5 Reasons Why You Need to Automate the Management Review Process

“We have quarterly management reviews to evaluate our QMS, but for some reason, some action items and open tasks from these meetings don’t get done.”

“Sometimes our management review meetings go on for over 4 hours because we’re wasting time searching for data.”

“Often, our management review meetings are all about complying with regulations that we have no time to get a good look at the big picture, understand risks and capture trends.”

“As a quality manager, I am always scrambling before a management review meeting just putting together data and charts for my presentation.”

If you’re wondering, these are all real statements we heard from ComplianceQuest customers across the world. Each of these customers (from both the manufacturing and life sciences industry) was looking to streamline their management review process. For executive leaders, it was always a problem of going blind into these meetings. They didn’t have easy access to quality metrics and data to prepare well for these meetings and ask the right questions. For quality leaders, it was a stress-filled affair just to put together everything they needed for the management review.

The message to the product team at ComplianceQuest was loud and clear. If you built software to automate and streamline the management review process, there would be several takers.

Thankfully for us, the Management Review Product was already part of our roadmap. Our customer interviews were scheduled only to validate that this was a real pain point, and also to understand what features must go into the product. Today, CQ Management Review which is part of both our EQMS and EHS solution is widely used by customers across manufacturing, automotive, healthcare, pharma, medical devices, oil & gas and construction industries.

Here are 5 reasons why you should automate the Management Review Process.

Reason #1 – Drives Efficiency and Improves the Productivity of the Regulatory Affairs (RA) Department

ISO 9001:2015, ISO 13485:2016, cGMP, ISO 45001, ISO 18001, and other such regulations and standards require that the enterprise must conduct periodic management reviews of the company’s quality or health & safety management system. It is a regulatory requirement to document findings from these meetings.

Without a Management Review Software, the documentation from these meetings along with risk assessments, trends, etc. is not easy to find. The RA team will be scrambling to find everything they need before a regulator comes in for an audit or inspection. Ideally, this should not be the case.

With a solution like CQ Management Review Software, you have everything you need in one place. It makes it easy to assign responsibilities for follow-up actions, track progress, and prepare all documents for standards and regulatory audits in the future.

Reason #2 – Helps Executive Leaders Get a Quick Look at the Big Picture

Ideally, the top management must have a good understanding of the overall status of quality and safety across the enterprise. Having a next-generation EQMS and EHS solution with dashboards and charts, will ensure the leaders have a finger on the pulse of all key metrics.

In fact, the agenda for the management review meeting must revolve around analyzing data, discussing trends and getting a sense of key risks. Even better if your Management Review software can offer some predictive analytics and prioritize risks by level of risk and potential impact. Having an integrated risk management module will certainly help.

Reason #3 – Open Action Items from the Management Review Meeting are Easy to Track

One point we heard from most of our customers is that action items from management review meetings were not tracked properly. Here’s a sample list of action items that were shared by one customer:

• Understand risks associated with Supplier A
• Request plant head to submit equipment maintenance requests 15 days ahead of time
• Conduct a 5 Why Analysis of repeat complaints
• Send report to management on all lead safety indicators
• Schedule safety training for all workers and complete within 3 months

While this list was clear, the next steps were often not scheduled. There was a need for a Management Review Software that was integrated with the rest of the EQMS and EHS, so notifications appeared for relevant users.

With CQ Management Review Software, the entire process of action management and next-steps were completely streamlined.

Reason #4 – Data Visualization with Control Towers is a True Game-changer

ComplianceQuest’s Management Review Software comes with in-built, next-generation Quality and Safety Control Towers. With this, relevant stakeholders are able to visualize a set of key metrics through highly interactive dashboards and charts.

The metrics you choose to display in the Control Tower can change in real-time, as the business evolves and scales. Business leaders or operational owners can also drill down further on certain operational metrics to analyze a particular KPI as needed.

Reason #5 – Meeting Management is Streamlined

Meeting Management is a critical feature of any Management Review Solution. It is critical to capture action items from any meeting and assign it to the relevant stakeholder(s).

Our Meeting Management solution makes it easy to:

• Prepare a meeting agenda
• Schedule meetings
• Capture meeting minutes
• Define actions and put down due dates
• Drive data visibility, transparency and accountability

Advantage CQ

CQ Management Review Software comes with the following features and capabilities that make life easier for executive leaders, quality leaders, functional managers and the regulatory affairs team.

Schedule Meetings
Schedule meetings with relevant stakeholders

Document Meeting Agenda
Document the agenda for the meeting and set aside time for various topics of discussion

Track Action Items
Document meeting minutes, action items, and allocate tasks to relevant personnel for acting on. Track and monitor progress made on these actions

Collaboration/Communication
Communicate using Chatter and tag relevant team members whenever needed

Control Towers/Dashboards
Track a set of metrics and KPIs on an ongoing basis; Track new metrics as needed — all with the goal of enabling continuous improvement

Reporting & Analytics
World-class dashboards, reports, charts, and analytics for improved decision-making

Mobile Access
Access data and documents from management reviews and meetings from any time, anywhere

Integrate with Risk Management
Seamlessly connect with CQ Risk Management solution to plan mitigative actions for new risks identified during the review process

Regulatory Reporting & Submissions
Management documents and any timelines associated with regulatory submissions

Compilation of Meetings
Find meeting minutes and data from old management reviews with ease

For more information, visit:
https://www.compliancequest.com/management-review-software/