ISO 9000 quality management systems auditing that the company "suggests" you take each year to bone up on your quality system auditing skills. Now you're motivated and anxious to apply some new systems management techniques to line functions-but you may get more than you bargained for.

Rumor has it that the corporate office wants you to be a key member of the ISO 14001 environmental management system implementation team. You ask yourself: How can that be? I don't know the first thing about environmental regulations. How could I possibly help implement an environmental system? I'm quality, not environment, right?

Yes, but you know systems. Because of your systems background, you may be the most valuable person on the implementation team. And, if you need motivation to join, consider that this added value could translate into greater job security, too.

Experts agree that employees familiar with quality management systems terminology and procedures will be valuable when it comes to implementing an EMS such as ISO 14001. Their skills in developing management systems elements, such as policies and procedures, conducting and planning audits, and assessing personnel knowledge and skills in management systems, will prove invaluable.

As companies explore the role of quality managers, some key questions emerge:
What roles will quality auditors and environmental specialists assume in an EMS audit?
What new audit skills should quality and environmental auditors possess?
What are the similarities and differences regarding international guidelines for conducting audits?
Will ISO 9000 auditor certification be compatible with ISO 14000 auditor certification?
How can the quality auditor contribute added value to an EMS and its assessment?


Firsthand experience in these areas may be limited, but answers to some of these questions are emerging and are addressed below.

Systems knowledge means teamwork
While quality professionals probably cannot carry the ISO 14001 implementation load alone, they can be an excellent source of experience and expertise, according to John Broomfield, president and CEO of Quality Management International Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in ISO 9000 and ISO 14000. They know how to make the quality management system become the de facto way of doing business. Broomfield says the modern quality and environmental professional should possess the following skills:
Systems thinking-so today's solutions don't become tomorrow's problems.
Systems design-to meet user requirements.
Systems development-including user.
Systems auditing-to target improvements without creating fear.
Using systems-to achieve compliance and continuous improvements in performance.


"Systems influence behavior by improving accountability, creating a store of corporate knowledge and supporting the decision-making processes where the work is done," explains Broomfield. "Systems structured around the continuous-improvement spiral of the plan-do-check-act plan make ISO 14001 a better model than even ISO 9004 quality management system guidance for the management of quality."

Teamwork requires a holistic view
It is important to underscore distinctions in quality professionals based on degree of experience and expertise, emphasizes Cal Maj, quality systems leader for quality management systems of NOVA Gas Transmission Ltd., a large petrochemical and gas pipeline company based in Alberta, Canada. A world of difference lies between a quality professional with a master's degree in business administration and a quality professional who has taken only one or two QMS courses, he explains.

NOVA began implementing ISO 9002 at its petrochemicals sites in 1990 and has six petrochemicals facilities certified under the standard. The company is also implementing ISO 9002 in several of its gas pipeline facilities but has not set a date for certification. Senior-level management is aware of ISO 14001 implementation efforts but hasn't committed to pursuing certification, notes Maj. NOVA plans to use ISO 9002 and ISO 14001 to create a firm infrastructure for integrating other management systems elements.

Some quality professionals try to isolate the ISO 9002 implementation effort instead of inviting staff from other departments to participate, says Maj. This is a common occurrence in many fields.

"We want quality professionals who can present a holistic view for implementing a management system such as ISO 14001 by enlisting the assistance of other departments in the process," imparts Maj. "We are using quality professionals who approach management systems implementation from the process perspective as opposed to the product perspective.

"The ideal quality professional would have an engineering degree and an MBA that would allow him or her to communicate the business advantages of implementing a management system to other divisions. We want people who are as skilled in influencing management as was necessary with ISO 9000 implementation."

NOVA's gas transmission division is implementing ISO 14001 and health-and-safety requirements as part of the ISO 9002 effort. Waiting until now to implement ISO 9000 provides facilities in the division a marked advantage because NOVA can incorporate other disciplines into the overall quality management system, according to Maj. Quality professionals possess a wealth of ISO 9000 implementation experience that can be modified for ISO 14001 implementation. He offers the following examples:
Electronic documentation hierarchy-knowing how to define a policy, procedures, records, etc. and differentiate among management systems elements. For example, a flowchart or video clip could be used as a procedure in place of text.
Job design-making sure that employee job descriptions contain elements relating to total quality management in the context of the organization.
Audit protocols-developing an audit strategy, conducting the pre-audit meeting and facilitating the closing interview.


"In many of our facilities, we have defined environment, health and safety processes, but the trick will be to marry quality into the equation," says Maj. "We don't see the point in conducting four separate audits when a multidisciplinary team could audit all systems at one time.

"We want the management systems requirements to be seamless. When grass-roots employees perform daily tasks, we don't want them classifying those tasks into environmental requirements, health-and-safety requirements and so forth."

For example, when an employee receives an underground storage tank, a quality system requirement may call for the tank to be put on blocks so that it doesn't touch the ground and compromise the tank's integrity. Also, an environmental system requirement may dictate that a pressure release valve be attached to the tank. Rather than classifying the tasks into categories, every employee will perform these tasks as part of his or her regular responsibilities, suggests Maj.

Samantha Munn, manager of environmental management systems business development for registrar Inchcape Testing Services Intertek, says she witnesses intense barriers between quality professionals and the rest of the organization during some ISO 9000 audits. Having quality and environmental personnel working together to implement ISO 14001 will help break down these barriers, predicts Munn.

"Approaching management systems from an integrated standpoint allows organizations to include representatives from all facets of the organization on the implementation team," she notes. "But in order for it to happen, the entire organization must undergo a culture change. No longer can one person be the only source for management systems information; it must be spread around the organization."

Scarcity of talent means more training
"Ideal" quality professionals are scarce, purports Craig Mesler, president of Quality Management Solutions Inc. Most organizations will have to teach quality auditors new skills and techniques if they are to be used to implement and/or audit to ISO 14001. These new skills include:
Acquiring basic knowledge of environmental laws and regulations.
Obtaining a cursory knowledge of environmental science, e.g., chemistry, physics.
Learning how to determine what is and isn't a significant environmental impact.


"Smaller companies won't have the luxury of employing separate people for ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 implementation, and therefore these people will be one and the same," explains Mesler. "Quality professionals will be able to determine if the management system conforms to the standard's requirements, but when it comes to judging continual improvement and appropriateness of the policy, quality professionals will be at a disadvantage."

ISO 14001 third-party audits will not include a detailed compliance analysis, but internal and second-party audits should include compliance information in order to obtain the most value from the audit, stresses Mesler. Certain traits are second-nature skills for most quality auditors and should prove crucial during the ISO 14001 auditing phase. They include: interviewing personnel, observing, questioning, analyzing, investigating, evaluating and verifying. Organizations should look for individuals with these skills.

For example, Mesler recently visited a 300-employee plastics manufacturing facility in Nevada that does not have a facility environmental manager. Rather, the facility assigns the environmental compliance task to the human relations person, and that person relies on the corporate office for help in identifying applicable regulations. This facility is ISO 9001-certified and will use ISO 9000 staff to implement ISO 14001. During the visit, Mesler witnessed several ISO 14001 nonconformances, including outdated spill-prevention-control countermeasures that ISO 9000 personnel will be called upon to upgrade. The facility will use documentation control measures synonymous with ISO 9000 systems to develop its ISO 14001 processes.

"Most larger companies are already implementing ISO 14001-types of procedures and processes, but if this standard will be worth anything, it must be made applicable to smaller companies," says Mesler. "Most people in smaller companies responsible for implementing ISO 14001 will be wearing more than one hat, and some things will inevitably slip through the cracks."

The role of the quality audits and quality auditors evolves continuously, explains Mesler. At first, an organization's quality auditors were required to assess vendors' compliance with purchase-order requirements. As quality systems proliferated, the quality auditor's role expanded into a watchdog function. Now initiatives such as ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 offer the opportunity for these auditors to be part of a meaningful continuous improvement initiative, he notes.

Experience means avoiding pitfalls
Eastman Kodak and Lucent Technologies, formerly AT&T MicroElectronics, are among the companies seeing great benefits from using ISO 9000 personnel during ISO 14001 implementation. The total quality management philosophy that ISO 9000 people bring to the table is instrumental to the implementation process, says Ted Polakowski, microelectronics environment and safety officer and manager for Lucent. These people can advise environmental personnel on what did and did not work during the ISO 9000 implementation process.

Lucent has designated personnel with ISO 9000 implementation experience as company mentors when it comes to all aspects of the implementation initiative. For example, an ISO 9000 coordinator will help choose the company's third-party registration organization.

"Employees are looking to the ISO 9000 coordinator to impart knowledge about documentation, audits, corrective action plans, etc.," explains Polakowski. "With our vast experience in ISO 9000 implementation, we expect to have a much steeper learning curve when it comes to implementing ISO 14001.

"Our senior management has referred to ISO 14001 implementation as the most important effort for the microelectronics division this year, and it may well become part of the entire corporate strategy."

Lucent used to have large quality groups that focused on quality management systems issues, but now quality is ingrained in each employee as part of the job. Management will look to quality professionals for assistance in accomplishing the same with environmental issues, confirms Polakowski.

John Stratton, a quality management consultant for Kodak's corporate quality department, says having ISO 9000 experience within the corporation will save the company time and money. It's a matter of extending or cloning the wheel in the QMS area to address the environmental arena.

"The auditing process for ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 will be very similar, and we are putting together multidisciplinary teams to address both subjects during the same audit," says Stratton. "My advice to any organization is: Don't duplicate elements where unnecessary; use systems and subsystems whenever possible."

It's important to get the quality people and the environmental people talking on the same wavelength early, stresses Stratton. Invite them to compare similarities and differences in their functions and begin to work toward a middle ground. Quickly, companies will notice that a management system is a living and breathing entity which can incorporate other elements such as health and safety, financial, risk assessment, etc.

Kodak and Lucent are fortunate because they have environmental people on staff that understand environmental management in the context of systems. While this may be true of several large companies, it is not the norm. Most companies are struggling to identify compliance requirements and develop strategies to remain in compliance with laws and regulations.

"If you don't have ISO 9000 experience, you will have a more difficult path to implementing ISO 14001, but don't let that stop you," Stratton advises. "Look to other organizations and the numerous quality management tools that are available for assistance. It can be done."

About the authors

Caroline G. Hemenway is publisher of CEEM Information Services in Fairfax, Virginia. Gregory J. Hale is associate editor of International Environmental Systems Update, a monthly newsletter on ISO 14000 developments and implications. CEEM publishes IESU and several other ISO 14000 and management systems products. For more information, contact CEEM at (800) 745-5565 or (703) 250-5900; fax (703) 250-4117.