Multilingual management system for uniform standards

Marabu produces high-quality special inks for industrial and graphic applications or hobby, art and leisure at two locations in the Stuttgart region. As part of a strategic reorientation, the subsidiaries have been successively linked more closely to the parent company in recent years. The parent company sets the standards for quality and environmental management, occupational safety and health protection that apply to all subsidiaries. The parent plants in Tamm (headquarters) and Bietigheim-Bissingen have been certified to ISO 9001 since 1995 and to ISO 14001 since 2003, and have also anchored occupational health and safety in their corporate standards with certification to OHSAS 18001 (since 2012) and the associated "Sicher mit System" seal of quality.

The integrated Marabu Management System (MMS)
In the course of the new organizational structure of the Marabu Group and the associated need for standardization, as well as due to existing customer requirements, the decision was made in 2012 to expand the existing MMS globally and initially to have the subsidiaries in France, China and the USA certified according to ISO 9001 and 14001. For this purpose, the group of companies was looking for a new integrated management system software, which was to be rolled out in the foreign plants first. At that time, a computer-aided system was already in use at the German sites, but it was not multi-site capable and did not provide an integrated tool for process modeling. Accordingly, process flow diagrams still had to be created separately and at great expense with other software and then transferred to the existing MMS via "copy-and-paste" for each revision.

"The big master plan behind this was a future multi-site certification of the Marabu Group by TÜV SÜD. This is suitable for companies with several sites. Multi-site certification is possible if the various branches work with a common QM/UM system, management system planning and control is carried out centrally and the various sites are subject to a common annual audit program. In this case, the multi-site audit is carried out at the headquarters (Tamm) on an annual basis, and only random samples are taken at the other participating locations. This significantly reduces the overall certification effort and saves time and certification costs," explains Klaus Cee, Vice President Quality Environment Safety at Marabu GmbH & Co. KG.

As the first certifications were due in 2013, the search was on for a tool that could be used to place quality management at the various sites on a common basis. In addition to multilingualism and multi-site capability, Marabu's specific requirements also included simple operation of the system: process owners should be able to create and manage processes themselves. However, central control should be in the hands of the headquarters.

Multilingual QM software facilitates harmonization
The people responsible at Ma-rabu found what they were looking for at ConSense GmbH in Aachen. This company specializes in particularly user-friendly and intuitive software for process and quality management and has been developing innovative solutions for complete electronic support of DIN EN ISO 9001 and numerous other standards since 2003. The special features of the ConSense software include a practical multi-language concept and the mapping of site-specific deviations, which supports the careful harmonization of company-wide standards.

The introduction of the Integrated Management System ConSense IMS took place according to a "sporty" schedule: in 2013, the decision was made in favor of the system, in June 2013, Marabu France with a total of four sites at that time and in October 2013, the China site were certified with it. For this purpose, a team of several employees from the central department Quality Environment Safety accompanied the French and Chinese colleagues for about half a year each. The process landscape was developed in workshops and configured with ConSense. "Here the integrated flowchart manager was very helpful, with which processes can be modeled quickly and easily", finds Klaus Cee. The high speed of the introduction of the new system continued: After China, the certification of the US plant took place in November 2013, followed by Brazil and Sweden in 2014, Italy in 2015 and finally Marabu UK. All certifications were successfully completed. Since 2014, ConSense IMS has also been used at the German sites.

Klaus Cee explains how the successful introduction of the new management system was possible in such a short time in plants distributed all over the world, based on the project-specific approach: "We created a process map at group level. The structure of the manuals is also the same everywhere. For example, we use uniform process numbering worldwide. When introduced at one location, half to three quarters of the processes were first created and adapted to local requirements. The local quality managers were responsible for this. In workshops we created process maps and modelled processes. The result and the implementation in operational practice were checked by means of internal audits. At the German sites, where the old QM system was set up using Visio, we were able to import existing flowcharts into ConSense via an interface. Based on these 'raw versions', we then revised the process representations for the German plants."

Mapping global commonalities and local variations
One advantage of ConSense that benefited Klaus Cee and his team is the software's multilingualism, which now includes fourteen languages. In addition, the software allows the use of two different types of language concepts for documents and processes: Either identical content is stored in different languages or variants with differing content in different languages are used. The variant concept is necessary when - as in the case of Marabu - a pure translation of processes is not sufficient because local, regional or national peculiarities require deviations in content. "In this case, our software ensures that in the course of changing a central specification, an adjustment of the associated variants is also initiated immediately," explains Dr. Iris Bruns from the management of ConSense GmbH.

At Marabu, the system is now used in the interface languages German, English, French, Italian, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Swedish. There are eight site-specific management manuals at currently eleven sites, where certain processes and procedures vary. "Local standards include testing requirements depending on the market. In our plant in the USA, for example, there are more different tests because here the individual colors are not only mixed from standard colors, but also locally produced liquid laminates. Standard colors are tested centrally in Germany. In addition, we have locations without an ERP system, which also leads to deviations. Local legal requirements, e.g. in fire protection or occupational safety with the corresponding documents to be created, also make variations necessary. However, it is important that we have defined minimum requirements for standard processes that apply everywhere at Marabu," emphasizes Klaus Cee.

ConSense IMS is the only software that is used at all locations of the Marabu group of companies. It takes over document control including automatic review and approval workflows, control and archiving. The process documentation is in English and in the local languages. Marabu has also introduced a uniform process numbering system that applies to every plant. This facilitates searching in the system, to which all employees have access: All information relevant to them, e.g. work instructions, current changes and worldwide company news, is accessible on a daily basis and personalized.

More transparency across all locations
At the main site in Tamm, all the threads come together at Klaus Cee, who, as Corporate Management System Officer, monitors the joint system at home and abroad together with his team. The new management system makes his work easier thanks to greater transparency. He can now access all locations worldwide. The translation function that ConSense IMS offers for processes and documents, for example, is also extremely valuable for the Corporate QES-ISO team. This means that documents for audits at international sites that are written in the local language can be back-translated. "This means we can quickly see if we are deviating from the specified standards somewhere and can immediately take countermeasures," Klaus Cee is pleased to say. "Thanks to the uniform system, we have achieved that there are no local divisions in quality and environmental management. Each employee has insight into the processes of the others. This means that the various subsidiaries are able to support each other. This saves time and resources, because processes or procedures that are the same at the various locations do not have to be reinvented."