The Integration Dr Blog

Depending on your industry, you may be asked to integrate an Environmental (E) system with an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) system to make your system more robust; to save time and effort; or to comply with customer requirements (to name a few of the many reasons cited for integration of E and OHS).

With the latest revisions of ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001, integration is very easy to implement.  [A joke within the consulting field is that one standard is identical to the other with the exception of the “global replace” – and it’s not too far from wrong].  Since there is virtual identical redundancy in requirements in most cases, integration is the way to get a bigger ‘bang for the buck’.  However, there are important differences between these two standards, and you want to ensure that you are not overlooking the differences between the two standards while doing the implementation.

Unique areas of the standard: for OHS, the organization must consider acceptable risk and risk management; management of change; participation of workers; and incident investigation. For EMS, the focus is on environmental impact rather than impact to workers/safety.

Areas that are similar include a Policy (4.2); hazard (OHS) or Environmental (E) identification (4.3.1); legal and other requirements, and compliance (4.3.2 / 4.5.2); objectives and programs (4.3.3); roles and responsibility (4.4.1); competence, training, and awareness (4.4.2); communication (4.4.3); documentation (4.4.4); control of documents (4.4.5); operational control (4.4.6); emergency preparedness/response (4.4.7); measurement and monitoring (4.5.1);  nonconformity, corrective and preventive actions (4.5.3); control of records(4.5.4); internal audits (4.5.5); and management review (4.6)

You may be considering implementing Quality (Q) and Environmental (E) Systems together from scratch; or you have one of the systems in place, and are considering adding on the other system.  How can you do this?

First, read the previous post about the definition of an integrated system.  For the purposes of this post, we’re going to assume we are looking at a fully integrated system.  Fully integrated systems will have one set of documentation (policy, manual, procedures, etc); one set of records (encompassing all the quality and environmental requirements); one management system review, one integrated audit plan and schedule, etc.

So, what’s our strategy for implementing a Q and E integrated system?

1)     Understand the requirements for both standards

2)     Understand the common elements, that are the most easily integrated (because the working is virtually identical)

1. Policy
2. System Documentation (Manual)
3. Document Control
4. Records Control
5. Management Review
6. Internal Audit
7. Corrective Action
8. Preventive Action

3)     Develop a strategy of how you are going to address areas that do not have a complementary component in the other standard (for example – environmental aspects and impacts in ISO 14001; customer focus and satisfaction in ISO 9001)

4)     Develop a punch list of action items to be addressed, with the goal of implementing the system (Plan The Work)

5)     Place responsibilities (names) and targets for completion (dates) next to the action items.

6)     Implement the plan (Work The Plan), including internal audits to ensure that the implementation is effective and comprehensive.

If an organization chooses to do a partial implementation; you implement step 2, and then skip step 3 before continuing on with the balance of the list.  Partial integration is seen most often in organizations where they have separate existing Q and E functions who do not report to the same management; and where these functions are somewhat entrenched.

One method is not necessarily better than another (partial vs. full integration); it is more often which method is a better fit to the organization’s needs and goals.

Many customers are now requiring that organizations maintain multiple certifications; integrating these requirements into one system eliminates redundancy, the opportunity for error (it says abc in the quality system while the environmental system says def…); and helps employee to understand that it’s not a ‘quality’ requirement or an ‘environmental’ requirement; it’s a ‘process’ requirement or a ‘system’ requirement (in other words, these requirements are cohesive and linked).

Questions on integrating quality and environmental systems?  Contact us at info@mcdcg.com or 512-280-7175 to chat!