Your company is developing a product and driving to meet a deadline. But your information flow is chaotic and no one is quite sure about the project’s current status. Meetings happen on the fly without recording what transpired. Not everyone is copied on important emails. Suppliers provide updates however it suits them.
Finally, someone steps in and cleans up the mess, pulling together all the critical information at the last minute. That person may be lauded as a hero internally. But it’s no way to run a business.
When I joined medical device manufacturer Lumicell as senior vice president of quality, one of my first priorities was to move to a cloud-based quality management system (QMS) software solution.
A cloud-based QMS can bring order to the unstructured flow of information by serving as a “single source of truth.” All information is captured in the QMS, and because it’s cloud-based, it’s accessible from anywhere, anytime. Everything is visible. At the same time, the QMS administrator can control who has access to which documents. In other words, if you need to keep certain suppliers from seeing proprietary information, you can make it off limits for them while allowing the relevant internal teams access to whatever they need.
Also of great value to our team are the more objective measurements of how we’re performing that the QMS provides. We gain deeper insights into our data, our decision-making processes, and the time it takes us to move through our development process.
This single source of truth also means no one has to be the 11th-hour hero anymore. This gives the entire team more leeway to adjust the development processes as it progresses, with enough time to course-correct. As a result, we can develop products that better fit our market.
Tips for Picking and Implementing a QMS
Some of our team had worked with the Arena Solutions system and spoke highly of its features and capabilities, so that’s what I selected. Having buy-in from the team is important, since everyone has to use it. For this reason, I believe that properly pitching the value and benefits of the system to the end users can be just as important as selecting the right system in the first place.
To that end, here’s what has worked for us:
Conduct an internal marketing campaign before the system is implemented. We emphasized that the QMS was going to make it easier for everyone to do their jobs and make the organization more effective overall. By making certain processes more efficient, we explained, it would free up more time for our employees to be creative and to collaborate with their peers.
Play up the “new and shiny” aspect of the system. Take advantage of the psychology of the “novelty effect” to get buy-in from the outset. People tend to be intrigued by new and shiny tools. We capitalized on that interest and did some training with the system before it was actually deployed, so everyone knew what to expect and to get excited about it.
Don’t overload users with information. A QMS system like Arena’s has a host of features that benefit an organization, but most people don’t need to know about all of them. If there are 30 potential benefits, an individual may only care about the three that directly affect their work. Train them on those three and don’t mention the other 27.
Keep instructions simple and visual. Going into too much detail when describing how to perform a particular task can be overwhelming. Keep your explanations as simple as possible, and use visuals to make it even easier to understand.
Guide habit formation. While the new-and-shiny-object syndrome will stimulate initial interest, change is hard. Be sure your trainers and managers guide employees to make a habit of their QMS activities. Encourage them to make logging into the system in the morning an automatic activity, like brushing their teeth.
Set up a ‘virtuous cycle.’ It won’t happen immediately, but by carefully and thoughtfully making a QMS part of your company’s operations and culture, you’ll be setting up a “virtuous cycle”—one in which people are more efficient, effective, and connected with their company. Even when they’re not directly affected by a particular thread of discussion or decision, they can see that work is being done and tracked and that progress is being made toward the company’s goals. While a virtuous cycle like this should result in greater productivity and employee engagement, measuring its total impact can be challenging. At the same time, when things are working more smoothly, and the need for last-minute heroics has been eliminated, your employees will appreciate the change.
Ben Locwin is a healthcare executive, philanthropist, and innovator. He has worked on pharmaceuticals and medical devices across a number of therapeutic areas, as well as treatments being tested to solve the current COVID-19 global pandemic. He has been participating on public health task forces and has worked closely with investors on the future of the industry.
