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ISO 9000 in Electricity Transmission and Distribution |
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One of the first electric utility to obtain ISO 9001:2000 registration for electricity transmission and distribution processes
This electric utility, a city department in a southern state, has created a name for itself by setting and meeting aggressive performance goals as well as taking up challenges in technologies for the future and creating the top performing renewable energy program in the nation. Recognizing the importance of achieving the highest level of quality service and reliability to its large high-tech manufacturing customers, the energy company has embarked on a quality enhancement plan that will be designed by experts in this field. The Electric Service Delivery (ESD) group of the company is striving to obtain ISO 9000 certification and is implementing a comprehensive quality management program based on Six Sigma and Total Quality Management principles. The industrial customers of the utility, many being ISO 9000 compliant themselves, welcome the initiative as the certification will provide a solid structure for assessing and maintaining the organization as a high quality service organization. The registration is significant because the organization believes it will be the first public utility in the country to obtain ISO 9001: 2000 registration of electricity transmission and distribution processes. Challenge
The organization identified management of controlled documents, training processes and equipment calibration as the core area for focus for the first phase of the quality program followed by issue management, corrective actions and internal auditing processes. In the past, the organization had achieved significant improvements in its performance metrics (such as interruption frequency and duration indices) by refining work processes, stepped-up maintenance, equipment upgrades and improved training. But the traditional manual and paper-based mechanisms being used to manage these processes were falling behind the scale at which the organization was operating and the level of performance demanded by ISO 9000. Quality and SOP documents were being controlled using complicated spreadsheets and paper documents. Equipment calibration procedures were not being implemented consistently. Employee training was largely informal with poor visibility into training effectiveness. With paper-based systems for managing issues and corrective actions it was difficult to manage and track the paper trail for a specific issue and to ensure that a corrective action was implemented. If a stage involved multiple participants, there was no easy way to collaborate and work on a CAPA simultaneously. Moreover, there was no way to track the status of an issue and to know where a case had been bottlenecked. Moreover, the quality managers and the executive management had no measurable data to evaluate the quality processes. The division concluded that the quality infrastructure had to be upgraded to support the quality initiative. Automating the key quality processes was imperative to ensure successful ISO 9000 accreditation.
Solution The organization will achieve end-to-end automation for the management and control
for all types of documents such as SOPs, quality reports, work instructions and
regulatory filings. All documents will be stored in the MetricStream Document Management module’s central repository with clearly defined lifecycle stages,
templates, classification methods, search parameters, numbering schemes, revision
control, association and obsolescence rules. The access to the repository will be MetricStream Equipment Management modules will automate calibration scheduling to ensure that equipment is routinely calibrated and operates within the parameters necessary for reliable performance. The workflow driven scheduling of calibration and routing of calibration requests and work orders to authorized personnel will be predictable and consistent. Using the MetricStream Training Management module, the organization will be able to build an effective training management process to ensure that all personnel are trained to adequately perform their jobs and to constantly monitor the effectiveness of training. The process will systematically identify training needs, organize courses and maintain the appropriate education level and skill set in the organization. Implementation of the Issue Management and CAPA Management modules will accelerate case closures and action plan implementations and provide complete visibility into issue review cycle times, open CAPAs, repeat issues, average closure times, etc. bringing out trends for proactive preventive actions. With the Audit Management module the ESD group will ensure consistency in meeting the internal standards and requirements by conducting regular quality and compliance audits. The utility is confident that quality management will take a different shape and form with much less energy spent on making the process work. The focus will shift to improving process and quality metrics that impact the customer the most. MetricStream solution will tie together all the loose ends of the quality processes by providing an integrated platform based solution. “Powerful reporting and dashboards was a key factor in our selection of MetricStream”, says the ISO 9000 program manager at the utility. At a click of a button, managers will have access to reports showing open cases, closed issues and recent activities. Scheduled reports such as activities past due or due in the next 10 days will reach managers desktop automatically. When heading for a meeting, quality managers can quickly run and print the summary report with the history of an issue and make the discussions more productive. “In our current paper-based system, we have to physically move around papers and files; and only one person can work on a case at a time”, says the program manager. MetricStream is providing a collaborative environment where anyone can access any information anytime (based on authorizations) and team members in different locations can work simultaneously on a case. Benefits
Efficiency: The utility expects to see the cycle times on many quality processes to drop by over 50% as the automated workflows will take the documents and information through the prescribed lifecycle without any delays. Email notifications and a task list on the home portal page for the user will improve responsiveness and proactive participation. Visibility: With MetricStream the organization will have complete visibility into all quality and compliance processes. The status and progress of any document, activity or issue will be visible and predictable. Compliance: There is a significant increase in the organizations confidence for achieving ISO 9000 as the quality processes will be well documented with systematic change control. The performance metrics made available by the solution will provide a sound basis for continuous improvement.
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