ISO 14000 - Environmental Management systems

ISO 14000 – ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The overall aim of the Environmental Management systems is to provide protection to the environment and to prevent pollution.

Ø     The success of ISO 9000 along with increased emphasis on Environmental issues were instrumental in ISO’s decision to develop Environmental Management Standards.

Ø     In 1991, ISO formed the Strategic Advisory Group on the Environment (SAGE) which led to the formation of Technical Committee (TC) 207 in 1992.

Ø     Mission of TC207 is to develop standards for an Environmental Management System (EMS) which was identified as ISO 14000.

Ø     TC 207 has Established six sub-committees

1.                 Environmental Management System (EMS)

2.                 Environmental Auditing (EA)

3.                 Environmental labeling (EL)

4.                 Environmental Performance Evaluation (EPE)

5.                 Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA)

6.                 Terms & Definitions

Environmental Management System (EMS) :

EMS has two Evaluation Standards. They are

1.       Organization Evaluation Standards  

2. Product Evaluation Standards

REQUIREMENT OF ISO 14001

There are six elements

1GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

Ø       EMS should include policy, planning implementation & operation, checking & corrective action, management review.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY (Should be based on mission)

The policy must be relevant to the organization’s nature.

Management’s Commitment (for continual improvement & preventing pollution).

Should be a framework (for Environmental objectives & Targets).

Must be Documented, Implemented, & Maintained.

PLANNING

Environmental Aspects

Legal & other Requirements

Objectives & Targets

Environmental Management Programs

IMPLEMENTATION & OPERATION

Structure & Responsibility

Training, Awareness & Competency

Communication

EMS Documentation

Document Control

Operational Control

Emergency Preparedness & Response

CHECKING & CORRECTIVE ACTION

Monitoring & Measuring

Nonconformance & Corrective & Preventive action

Records

EMS Audit

MANAGENMENT REVIEW

Review of objectives & targets

Review of Environmental performance against legal & other requirement

Effectiveness of EMS elements

Evaluation of the continuation of the policy

BENEFITS OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM :

GLOBAL BENEFITS            

Facilitate trade & remove trade barrier      

Improve environmental performance of planet earth    

Build consensus that there is a need for environmental management and a common terminology for EMS             

ORGANIZATIONAL BENEFITS

Assuring customers of a commitment to environmental management

Meeting customer requirement

Improve public relation

Increase investor satisfaction

Market share increase

Conserving input material & energy

Better industry/government relation

Low cost insurance, easy attainment of permits & authorization

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.

Information technology is a tool like the other tools and it helps the TQM organization to achieve its goals. Over the past few decades, computers and quality management practices have evolved together and have supported each other. This interdependence will continue in the near future.

DEFINITION:

Information technology is defined as computer technology for processing and storing information, as well as communications technology for transmitting information.

Levels of information technology

·        Data

·        Information

·        knowledge

Computers and the quality function

Computers play an essential role in the quality function. They perform very simple operations at fast speeds with an exceptionally high degree of accuracy. A computer must be programmed to execute these simple operations in the correct sequence in order to accomplish a given task. Computers can be programmed to perform complex calculations, to control a process or test, to analyze data, to write reports, and to recall information on command. The quality function needs served by the computer are:

·        data collection

·        data analysis and reporting

·        statistical analysis

·        process control

·        test and inspection

·        system design

Data collection:

The collection utilization, dissemination of quality control information is best accomplished when the information is incorporated into an information technology system. IT maintains relationships with other activities such as inventory control, purchasing, design, marketing, accounting, and production control. It is essential for all the quality needs described in this chapter. Linkages are developed between the stored data records of the various activities in order to obtain additional information with a minimum of programming and to improve the storage utilization

Data analysis, reduction, and reporting:

While some of the quality information is merely stored in the computer for retrieval at a future time, most of the information is analyzed, reduced to a meaningful amount, and disseminated in the form of a report. These activities of analysis reduction and reporting are programmed to occur automatically as the data are collected or to occur on command by the computer operator.

Statistical analysis:

The first and still an important use of the computer in quality control is for statistical analysis. Most of the statistical techniques can be easily programmed. Once programmed considerable calculation time is saved, and the calculations are error free.

Process control:

The first application of computers in process control was with numerically controlled machines. Numerically controlled machines used punched paper to transmit instructions to the computer which then controlled the sequence of operations. Paper tape is no longer used to provide instructions to a machine

Automated test and inspection:

If test and inspection are considered a process in itself or part of a production process then automated test and inspection is similar to the previous section on automated process control, computer controlled test and inspection systems offer the following advantages improved test quality, operating cost, better report preparation, improved accuracy, automated calibration, and malfunction diagnostics.

System design

Software applications adapted to the quality function are becoming more sophisticated and comprehensive. Execution of the menu is by function key, cursor and enters key, voice, mouse, or linkage from another program.

THE INTERNET AND OTHER ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION

The internet is a world wide network of computer networks. It began in 1969 as a means of exchanging data between universities and the U.S military. In 1991 the national science foundation which was responsible for the internet, released the ban on commercial use of it.

Other electronic communication

·       Intranet

·       Instant messaging

·       Video conferencing

·       Virtual teaming

·       Document management

·        E-learning

·        E-government

·        E-commerce

·        Business-to-business

·        Business-to-customers

·        Website design

INFORMATION QUALITY ISSUES

Information quality issues encompass:

·        sufficiency

·        accuracy

·        timeliness

·        intellectual property

·        security

·        privacy

·        pollution

·        creativity control and prevention