When it comes to making decisions informed by risk, each industry has its preferred risk assessment tools. A risk matrix is a common one, as is Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA).

One tool that doesn’t get as much attention is the bowtie risk assessment. The bowtie model is useful for visualizing complex risk scenarios where you don’t have historical data to create a risk matrix.

Let’s look at how different industries like aviation, energy, life sciences and manufacturing are using this risk model.

Technology, business best practices and quality management all saw substantial growth and change in 2017. We don’t anticipate that these areas will stop innovating any time soon.

We talked to five of our industry leaders to find out what quality management trends we’re likely to see in 2018—with focuses on the market outlook, the evolution of technology, regulated industries, Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) and software.

ISO standards are the backbone of quality management. They set detailed criteria for best practices for quality management processes and systems.

Learning the best ways to apply these standards to your operations is extremely important for compliance success. Executing ISO standards with the proper tools lets you efficiently master compliance.

Of those tools, document control is one of the most critical because it standardizes your documentation and training processes and mitigates risk.

Document control aligns with the goals of ISO standards to achieve and maintain compliance.

A large study of over 4,000 workers showed that nearly 3 in 4 employees don’t think they’re achieving their full potential. Add the fact that one-third say boring training content hinders learning, and it’s clear organizations have a long way to go in terms of effective training.

Lackluster training isn’t just an annoyance. It also carries a multi-million-dollar price tag for organizations in terms of poor performance and employee turnover. To help companies avoid these problems, we’re looking at 7 strategies to make your employee training programs better. 

Audits are more than just sets of checklists, and corrective actions are more than just band aids for your organization.

They are both critical quality management functions—and they happen to work extremely well together.

Here are three reasons why we consider audits and corrective action to be a “dynamic duo,” a duo that brings out the best in each other.

Many quality or Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) management professionals rely on Corrective Action software everyday to manage events such as nonconforming materials, customer complaints and safety incidents.

And yet, time and again, we see companies falling behind on their corrective action goals. Corrective actions don’t work. They have weak fixes, where people automatically assign human error as a root cause without examining the systemic factors behind the error. And when an incident occurs, it’s not uncommon for someone to comment that they knew it was bound to happen—a sure sign of ineffective corrective actions.

What can companies do from a technology perspective?

To ensure your corrective action process is working, you need corrective actions that are findable, trackable and designed to prevent systemic issues.

When you hear the term operational excellence, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Is it:

1. Just another worthless top-down initiative forced on overworked employees.
2. The answer to all the problems plaguing your company.
3. Something corporate goons invented to make themselves look good and justify their bloated salaries.

The correct answer: none of the above. Like many things in life, success with operational excellence is all in how you approach it.

In today’s post, we’ll bust common myths and misconceptions around operational excellence, so you can identify an effective strategy that’s grounded in reality.

When it comes to solving problems that arise in manufacturing, identifying the cause of what went wrong is top priority. But what about once you’ve pinpointed the root cause of the issue? That’s when the real work starts, and you have to make a corrective action plan capable of fully resolving the problem.

In this post, we look at the most important elements of your corrective action plan, and how you can ensure an effective, streamlined corrective action process.

If you’ve watched the hit satire Portlandia, you might remember a sketch where Fred Armisen is frantically switching back and forth between reading funny blogs, answering text messages, checking email and updating his Netflix queue.

His friend, Carrie Brownstein, tries to help him overcome this endless hamster wheel of distractions. Suddenly, they’re speaking telepathically via “Mind-Fi,” which she says is like WiFi for thoughts and will let Fred put down his devices (until an ad interrupts them and makes his brain melt down).

Quality managers often have similar problems, jumping from one system to another, sifting through spreadsheets and checking off audit questions until they can barely see their larger quality goals.

With that in mind, let’s look at 5 ways cloud-based Quality Management System (QMS) software can help streamline your work through more efficient task management.

To achieve operational excellence, you need a comprehensive, forward-thinking approach to managing safety and quality risks.

This infographic identifies 4 of the most common risk management gaps and shows you how solutions like quality management software can help mitigate these risks.