The growing acceptance of internationally recognized quality and environmental management systems, as well as the interest in having a similar management system for safety, presents opportunities for improving the way all three areas (SHEQ) are managed. There are advantages and disadvantages that must be considered. Among the advantages are the more efficient use of resources, the development of common terminology, reduced duplication and better sharing of information. Other benefits to having an integrated approach are:
Business Perspective: Improved efficiency and effectiveness, reduced costs, reduced audit time, ability to better demonstrate linkage to the strategic plan
Organizational Perspective: Simplified training, record keeping and documentation, improved communication, decreased paperwork, development of a shared vision, and integrated promotion of continual improvement.
In order to effectively integrate SHEQ management systems the organization must have clear objectives as to what is to be achieved from integration, before beginning the process. The initial step in the integration process is to assess the organization's readiness for integration. A part of this assessment is identifying the benefits and risks of integrating the organization's safety, environment and/or quality systems. Table 1 illustrates four dimensions of risk that provide a practical approach to identifying and understanding the influences that impact on the organization's risk and their ability to successfully integrate the management systems.
Table 1. The four dimensions of risk (available in full paper)
Organizations having one or more of the three (SH, E & Q) management systems well established will have a foundation on which to base integration. These organizations will experience a smoother transition.
The next step is to understand some common linkages among SHEQ management systems. This will assist in determining the extent of integration that you want to achieve. Table 2 shows the alignment of the ISO 9000, ISO 14000 and the OHSAS 18000 standards and provides a good platform for this.
Table 2. The alignment of OHSAS 18001, ISO 14001:1996 and ISO 9001:2000 (available in full paper)
It is not uncommon for companies integrate safety, health and environment first. Understanding the similarities and differences among safety, environment, and quality management systems is often helpful in determining what and how much to integrate. After evaluating their readiness to integrate some organizations determine that the best option is to align rather than completely integrate their systems. There are different variations of integration:
Quality, Safety and Environment
Safety and Environment
Environment and Quality
Quality and Safety.
This step involves building a road-map for the integration process and identifying the activities that will be included in the integrated system. The PDCA (plan, do, check, act) model is a useful tool for this. The following outline includes many of the planning, doing checking and acting activities: