An “All-in” Approach to Safety & Quality

It is critical for enterprises to build an organization-wide culture of quality and safety. After all, the cost of non-conformance is extremely high. The best way to build this culture is by automating several key processes with a unified QHSE system. Going “all-in” when it comes to safety and quality is a no-brainer.

On June 4, 2020, Russia declared a state of emergency in a region in northern Siberia after an oil spill of over 20,000 metric tons. It was caused by a rupture of a fuel tank owned by a subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest producer of Nickel and Platinum. Experts believe that it is the worst spill in the Arctic to date.

This accident is a clear failure of safety-related risk mitigation efforts. It is going to cost the company both financially (regulatory fines, penalties, and compensation) and otherwise (brand reputation and trust).

In a recent whitepaper titled – Harnessing the Power of an Integrated QHSE – we highlight many such accidents and safety mishaps that have happened over the last few decades.

One example we highlight in the paper refers to the US $1.2B fine paid by Toyota, after over 6200 complaints were filed about unintended acceleration in Toyota Prius cars. It resulted in 89 deaths and 52 injuries.

If the company had a proactive approach to risk mitigation, both the fine and mishaps could have been avoided.

How can Organizations Develop this Proactive Approach?

We believe the answer lies in a data-centric approach to safety and Quality Management. It requires collaboration across teams, a focused Risk Management strategy, and, most importantly, a mindset to address both quality parameters and safety efforts. It is certainly not one or the other.

In the whitepaper, we highlight 7 distinct advantages of using an integrated approach to quality and safety. With a QHSE, you’re building, wherein with the right dashboards and reports in place, it is easy to identify non-conformance, risk, complaints, predictive insights on quality, and the overall performance of the company.

Data and easy flow of this data across the enterprise is the first step to prevent major and minor accidents. The oil spill or the deaths caused by the unintended acceleration in Toyota Prius cars would have had a much lesser impact had the complaints been spotted early.

It is not only about spotting risks early but also bringing in the right teams to collaborate and mitigate these risks.

In this blog, we also wanted to highlight the ROI of adopting an integrated QHSE.

The costs certainly outweigh the risks. In the end, a cloud-based QHSE pays for itself. It makes the life of the quality and safety leader much easier, while also offering a SaaS-based business model which is cost-efficient.

Here, we highlight a few advantages of going to a cloud-based QHSE built on the Salesforce platform.

• Advantage SaaS Business Model: A large percentage of our current clients have moved from an on-premise EQMS or EHS to a real cloud-based product like ours. From an ROI standpoint, the pay-per-user, per-month business model ensures scalability, flexibility, and ease of buy-in from top management.
• Data on the Move: For a quality and safety system to be effective, users must have access to next-generation features. Dashboards, mobile-based access to critical quality and safety data, quality analytics, safety management processes, security features are all key factors even from an ROI perspective. The notional cost of not enabling your users and quality and safety leaders with data on the move can be massive.
• Quality Safety Insights: As cloud-based QHSE systems evolve, we’re going to see more “suggestions” and “insights based on quality analytics,” possibly some of these driven by AI. As a safety and quality leader, having anytime, anywhere access to critical safety, quality and compliance insights can be a game-changer. This coupled with a custom safety dashboard can be a game-changer to your organizational culture.
• Costs in proportion to the scale of your business: Last but not least, the most important ROI factor, true for most SaaS companies, is costs in proportion to the scale of business. Your cost scales as your organization scales. When your user base is small, and the number of modules you need is lesser, you simply pay a lower amount every month.

For a more detailed perspective, check out our whitepaper here: https://www.compliancequest.com/whitepaper/harnessing-the-power-of-an-integrated-qhse/