What is a management system?

Management systems as a concept has many different names. For example, some may call it Quality Systems or Operations Management Systems, but it usually refers to the same thing - to clarify how we systematically improve and adjust our operations to meet our set goals. A management system can be used as a tool to lead, plan, control  and follow up, as well as reevaluate our business. The management system must be based on the business's goals and strategy to clarify how we proceed to meet the requirements and needs of our stakeholders. By being aware of what demands our stakeholders make and what risks exist, we can ensure through our processes and activity flows that the right things happen in the right place and at the right time. The management system thus becomes a tool for our employees and a means of control for management.

There are different approaches to management systems, for example quality, environment, work environment, information security. For these orientations, there are management system standards to help provide organizations with support and guidance in building the management system. Here, the business can decide for itself whether it wants to certify itself against a certain standard, which in turn shows that the business understands its customers' needs, has a risk-based thinking and works with continuous improvements and is competitive in the long term.

Regardless of whether the business chooses to have its management system certified or not, the management system itself means that the management ensures that the right work is done, with the right skills in the right place and at the right time. Which contributes to a uniform image within the organization and enables everyone to work towards the same goal. The business gets a standardized way of working that creates a more efficient business with the right quality and optimized results. Working with continuous improvements also becomes a natural part of the work.

With 2c8 Apps, you have the opportunity to create user-friendly digital management systems, making it easy and accessible for everyone in the organization to find information in one and the same place.

How do we create a visual management system in 2c8?

To create a management system in 2c8, we recommend creating it through an approach we call IRPO, which stands for Interested party model, Relationship model, Process model and Organizational model. The principle is based on identifying the business's stakeholders by creating an interested party model to gain an understanding of what its surrounding environment looks like, that is, which stakeholders the business has to relate to.

IMAGE: Example of Interested party model

Once we have identified the stakeholders, we can use our relationship models to show what the relationship looks like to each specific stakeholder. Each relationship model thus visualizes needs, what is demanded, what information is exchanged and what demands are made, both from the stakeholders to the business, but also from the business to the stakeholders. The information we receive in our relationship models is then used to identify which processes need to be in place to meet the stakeholders' requirements and needs.

IMAGE: Example of relationship model

In order to create an understanding of how the business's processes look, we recommend first creating an overview of the processes, a so-called main process map. A main process map usually consists of a division of the processes where management processes, main processes and core processes are represented. The management processes aim to describe how we plan and follow up our operations. The main processes describe how we meet the demands and needs of our main stakeholders. The support processes describe the processes that we need to enable our operations, which are often indirectly linked to our main stakeholders.

IMAGE: Example of main process map

Once we have created our main process map, we can then move on and describe in more detail how we carry out our various processes. At the underlying level, we can choose to either describe the processes via sub-processes or directly down to the most detailed activity level, depending on how large and complex the process is. By definition, a process always consists of several linked activities, so regardless of how many sub-process levels a process consists of, the activity level is always the level where we describe the activities we perform in the process. At the activity level, we also describe who performs what and how we do it.

IMAGE: Example of sub-process level

IMAGE: Example of process described at activity level

When we have made visible which different areas of responsibility exist in our processes, we can clarify where these responsibilities, often specified as positions and roles, are located in our organization. This is visualized in our organizational models, where we have the opportunity to show our overall organizational structure as well as more detailed information where our various positions belong and which roles our various positions have or can play.

IMAGE: Example of organizational model

IMAGE: Example of organizational model described for a department

To learn more about how you can use 2c8 to create management systems, we recommend our online training - Deepening in the 2c8 method