CASE STUDY

Triaster

Lifting the Lid on the Triaster IMS

Triaster - of course! - uses the Triaster Process Library for our Integrated Management System and we enjoy all of the many benefits that result from having a useful and usable Integrated Management System (IMS), used by everyone in the company.

The Triaster Integrated Management System: TRIBE

The homepage design of the Triaster IMS is based on one of our standard Process Library Design themes, which has been easily adapted to the homepage that we need. This structures key information in a clear and easy to use manner, as well as adopting Triaster's branding - as used throughout our website - as can be seen below.

Imagery familiar to all at Triaster has therefore been applied to our IMS, which we call TRIBE. This stands for Triaster: Bringing Excellence.

Tribe Homepage

The design flows through to our departmental information sub-menus.

Tribe Sub-homepage-1

As you would expect, all our processes are mapped using Triaster’s Process Navigator and offer a familiar and easy way for staff to navigate through Triaster’s end-to end processes and find the information they require.

POD Review

All Triaster’s documents are available via TRIBE through search and are linked to relevant process maps. Documents are categorised into:

  • Policies
  • Templates
  • Work Instructions
  • Procedures
  • Technical Documents
  • Terms
  • Corporate Documents

All documents are created, edited, and released as per the Document Control Policy and related procedures.

One Single Source of Truth

As with all good Integrated Management Systems, TRIBE is understood by all staff to be the single source of truth for Triaster.

All staff know that everything is available to them via TRIBE, and that all the documentation and process information accessed via the IMS will be up to date, correct and will always tell them the correct form to use, or way to do things…

This saves hours of time; no one ever has to look for how something should be done or guess and do things the wrong way.

TRIBE is particularly helpful in supporting new starters and anyone who needs to cover the work of another employee who is off sick or on holiday. They can find the full information (and all supporting information) just by searching the IMS.

TRIBE is well loved and used by all Triaster staff.

Promotes Best Practice as Standard

That our IMS is so well used, in turn promotes quality working and minimises the risk of quality failures.

Only best practice processes are approved for TRIBE and all processes and supporting documentation - including work instructions, procedures, and templates - are reviewed annually, to ensure they continue to support operational excellence. This is supported by the Approvals tool and Reports such as ‘Process Listing by approved date’.

Much non-confidential content from TRIBE can be viewed in our Demo library, which is found here: Triaster Demo Library.

A sample ‘Process Listing by approved date’ report date can be viewed here.

Compliance with Quality Standards and Accreditations

Triaster’s IMS is UKAS Management Systems Certified to both ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 27001:2013.

Whilst achieving any accreditation requires commitment and hard work, using the Triaster Process Library system has made this as straightforward as possible.

ISO 9001:2015

For a Quality Management System (QMS) to comply with ISO 9001:2015 the QMS must be: strategic, central to the core business of the organisation and relevant to all employees. This is because the core requirements of ISO 9001:2015 are that a QMS must:

  • Meet or enhance customer satisfaction
  • Meet all statutory and regulatory requirements

These must both align with the strategy of the organisation and be relevant to everyone in the organisation. These core requirements must be addressed in the context of a QMS which must:

  • Take a process approach – which enables an organisation to plan its processes and their interactions
  • Be within a Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle – which enables an organisation to ensure that its processes are adequately resourced and managed, and that opportunities for improvement are acted on
  • Support risk-based thinking - enabling organisations to determine the factors that could cause processes and its quality management system to deviate from the planned results and to put in place preventive controls.

So, ISO 9001:2015 puts the Quality Management System firmly at the heart of any organisation - as does the Triaster Process Library.

More granularly, a process approach is in-built to the Triaster Process Library and specific reports support both the core requirements and the seven quality management principles, such as Risk Analysis and:

  • Sandpit and Prelive websites for draft and unapproved map review
  • Web-based process approval and review capacity 
  • Auditable change history report
  • Auto-increment version and revision numbers on publish & approval
  • Process Audit report listed by process and activity

Non-conformities

 

Triaster’s ISO 9001:2015 Auditor was able to conduct a full audit of the system entirely remotely, without the need for any supplementary information, noting in the ‘Good Practices and General Comments’ section of their report that:

“The use of online interconnected flow charts as the basis of the Business Management System has been successfully established and is easy to navigate.”

ISO 27001:2013

ISO 27001 is the world’s best-known standard for information security management systems (ISMS), implemented by organisations in order to secure their information assets – vital in today’s increasingly digital world. Not easy to achieve, but TRIBE enabled a pretty seamless implementation. The whole process - which started with a gap analysis -  took just over six months only and whilst working with consultants Blackmores (UK) Ltd, definitely helped, having a centralised, ISO 9001:2015 accredited management system already in place helped enormously. For example:

  • Triaster's key information security documentation was already stored in TRIBE and accessible to all
  • Control, review and update of that information was already built in
  • Triaster's Management System Scope Policy is the very first menu option
  • An extensive list of controlled, concrete work instructions are available to all in TRIBE
  • TRIBE reports on all our ISO 27001:2013 (and ISO 9001:2015) clauses and controls by process, making life easier for the auditorListing by process

Promotes Ownership but Breaks Down Silos

The Triaster Process Library is designed to both promote ownership and, at the same time, end-to-end process thinking.

For the Triaster IMS, ownership is promoted by showing the Process Owner on every process map and also:

  • RACI Analysis, Risk Analysis, Revision, Review Reports
  • Search based on job role, system and process owner
  • Sort, filter & group job role, system & process owner search results

End-to-end process thinking is promoted by showing how each process connects to the next one, using off page connectors.

A Base Point for Process Improvement

One of the ISO 9001:2015 seven quality management principles, a key requirement of ISO 27001:2013, and core to Triaster’s vision, improvement is a central tenant of our IMS. A top-level menu option, TRIBE has both specific reports regarding improvement and is structured and used in such a way as to support continuous improvement as business as usual.

Core to Triaster’s IMS being a base point for process improvement, is that it is aligned to Triaster’s core strategy and whole heartedly supported by the leadership team and the company culture. Given that Triaster is the Business Improvement Company, we may find achieving this more straightforward than some of our customers, but also the Triaster Process Library reports and functionality are an excellent enabler. Some of these are:

  • AS IS vs TO BE Process Comparison Report
  • Display properties on maps
  • Process Transformation Report
  • Aggregable data

Our Process Library can Deliver all these Benefits to you too

Whilst Triaster enjoys the many benefit's that our Process Library delivers, of course we are only really happy when our customers are benefitting too.

So, if you are interested in the learning more about anything covered in this case study, you may find the resources below helpful. Or you may like to contact us at any time, to discuss implementing your own IMS. We look forward to hearing from you.

Resources:

Triaster’s Demo Process Library

Triaster Process Library

White Paper: How to Achieve ISO 9001:2015

Published February 2023