Integrated Management Systems (IMS)

Integrated management systems are getting more and more significant, because companies are now more in favour to include the systems for environment protection and for occupational safety at the context of the Quality Management as per the ISO 9001. In the standards and sets of rules mentioned, there are several interfaces, to be considered at the setting up of an integrated management system.

Similarities between quality management and environment management

Whereas the Environment Management System (EMS) is focused on the optimal organisation of operational environment protection, the Quality Management Systems (QMS) are mainly focused on secure development design and manufacturing of products / at the rendering of services by means of secure and steady processes in order to met the custom defined quality requirements. For achieving both of these goals, several measures are to be implemented in the company, which are equally focussed on environment management as well as on quality management, at the environmental perspective on the one hand, and the perspective of improving quality on the other hand.

The following requirements on EM-systems, as aspect in the ISO 14001 and EMAS, do not have an analogous element in the QM area and should therefore be implemented accordingly in an integrated management system:

Integration of a management system on safety

The majority of companies assessed by the TÜV AUSTRIA CERT GMBH has successfully integrated the EMS to the existing quality management system. But there are also increasing efforts on the integration of the occupational safety into the existing management system, such as the requirements of the OHSAS 18001, the SCC */**-SCP- question catalogue.

The OHSAS 18001 especially is very well aligned to the ISO 14001, in terms of its structure and its requirements.The requirements of the OHSAS can very easily be integrated to the existing EM documentation and can be embedded into the scope of certification. If the OHSAS 18001 is integrated into an existing management system, the following additional requirements need to be fulfilled as well:

The requirements listed in the standards and in the rules have of course to be taken into consideration accordingly within the documentation and the manual. The requirements listed in the SCC / SCP questionnaire can also be integrated very well into the existing management systems.

Practical experience has shown that companies having an already established QMS have significant advantages on the implementation of additional management systems. First of all, parts of the documentation are already present, and secondly, the employees are already familiar with management systems, such as clear rules and the necessary documentation duties.

The main advantages of an IMS are:

Our auditors, which have competence on two or more systems can do the assessment in one external audit.