QUALITY IMPROVEMENT
A balometer used for commissioning new operating theatres for air flow compliance.
Under ISO 9001 there are numerous
processes and procedures a company would be expected to follow. For example, companies are required to record their customers’ contact information and gather feedback during the customer engagement. Other processes and procedures which may be novel to many companies include keeping an error log, or implementing a final inspection procedure. The process concentrates on continuous
improvement. This is only measurable if you know where you are to start with, and the initial efforts for becoming compliant are mainly about finding out what the starting point for the organisation is.
ISO 14001 standard The ISO 14001 standard sets the quality bar for environmental management systems. Organisations with the certification have been assessed on their commitment to reduce waste management costs and demonstrate their responsibility to protect the environment. The environmental standard is recognised worldwide, and assists organisations with compliance with increasingly demanding environmental regulations, and – in some cases – laws. The process towards being assessed
against these standards was not immediately obvious to DRLC. Dr Webb recalls the start of the journey for the business: “I had heard of the ISO 9001
A DRLC AE (Ventilation) witnessing compliance during a water flow rate test on a new AHU.
and ISO 14001 standards – I just didn’t appreciate what they actually entailed. It felt like we were being asked to ‘Make a Movie’ – a project type first described by Eddie Obeng in his book, The Project Leader’s Secret Handbook.1
This type of
change is characterised by knowing where you are now, and where you want to end up, without knowing exactly how you are going to get from A to B. As a Project manager myself I knew that this project type could, similar to the development of a real movie, be incredibly expensive, and overrun the timescale. It seemed like a very big risk to our business if we got this wrong.” DRLC’s Directors had a number of meetings to decide how to approach the task of applying for these ISO accreditations, and even whether to do it at all. Decision time came, and they took the next step towards accreditation by reviewing and selecting a Quality Consultant to advise and guide them through the quality gates imposed by ISO. The agreement was made to look into Quality Consultants who could help with the process. It seemed important to DRLC that the consultant chosen was fairly local to its Sheffield head office, for a number of reasons – not least because this would reduce the carbon footprint of face-to- face meetings. Richard Dolman of Glade Consulting Services was selected to assist with the
44 Health Estate Journal September 2024
process to accreditation and had his first meetings with DRLC in March 2023. Richard runs his own business, and had a number of things in common with DRLC – and particularly being a Small-to- Medium Enterprise (SME) in a business environment of much larger entities. He said of his first impressions: “As with
most companies we work with, DRLC was already in a great place operationally, but its business planning processes were not formalised in such a coherent way, and the business did not have any quality or environmental objectives in place. We also critiqued the way that communication worked in the business, especially with the interaction of the processes, and found opportunities to improve this.” The DRLC and Glade Consulting teams then got to work to create a system which not only met the requirements of the two standards, but also helped the business to systematically improve its processes.
Working with the status quo Richard Dolman added: “Our approach is always to work with the systems and information that the client already has in place; what we don’t want to end up with is a cumbersome management system which does not give any benefit to the company. David and Louise appreciated this approach, and it was a straightforward process working to a clearly defined goal.” Of the unfolding of the process over
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