The Goldcert Approach

Reducing Rework and Hidden Costs with the Goldcert Management System

Do you know how much time, effort and money is wasted every day in your company through rework?

Not just in the production areas, but in all activities that impact on the business and its infrastructure?

At a conservative estimate, up to 20% of such work is wrong first time. This represents a major opportunity for potential savings.

The Goldcert Management System makes these savings a reality.

How many "systems" are in use to maintain and improve business performance and infrastructure?

Are these approaches deployed as an integrated system or do they tend to live in "parallel universes"?

Parallel systems represent another hidden cost since they actually undermine continual improvement in quality and productivity.

The Goldcert Management System integrates parallel systems.



GMS represents a paradigm shift in business management systems that goes further than ISO 9000 in many important respects:

The Goldcert Management System (GMS) provides a value-added framework for improving productivity and quality, particularly in times of financial constraint.
GMS regards quality as an integral part of all work carried out in the organisation and is not limited to the specific issues identified in the ISO 9000 standard.
GMS incorporates state-of-the-art methods for reducing rework in all key areas of business activity - including top management.
GMS provides a common language and method for "getting it right first time" in all significant areas of the business - and not just "the quality system".
GMS provides a structured framework for the progressive integration of all management systems in use within an organisation, such as Quality Management, Environmental Management, Health and Safety, CE Directives, sectoral requirements, corporate and local management initiatives, metric management, Balanced Scorecard, Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management and any other structured approach to maintaining or improving important aspects of the business and its infrastructure.
The focus of GMS is on the effective management of change and how to respond to issues that arise "on a bad day", and is not limited to the traditional ISO 9000 focus on stable procedures and "what should happen on a good day".
Documented procedures are designed to focus on Key Decision Points. These describe the criteria that avoid the need for rework "on a good day" and the exception-handling to be invoked if any of these criteria cannot be applied "on a bad day".
The negative term "Corrective Action" is abolished in favour of the wider concept of "Controlled Action". The Controlled Action system is designed to log, plan, monitor, manage and ultimately stabilise all significant changes, improvements, deviations etc that could potentially compromise the integrity of the management system (ref ISO 9001:2000 5.4.2 b).
The Controlled Action system is designed to strengthen Key Decision Points in the documented system to prevent rework and other predictable problems.
Thus the GMS uses procedures to control the stable, repeatable operations of the business and Controlled Actions to transform plans into stable operations.
A core value of GMS is to "use the system to change the system". An appropriate example of this would be to use Controlled Actions, Internal Audits and other elements of the ISO 9000 "toolbox" to drive the implementation of the GMS itself.

The Power of Language
Rework can be reduced in any business activity, nor just in the areas covered by "the quality system". To counteract the tendency towards "parallel universes", GMS replaces the word "quality" with "business" wherever possible. Thus:


ISO 9000 Approach "Quality Management System" "Quality Manual" "(Quality) Procedures" "Quality Records" "Internal Quality Audits" "(Quality) Management Review"	Goldcert Approach "Business System" "Business Manual" "Business Procedures" "Business Records" "Internal Business Audits" "Business Management Review"



The "Business System" is designed to move the whole organisation towards "getting it right first time". The focus is on the systematic and continual improvement of human decision-making, at every level of the organisation.
The "Business Manual" integrates all the structured approaches in use to maintain or improve business performance and infrastructure. It provides a framework for ensuring consistency and reviewability in the deployment of all such initiatives and for ensuring that all are adequately reflected in the underlying procedures.
"Business Procedures" standardise and improve how the organisation handles stable, routine, predictable decisions. These key decisions set the organisation up for success – or failure. The GMS approach is to focus on improving the criteria that make the difference between the two.
"Business Records" provide the data for better decision-making and link to metric management, key success indicators, balanced scorecard and similar management tools. "Business Records" demonstrate the effectiveness - or otherwise - of "Business Procedures".
"Internal Business Audits" report on the implementation of significant changes which are of interest to executive management, and not just on compliance with stable procedures (which any self-respecting management would want to delegate).
"Business Management Review" asks a simple but profound question: "Did we achieve our objectives because of the system – or in spite of it?". The continual improvement engine that lies at the heart of the Goldcert Management System ensures a win-win scenario whatever the answer might be.


Phased Approach
The company website www.goldcert.com describes three main phases in implementing GMS. These phases are customised for each individual client.

1. Setting the Direction
In this planning phase a short clear "Vision Statement" and a detailed "Implementation Plan" are agreed and approved by top management.

2. Drivers for Continual Improvement
This preparatory phase ensures that the three key "components" of the system (documentation, action tracking and records) are integrated to provide a streamlined "engine" capable of driving the rest of the program.

3. Building the Business Model
This phase deploys the "drivers" throughout the organisation. The goal is a streamlined Business Model where the distinction between quality and business is all but invisible.



The Benefits of the Goldcert Management System
Reduces the incidence and cost of wasted effort and unnecessary rework in all areas of the business.
Improves staff morale and self-esteem by providing an increasingly effective framework for "getting it right first time".
Protects productivity and quality from the knock-on effects of financial cutbacks.
Progressively eliminates the hidden cost of maintaining different management systems within the same organisation.
Provides top management with a single "radar screen" from which to monitor the stable and (more interestingly) the unstable aspects of the business.
Systematically improves decision-making at all levels of the organisation.
Maintains compliance with all requirements as a natural outcome of the system.

Reducing Hidden Costs


The Goldcert Management System reduces hidden costs in two main ways: The incorporation of all formal systems into a single integrated business management system. The use of this integrated system to progressively reduce or eliminate the need for rework in all areas of the business and its infrastructure.



Further Information and Testimonials
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