Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Iso-Ohs
Iso-Ohs
15, 3857±3866
1. Introduction
In the recent past, areas in the organization, including Quality Management
Systems (ISO 9000) and Environmental Management Systems (ISO 14000), have
increasingly been certi®ed, while their contribution to adding value to performance
and management success has been proven. ISO is the International Standards
Organization (http://www.iso.ch), a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies from some 130 countries. ISO is a non-governmental organization established
in 1974. The mission of ISO is to promote the development of standardization and
related activities in the world with a view to facilitating the international exchange
of goods and services, and to developing cooperation in the spheres of intellectual,
scienti®c, technological and economic activity. More recently, the US Occupational
Health and Safety Administration (http://www.osha-slc.gov) published the
Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS 18001:1999). This
standard is aimed at supporting and helping to systematize the management of
risk factors and the promotion of good working conditions. This set of challenges
International Journal of Production Research ISSN 0020±7543 print/ISSN 1366±588X online # 2002 Taylor & Francis Ltd
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/00207540210155828
3858 J. C. O. Matias and D. A. Coelho
2.2. 2000 Revision (ISO 9001: 1994, ISO/CD1 9001: 2000, ISO 14001: 1996;
OHSAS: 1999)
The 2000 revision of ISO 9000 reinstates and reformulates the de®nition of
quality, phrasing it as `the ability of a complete set of realized, inherent character-
istics of a product, system or process to ful®l requirements’ (ISO/DIS 9000:2000,
Quality Management SystemsÐFundamentals and vocabulary). In this revision, the
approximation to Total Quality Management was made even greater, and an
increased set of commonalities is now found between these standards and Quality
Awards such as the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (USA), or the
award granted by the European Foundation for Quality Management. Among
other topics, continuous improvement is emphasized, and is required in a formal
manner. In this revision, emphasis is also given to the management of resources,
through the comprehensive treatment of new elements such as information, commu-
nication, infrastructure and work environment. In this way, a step was taken
towards the preservation of the external environmentÐISO 14000Ðand towards
the preservation of the internal environmentÐwhich also happens to be speci®cally
treated in the OHSAS 18001 standard (Occupational Health and Safety Assessment
Series Standard, published by the US Occupational Health and Safety
Administration). Occupational Health and Safety management aims to create and
maintain a safe working environment, while protecting and maintaining the good
health of the workers.
OHSAS 18001 has been developed to be compatible with ISO 9000 and ISO
14000 management system standards in order to facilitate the integration of quality,
environmental and occupational health and safety management systems in organiza-
tions. OHSAS 18001 supports, and contributes to systematizing an appropriate
management of the risk incurred by the workers/employees/collaborators through
good working conditions. Concerning the latter, a change has been made in the 2000
3860 J. C. O. Matias and D. A. Coelho
version of the quality system towards emphasizing Human Factors, with the intro-
duction of a new concept of `working environment’. The importance of human
resources and their working environment for the quality of products is explicitly
emphasized. Consequently, and in a systematic way, the organizations with quality
and environmental management systems, which are certi®ed, or which are on the
way to become certi®ed by the ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 standards, respectively,
should integrate in their management philosophy a system of management of occu-
pational health and safety (OH&S). There are several requirements and points that
are common to the three management systems, and there is a notorious equivalence
between the main general requirements of the three, namely: system requirements,
leadership (management responsibility), management of resources, management of
processes, system implementation and monitoring and measuring. The three sets of
standards have a common underlying principle: continuous improvements based on
Deming’s cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act). Hence, the three sets of standards share the
same structure, and were composed on the basis of that cycle. System documenta-
tion, records, policies, planning, responsibility, implementation, operational control,
communication, veri®cation, audits, conformity, continuous improvements and pre-
vention are speci®c requirements that are common to all three standards. In the
following paragraph, some examples of these speci®c requirements common to the
three sets of standards are presented in more detail.
Concerning leadership, the three sets of standards prescribe that top management
should ensure process leadership, so that maximum responsibility should rest with
top management. Top management should nominate one of its members to conduct
the correct implementation of the management system. Concerning prevention, all
three sets of standards de®ne that preventative actions should be identi®ed in order
to prevent the occurrence of potential `non-conformities’. In terms of continuous
improvements, all three standards establish that the management system should be
improved in a continuous manner. As mentioned earlier, the three standards are
structured in accordance with Deming’s cycle to suit this purpose of continuous
improvements.
The structure of OHSAS 18001 was developed to foster compatibility with the
standards systems of quality management (ISO 9000) and environmental manage-
ment (ISO 14000). This compatibility eases the integration of the three systems in the
organization, since each of the three systems is part of a common higher level of
management, despite their di erences in focus. In short, ISO 9000 is geared towards
customer satisfaction, ISO 14000 aims at supporting environmental protection and
pollution prevention management while promoting a social and economic harmony,
and OHSAS 18001 is directed at the pro-active control of occupational risk enabling
the organization to improve its safety and health related performance.
disperse systems may, however, share common goals, such as continuous improve-
ments, zero defects, or prevention of accidents. In this way, these activities can be
integrated into a single system and, as such, avoid the threefold, or greater, increase
of those documents and information channels. The interest in this integration is
justi®ed by the chaining of demand/supply inside an organization, which implies
that the satisfaction of local and proper requirements would later turn these into
general requirements. It is also worth mentioning the reduction in the individual
certi®cation costs, given the number of audits that are presently needed. The breadth
of specializations represented in the auditing teams would conversely increase in the
case of uni®cation of the management systems and their implicit certi®cation. In the
vision of uni®cation, the term Total Quality Management would represent, in formal
terms, all the management systems in the organization, given that it is not possible
to satisfy the external customers without satisfying the internal customers. Only in
this manner will the interests of all the organization’s stakeholders (employees,
customers, shareholders, suppliers and society) be conveniently satis®ed.
. the perspective on the use of these technical devices by the normal population
of workers, with their capacities and limitations, without implying a selection
that chooses the `right men’;
. ®tting machines, environments and work to the human, and not the opposite;
. the consideration of the capacities, characteristics, skills and limitations of the
user population;
. the objectives of safety, comfort and well being.
actual design process has a great in¯uence on the quality performance of organiza-
tions.
6. Conclusions
There is some evidence on the common orientation found in the systems of
standards of Quality Management, Environmental Management and Occupational
Health and Safety Management. In the course of the revisions that ISO 9000 has
been subjected to, important steps were given in the direction of the requirements of
quality excellence awards, which are representative of the TQM philosophy. These
revisions have considered people and processes as a special target of attention. In
what concerns the approach to the remaining standard systems mentioned (ISO
14000 and OHSAS 18001), this direction of approach is increasingly geared towards
environmental issues. The external environment is considered in environmental man-
agement aspects and the internal environment is considered in occupational health
and safety aspects. Given the common objectives, the reuniting of the independent
documents in a representative document of the totality of the systems would be
logical. However, this is not likely to occur in the very near future, given the afore-
mentioned superimposition of the requirements stated in ISO 14000 with the legal
demands of many countries and the fact that OHSAS 18001 have not yet been
adopted or recognized by ISO (an international and independent organization
with the credibility and impartiality necessary to foster global dissemination of the
standards).
An alternative way to reap the bene®ts of a simultaneous approach would thus
consist of integrating, in practice inside the manufacturing company, the mentioned
systems. This would be possible given a common structure, or backbone, that cuts
through the three systems. Commonalities consist, among other things, of contin-
uous improvement, in accordance with Deming’s cycle, which considers Plan, Do,
Verify and Act upon the eventual non-conformities. However, in order to reap the
bene®ts from this integration, which would consist of the e cacy of actions given
the smaller spread and dispersion of information, it is necessary that organizations
proceed in a form that is adapted to their dimension and characteristics. Otherwise
they would take the risk of increasing bureaucracy, or having shocks of authority.
Consequently, the organizations should only aim and go for such a process of
management systems integration after having acquired full conscience of the
length and breadth of the steps that are necessary to be taken. This ought to be
done in a systematic manner, weighing all the pros and cons springing from each
part of the envisaged transformation and also from a holistic perspective.
Still, however, emphasis is drawn again on the great interest that would be
brought by the publication of a document representing all the management systems
in the company or organization. This interest is partially justi®ed by the chaining of
demand/supply inside an organization, on the one side, and the reduction of the
individual certi®cation costs, on the other. In the vision of uni®cation, the term Total
Quality Management would represent, in formal terms, all the management systems
in the organization, conveniently satisfying the interests of all the organization’s
stakeholders (employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers and society).
At present, many companies would probably bene®t from linking their quality,
environmental protection aspects, occupational health and safety aspects and aspects
of organizational performance in their management systems. Working conditions
in¯uence product quality, while productivity improvement is dependent upon
3866 Integration of standards systems
References
Corlett, E. N. and Clark, T. S., 1995, The Ergonomics of Workspaces and Machines: a
Design Manual, 2nd edn (London: Taylor & Francis), p. 128.
Hendrick, H. W., 1995, Future directions in macro ergonomics. Ergonomics, 38, pp. 1617±
1624.
International Standards Organization, 1987, ISO 9001, Quality systemsÐmodel for
quality assurance in design/development, production, installation and servicing.
International Standards Organization, 1994, ISO 9001, Quality systemsÐmodel for
quality assurance in design/development, production, installation and servicing.
International Standards Organization, 1996, ISO 14001, Environmental management
systems - speci®cation with guidance for use.
ISO/TC176/SC2/N415ÐISO CD1 9001:2000, Quality Management Systems: Requirements.
Jordan, P. W. and Macdonald, A. S., 1998, Pleasure and product semantics. In M. A.
Hanson (ed.), Contemporary Ergonomics (London: Taylor & Francis), pp. 264±268.
Karwowski, W., 1996, IEA Facts and Background (Louisville, KY: IEA Press), p. 43.
Karwowski, W. and Dzissah, J., 2000, Design and evaluation of system integration e orts
for occupational & environmental safety and health, ergonomics and quality manage-
ment. Proceeding of Ergonomics in Quality Management Conference of the Portuguese
Ergonomics Association (APERGO), Costa da Caparica, p. 12.
Kristjuhan, UÈ . and Kalle, E., 2000, An ignored key to high productivity and quality. In D.
PodgoÂrski and W. Karwowski (eds): Ergon-Axia 2000ÐErgonomics and Safety for
Global Business Quality and Productivity, Central Institute for Labour Protection,
Warsaw, pp. 203±206.
Laville, A., 1998, L’Ergonomie, 6th edn (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France).
Matias, J. C. O., 1999, Normas de GestaÄo da Qualidade Ambiental Total. Revista
Electricidade, No 370, pp. 247±251.
Montmollin, M., 1997, Vocabulaire de l’ergonomie, 2nd edn (Toulouse, France: Octares).
Moraes, A., 2000, Ergonomia: Arte, CieÃncia ou Tecnologia? In Anais do I Encontro Pan-
Americano de Ergonomia e X Congresso Brasileiro de Ergonomia, Rio de Janeiro,
Abergo, CD-ROM.
Occupational Health and Safety Administration, 1999, OHSAS 18001, Occupational
Health and Safety Management SystemsÐSpeci®cation. Occupational Health and
Safety Assessment Series.
Pheasant, S., 1991, Ergonomics, Work and Health (London: Macmillan), p. 358.
Sperandio, J.-C., 1988, L’ergonomie du Travail Mental, 2nd edn (Paris: Masson), p. 140.
Wilson, J. R. and Corlett, E. N., 1995, Evaluation of human work; a practical ergonomics
methodology (London: Taylor & Francis), 1134 pp.