Running a small business is no easy task. Things can become even more difficult if you operate in a heavily regulated industry that requires compliance with various laws and rules. The added stress of worrying about compliance can be enough to drive any small business owner crazy. However, by implementing an automated quality management system (QMS) you can give your business peace of mind in regards to compliance as well as many other areas of concern.
Compliance
As mentioned before, one of the main reasons for implementing a quality management system is to ensure compliance. Compliance refers to following the various guidelines and regulations associated with your company’s niche.
Adhering to these regulations is very important as failing to do so can result in penalties and fines, or even criminal charges in extreme circumstances. An effective quality management system will help ensure your business complies with these regulations in a variety of ways, as well as improves its overall operations.
Compliance through Connectivity
One way that utilizing a quality management system will help your company ensure compliance is through connectivity. By doing this you can get everyone on the same page and avoid making costly mistakes.
A QMS can connect all departments involved in a product’s lifecycle throughout each stage of development. This certifies that all departments are held accountable at each stage of production and ensures that nothing slips through the cracks in terms of compliance. This also gives each department the opportunity to provide feedback and work with each other to improve overall quality.
Automation and Increased Efficiency
Along with better connecting the various departments within your company, a useful QMS can also improve the efficiency of your company through automation.
Through a QMS you can automate production processes that typically get bogged down. Automation speeds up these processes by providing access to all the necessary departments in real time, which improves response rates and keeps things streamlined.
Automation also further reduces the risk of non-compliance by removing the human element from critical processes. This eliminates the risk of human error and provides further peace of mind.
Improved Customer Complaint Control
Along with keeping regulatory agencies happy, it is also important to not forget about those who keep you in business; your customers. The way that you handle unhappy customers can be especially important and a QMS can help your business improve control of its customer complaint system.
A QMS can streamline the customer complaint process and quickly take complaints from being processed, through investigation, and to a resolution. Through a QMS there is increased management oversight which, keeping compliance in mind, demonstrates the proper level of control to regulatory agencies.
An effective QMS can improve connectivity, efficiency, and control of customer complaints. Along with improving performance in all of these areas, a QMS will also better ensure compliance with the various rules and regulations associated with your industry. By ensuring compliance you can better protect your company and give your business peace of mind.
Declan Peltier has worked many years within the business management industry and currently writes on behalf of MasterControl. While spending most of his career working in the field of quality management systems, he has recently turned to writing to share some of his knowledge and experience.
I have been running a small business for the past 10 years. Last year we implemented quality management systems (QMS) and we are very pleased with the results. We were worried about the potential penalties we could have incurred if we did not comply with the regulations. QMS has alleviated many of our compliance concerns and streamlined our business for the better! As this article highlights, implementing QMS massively helps to improve the efficiency of a business and I would strongly recommend business owners everywhere take action.