Are you wondering what missions consultancy firms undertake in terms of quality management like ? Would you like to know what role they play? To find out what activities these type of organizations really undertake, just read this article!
What Is a consulting firm in quality management?
They are specialized company whose mission is to ensure the success of other companies. It intervenes at the request of the latter, sometimes because this has been mandated by an administrator as part of insolvency proceedings. These missions are to improve the situation of the management team and the quality of the processes, products and services offered, to train teams regarding any regulatory issues they are ignoring and to put in place a concrete plan of action to regain optimal operation.
Audit and management.
What are the areas of intervention of this type of consulting firm?
Advising companies
Apart from all the audit process or training, a quality management consulting company can intervene on a regular or ad hoc basis to undertake a diagnostic assessment of a company. This should help identify operational problems and gaps in terms of compliance with standards and regulations. It can highlight a break in the chain of command, which can cause different interpretations by salaried employees. This first phase leads to the drafting of a diagnostic report and the recommendation of a corrective action plan.
But the provision of consultancy service does not stop at this stage of consulting. It must ensure the establishment of performance indicators which allow each level of the hierarchy to have concrete figures and benchmarks on the effectiveness of corrections.
Audits
The principle of the audit is to make an independent assessment of the organization and the structure of a company’s internal processes. It’s a fresh pair of eyes, which works outside the context of the history of the organization and any problems it has experienced. It is this new and neutral viewpoint which forms the strong point of an audit.
The aim of the audit is to identify chains of command related to business processes and to identify which parties are responsible for giving instructions and by what means they convey them, what is the traceability of information circulating, and if instructions are applicable and applied by each and every one of the relevant employees. It identifies gaps that create grey areas at the heart of a process and the resulting consequences in terms of performance and image.
Passing an audit with a clean bill of health can act as a trial run for a real quality audit, which can lead to accreditation (COFRAC for example), and can highlight any differences, significant or otherwise. This is a real test which allows organizations to prepare themselves and to make final adjustments.
The audit can also include the commercial chain, i.e. the relationship with customers, subcontractors or joint contractors and suppliers. It can also evaluate the quality of a manufacturing procedure, evaluation procedure, or project management.
The audits are conducted by independent consultancy firms. Each interview can take place within the company or outside it.
Training for management functions and for staff
There is a constant evolution of standards and practices as well as changing regulations, regardless of the relevant trade body. However, there are very few companies that take the time to update their knowledge through internal training sessions. It is therefore essential that they include external sessions in their staff training plans.
These relate essentially to management and coaching sessions, which enable supervisors to acquire the skills needed for their job, such as listening skills, analysis of possible solutions, communication with the upper and lower levels of the hierarchy and reporting. For salaried employees, training sessions help them to assimilate any changes in strategy and to acquire new skills.
Most of the companies which organize these training sessions entrust them to a quality management consulting firm such as Piton GXP.
Why do companies reach out to quality management consulting firms?
Increasingly companies are folded in on themselves, caught in a constant whirlwind, they lack the time and/or the willingness to take a step back and look at their working practices, most companies do not realize their mistakes and do not necessarily learn any lessons from them.
At a time when competition is becoming increasingly important in all markets, obtaining quality labels or performing general or thematic audits of quality structures brings a real added value. Career plans for supervisors, management turnover and piloting services are areas where external expertise is synonymous with success and growth.
In the constant search for an innovation which will give a company an advantage in the competition for tenders, hiring a quality consulting firm is an initiative that no company will ever regret.