The event book that questions the contribution of the Quality function to value creation
On November 19, 2015, AFNOR Compétences organized the fourth interclub convention of the “Parcours Croisés” network, bringing together around a hundred QSE decision-makers. The e-book “Evaluate your Quality Safety Environment function”, which you can download here, was previewed.
“We have succeeded in getting together with researchers from IAE Paris, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne and all the clubs, to produce a number of enriching reflections, with a view to making a modest contribution to the transformation of the QSE function, which is so dear to us. All of this must contribute to the emergence of concrete solutions to create value, reposition and develop the QSE function. That’s why Parcours Croisés is a place for collective production and a veritable reservoir of ideas.
Introducing the fourth interclub convention of the “Parcours Croisés” network, Pascal Prévost, Managing Director of AFNOR Compétences, outlined the main features of the e-book Evaluate your Quality Safety Environment function. From “Compliance Officer” to “Business Partner”… What performance indicators should you choose?
A rich e-book for free download
This book is the culmination of a year’s work. Pascal Prévost continued: “We turned our attention to an operational field . We’re wondering how to manage the transformation of the company’s QSE function. As we worked on territories of legitimacy in our previous book (Editor’s note: Trust capital and sustainable performance. Who should I entrust the keys to? ), this time we focused on the strategic positioning of the QSE function within the company.
A function in the making
The afternoon continued with a round-table discussion giving the audience a clear and precise view of the value created by the QSE function and the ways in which it is assessed. Professionals are faced with contrasting situations, depending on their organization’s sector of activity and degree of maturity. As Patrick Gilbert, Director of the Master’s degree in Management at IAE Paris, points out, “. Quality is recognized and appreciated by everyone, but it’s a victim of its own success, to the point where it’s almost non-existent in some companies. More generally, we can see that cross-functional functions have entered a phase of redefinition and even major transformation. But the QSE function seems to me to be more torn between the technical and the political than any other. Hence, perhaps, the difficulty of assessing one’s own contribution to performance. Not to mention the ever-increasing number of stakeholders with different, even divergent needs. In fact, the QSE function has not only redefined its role, but also its scope of action. ”
The question of the legitimacy of the QSE function was raised, in particular to claim a more strategic position within the organization. For Christine Triomphe, Senior Lecturer at IAE Paris, ” Any corporate function can claim to have a strategic impact. They can all ask the question: where are we going? And answer it with their own specific ‘how’! The quality function has many assets, such as its ability to solve problems. This gives it a strong legitimacy to play an advisory role. Not only for operational processes, but also for other support functions with a more general, even generalist, vision.
Jean-Paul Vaurs, former IS Quality and Security Director at GFI Informatique, shared his experience. ” Initially , each was accustomed to working in “silos”, which suggested a major area for progress in terms of overall coordination. Interactivity between stakeholders was not formally coordinated, and there was no co-construction dynamic, which was an obstacle to joint success. We have decided to operate in process mode, in order to assess energy, risks, needs and priorities upstream. (…) We used our ISO 9001 experience as a starting point to present the following to our stakeholders a simplified process for integrating acquired companies. acquired.
