Define Scope of Work and Approach

Before you decide on your overall approach, you will need to understand the approach to Quality Management and scope of PSM and ESH within your company. 

The first step is to understand the Quality Management system within your company. Your company s existing programs may be formal or informal or a mixture of both. Characteristics of these are briefly described below. 

Existing PSM and ESH programs and elements may also be formal or informal. It is important to make sure you uncover the complete scope of these systems. 

You will need to undertake a series of interviews to understand existing PSM and ESH programs. You may also need to conduct some interviews to confirm aspects of your quality management system. However, if the Quality Management system is not well documented this may indicate a weakness, and you should reconsider the wisdom of moving forward with the proposed integration. It is essential to test how the processes are actually functioning, as this frequently differs from any description, formal or informal. 

Carefully plan the selection of interview candidates. You should first consider what resources you have available—both in time and travel costs (if relevant). As a rule of thumb, it will take one hour to interview a manager with no special responsibility for PSM or ESH, two hours for specialist managers and staff and no more than 45 minutes for operators and technicians. You must also allow an equal amount of time to write up notes and review any material collected during the interview. You can now decide how many people you can afford to interview. In selecting candidates, you should consider the following  

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