How to succeed at the Management Review of Quality

My last post on IFSQN was in 2009...5 years & a lot of evolutions later it's still a pleasure to come here!

My question is about the annual management review of quality. I work in a Head Office and I will soon have to lead my first MRQ.

In case you have conducted several MRQ and based on your experience, I would like to know the 3 bullet points you consider basic and key to succeed the preparation - so the meeting itself

Big thanks in advance,

Emmanuel

Hello Emmanuel, and welcome back after such a long hiatus from the forums. It is really fantastic to see you again. :smile:

I have hosted and attended many management reviews over the years and they can be very dry affairs, especially if certain attendees clearly do not want to be there (as is often the case). There is a lot to get through during the meeting and the agenda is pretty much set by the requirements of whatever management system standard you are working to. 

A few things I do in an attempt to make it more productive and enjoyable. :yeahrite;

• Restate the purpose of the Management Review meeting to invited attendees prior to the meeting
• Have a clear agenda and issue it well before the meeting
• Issue related data well before the meeting – ask attendees to study the data and prepare questions and comments in advance
• Restrict the meeting to 4 hours maximum
• Have a break half way through
• Do not read through the data line by line during the meeting
• Encourage open and honest debate
• Create minutes and action points and issue them promptly after the meeting
• Follow up on actions during the year

All basic stuff. 

I also try to do something different and creative at the start of the meeting.  For example at the last one I put up a photo of Deming and asked the attendees if anyone knew who he was and then explained a bit about him and what he did.  I then went on to share his 14 points, explaining they were quite old, but very relevant today and we discussed where we were strong and not so strong against the points.  This lead to a long discussion about the internal customer supplier chain and an action for each department to work with their internal customers to establish and document their requirements and implement measures of performance.

This I find demystifies “Quality” and helps to build shared understanding, this in turn breaks the ice a little and ensures the meeting goes as well as it can do.  I get good feedback.

Hope this helps you a little.

Hi Simon,

Still so pleasant to read you!

You make me more comfortable about my preparation - to be more accurate the structure already exists for some years and the basics you mention are under control - hopefully ;-) .

Your example on Deming is a very interesting added value I could use to begin the review - have now to work from this idea

Many thanks for your feedback,

Emmanuel

I will post a few slides I did tomorrow. :smile:

Sorry for the delay.

Here goes...

Dr Deming.pptx   360.13KB   154 downloads

The 14 Points - Deming.docx   41.64KB   138 downloads

Great!! Really like the definition of the system as stated on the picture

I have now till end next week to adapt a similar introduction for my MRQ

one more time thank you Simon for your support!

You're welcome Emmanuel. Glad to help.

Best of luck with your MR and even more luck and best wishes for your little one.  Enjoy!

Please don't leave it, so long next time.

In fact let us know how your review goes. :smile:

I have found it useful to create a form of some sort, or even a power point presentation, that covers all of your system's management review requirements.  This ensures you don't leave anything out.  Each system will have its own unique requirements, don't want to miss any come audit time.  Also makes it a little easier to perform subsequent MRs, and you can revise the form every year to continually improve the process.

Also good to follow up with statements in you minutes about management stand on the continued suitability of the management system as a whole and its top level policies.  If no major changes, then say so and why.  Kind of like a final closing statement in your minutes. 

hi Simon,

the review was ok, with a correct involvment of the process owners and timing ok.

I learnt my company intends to implement an additional continuous improvement process - anyway your example was a very profitable

one more time thanks for your contribution