How looks your organizational structure? What functions combine the organization? Who is responsible for whom? Who is on top? Who wants to be on top?

THE ORGANIZATIONAL DIAGRAM

The Organizational structure is the definition of hierarchy in the organization. The structure defines who is subjected to whom. It also defines who reports to whom. Defining the structure is the first step in documenting your quality system and so, the structure must relate to the working processes. It is necessary for you to understand the working flow chart in the organization. After that it would be much easier for you to carry out the required documentation by the ISO 9001:2008 standard.

Any ISO 9001 documentation starts with the organizational structure. We drew here a general example of how it is supposed to look (more or less):

Each one of you will make the relations to his or hers organization.

Back to business. From the organizational structure we derive the job descriptions.

JOB DESCRIOTIONS

Any person in the organization, who realizes the product, must have a job description. Everybody is doing something related to the product. Whether if it is a production worker or the CEO. A job description specifies what one does daily. The job description organizes the list of responsibilities and authorities for any role. The job description tells us what the responsibility of the store man is. What are the duties of the service agent, or what should your secretary do every morning when she arrives at the office after she checked all her junk mail...
Important notice: the ISO 9001:2008 standard does not require documentation of the job description But we believe that this documentation is necessary in order to validate the job description.

A documented J.D. should include:

1. The title of the job description - The actual name of the role. It is important to identify every role: Operational Manager, Administrative Secretary, Water Girl etc.
2. Subjection – To which role, the function is subjected to. To whom must he report at the end of the day? Or in other word who can shout at him when he is making a mess and who is responsible for his vacations.
3. Specifications of responsibilities – What are the activities that combine the function's working day. What must he does every day: typing information to the computer, answering telephone calls, fixing malfunctions, surfing the internet etc.
4. Specifications of authorities –Where and when the function is authorized to make a decision and in which subjects: submitting price quotations, approving payments, approving credits etc.
5. External qualification – What are the external qualifications required for the job: engineer, electronic technician, certified fireman, certified pilot etc.
6. Internal qualification - What are the internal qualifications required for the job: working procedure training, ERP system training, lunch break hours, leisure activities etc. The ISO 9001 standard handles this subject with much care. We will discuss this in details in our next session. 

To make life a bit easier, we direct you to a dear website that already made the definition for you. Check out their solution: Qualitymanualtemplates.com. By the way, their solution support the ISO 9001:2008 Standard requirements.

It is simple. Every role defined in the structure must have a job description It is important to remember that all job description must correspond with the list of working procedures. That actually means that every working procedure in the organization must have a "Mama" or a "Papa" (it can have more than one). Every working procedure must be reported by the end of the day somehow by someone to someone. Once you get started I assure you that some function would turn out to be more available then you thought…

When you start I recommend starting from the bottom to the top.
Here is an example for a documented job description for a sales man:

Title:

• sales man

Subjected to:

• Marketing manager

External qualifications required:

• Academic degree in marketing
• Course in sales

Internal qualifications required:

• Internal training about the basic working procedures
• A scheduled tour in the organization
• A special training about finance procedures (in order for him to know how to fill the forms so that the finance department won't send it back to him…)

Specifications of responsibilities:

• Arriving every morning at 8:00 AM to the office
• Present the marketing manager with his unanswered price quotations
• Present the marketing manager with a list of potential customers
• Going out of the office in order to get orders
• Making coffee for the marketing manager.

Specifications of authorities (when and where he can make a decision):

• Deliver price quotations
• Selecting sales regions
• Selecting color for his car

A documented job description can also be of assistance when recruiting a new employee but I will stop here because this is supposed to be a completely different science…

you may be able to find more detailed assitance and guide lines at: Qualitymanualtemplates.com

• The organizational structure is the starting point of any organizational documentation. It gives a hierarchy status. It also specifies what the functions in the organization are.
• From the organizational structure you define the job descriptions. Each function must have a job description. It is highly recommended to document each description.
• The documentation should include six categories: Title, Subjection, External qualifications required, internal qualifications required, List of responsibilities and list of authorities.
• There are a few ways to document it all: Forms (paper or magnetic) or Software.

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