#207 Management Review – The Fallacy Of The Annual Event

Feb 12, 2025

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If you’ve ever implemented an ISO Standard, then the term Management Review will be familiar to you.

It’s a mandatory part of the implementation process, and a crucial tool for monitoring continual improvement. Somewhere down the line, it’s become a bit of a myth that a Management Review needs to be an annual meeting.

That is simply not the case, while required by the Standard, it’s very flexible on how this could be achieved.

In this episode Ian discusses the purpose of Management Review, including what you should be including and getting out of the review and breaks down the fallacy of the annual event.

You’ll learn

· What is the purpose of a Management Review?

· What are the common misconceptions about Management Review?

· How Management Review supports other clause requirements

· What are the inputs for Management Review?

· What are the outputs of a Management Review?

Resources

· Isologyhub

· How to conduct a Management Review

· How to get the most out of your Management Review

In this episode, we talk about:

[02:05] Episode Summary – Ian discusses the real purpose of Management Review, and dispels the myth of the annual event.

[02:35] What is the purpose of a Management Review?: Management Review is a requirement of all ISO Standards. It’s main purpose is to check if your Management System is fit for purpose, and what needs to be updated to ensure it aligns with your businesses objectives and strategic direction.

In short, it’s there as a check to see what’s working well and what’s not working well, in addition to continual improvement considerations.

[03:30] What are some common misconceptions about Management Review?: Some common misconceptions include:-

· That it’s simply a formality – Rubber-stamping things and missing out on the opportunity to effectively monitor management system progress

· That It must be once a year

· Having to review everything in excruciating detail i.e. all audit findings

· The need to update the risk assessment and re-jigging scores

· That you must review and update your SWOT/PESTLE

· Or review and update all management system documentation

· That it’s the perfect opportunity to re-write a policy

There is a time and place for all of these, and you could tackle some of this in a Management Review if you really want to, but that is not the main purpose of a Management Review.

[04:50] How Management Review supports other clause requirements - Leadership: If we take ISO 9001 as an example, the Leadership clause states:

“Top management shall demonstrate leadership and commitment with respect to the quality management system by:

a) taking accountability for the effectiveness of the quality management system

e) ensuring that the resources needed for the quality management system are available

g) ensuring that the quality management system achieves its intended results”

These requirements at first glance may seem like they’d require a lot of effort and monitoring of many different factors, but in actuality they can all be satisfied through effective Management Review.

[05:55] What involvement is required from top management? As stated in ISO Standards:-

“Top management shall review the organization’s management system, at planned intervals, to ensure its continuing suitability, adequacy, effectiveness and alignment with the strategic direction of the organization.”

Top management also have involvement in the following elements of implementing and maintaining a management system:

· Context

· IPs

· Risks/Ops

· Objectives

· Policy

· Support

· Operation

· Performance monitoring

Management Review relates specifically to ‘performance monitoring’, but that in of itself will include elements of all the other clauses within the Standard, and many of those require top managements involvement on some level.

[07:45] The fallacy of the annual event – The Management Review clause specifically states that a Management Review should be ‘carried out at planned intervals’.

Many had interpreted that as once a year, which has been the prevailing myth for decades. Looking at the Standard, no where does it say ‘once a year’, planned intervals means it could be once a month, it could be once a week, it could be a set points during the summer.

When deciding on these planned intervals, take into consideration the nature of your business, the size of your business, the risks associated with it and the maturity of your Management System. This will determine how frequent the Management Review should be, as it will differ for every business.

[09:10] Examples of Management Review frequency – Ian has worked in an organisation where they had a rather grand Management Review process, where top management and other relevant individuals meet to review the past year and set the scene for the following year.

That same organisation also had monthly meetings with the same members of top management to keep on top of new and on-going issues.

That isn’t to say this is the only way to run Management Review. Some opt to have quarterly meetings, others once every 6 months and some even leave it to once a year.

[10:40] What is required of Management Review? Inputs – Clause 9.3 details the requirements of Management Reivew in most Standards (some swap 9.3 and 9.2 around, but the contents remains the same).

First, the inputs required for Management Review include:

The status of actions from previous management reviews - If you said you were going to do something before, how’s that going?

Changes in external and internal issues that are relevant to the quality management system - this doesn’t mean that every meeting should consider the SWOT/PESTLE/IP tables, but there must be some determination of when that’s done in detail and when a senior mgt discussion should include the key aspects of that and its impact. There is a need to review these things when required anyway, so doing it only at pre-defined times can be problematic.

Information on the performance and effectiveness of the quality management system, including tends in:-

· Customer satisfaction and feedback from relevant interested parties;

· The extent to which objectives have been met;

· Process performance and conformity of products and services;

· Nonconformities and corrective actions;

· Monitoring and measurement results;

· Audit results;

· The performance of external providers;

· The adequacy of resources;

· The effectiveness of actions taken to address risks and opportunities;

· Opportunities for improvement.

[20:45] What is required of Management Review? Outputs – You will also have a number of outputs from Management Review, including:-

Opportunities for Improvement – This could be as a result or reviewing audit findings and discussing the OFI’s found and how you can address and implement these. You could also use the Management Review to review and set new objectives for the year ahead.

Any need for changes to the management system – You may need to review policies and procedures and see if they’re still fit for purpose, if they’re not then this is a good venue to discuss and update them. Other aspects that may have changed or will have a need to change include:

· Interested parties – have their needs and expectations changed?

· People – Do you need to change the people involved with certain processes?

· Awareness – Do you need to raise more awareness around a specific topic?

Resource needs – You may need to raise the need for more resourcing in regard to the management system or related processes.

If you’d like to learn about alternative ways to host a Management Review, listen to one of our previous episodes.

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