The mechanisms that allow a business to run are known as operational controls and procedures. Additionally, organizations can use the environmental management system (EMS) to manage environmental consequences in this way. Thus, Section 8, which addresses “Operational planning and control,” is among the most important provisions of ISO 14001:2015. Efficient operational planning and control are essential components of any successful EMS (Environmental Management System) since the mitigation and control of an organization’s environmental impact is the cornerstone of the 14001 standards. Therefore, it makes sense that extra care must be taken to make sure that all required steps are taken to establish and implement controls intelligently and efficiently, considering how crucial this element is. Now let’s define and implement operational controls in practice.
According to the standard, the procedures established to provide operational control will be contingent upon the operations of the organization, regulatory requirements, and important operational controls. Consequently, to guarantee that it achieves complete operational control over its environmental aspects, an organization needs to determine how to build and integrate processes. These techniques for creating and putting controls in place could be:
- Establishing procedures to assure reliable outcomes
- considering a product’s life cycle to mind while implementing controls
- Assuring outcomes using technology
- Ensuring the qualification of staff members
- Carrying out actions in a specific way
- Tracking and evaluating the outcomes
- determining what kind of ISO 14001 documentation needed to support the aforementioned
As a result, there are additional crucial components even if businesses are allowed to choose the finest method for guaranteeing operational control. You must carefully analyze the aspects of your operational control process that require documentation. It is important to have training techniques and records, and procedures of any complexity may require documentation to guarantee that you can keep up the operational control required to deliver a consistent good or service.
What Things to bear in mind while implementing the operational controls?
The standard enables an organization to specify and implement its operational controls as per the requirements of the industry it works in and the features that result from the final good or service. However, the ISO 14001:2015 standard mandates that several aspects of operational control be evaluated, managed, and recorded as information, either in the environmental policy itself or in other documents:
- The obligations of law and compliance must be fulfilled
- Environmental goals need to be evaluated and established
- It is essential to define internal processes
- Procedures that are external and outsourced need to be specified and managed
- The need for competency and ISO 14001 awareness training must be determined, put into practice, and evaluated
- It is necessary to conduct analyses and take corrective action
To make sure that all requirements are met, you should reference the standard itself; however, taking into account the aforementioned factors will guarantee that your operational control is appropriately specified, planned, and carried out. We examined the changes brought about by the 2015 standard in A New Approach to Documented Information in ISO 14001:2105, but you should carefully consider which aspects of your process require documentation and what the potential risks of not having documentation might be based on your activities and their effects. It’s possible that following written procedures will make you more likely to behave consistently and accomplish your goals. Similar considerations apply to the degree of documentation and control that must be made over the management of your outsourced good or service; the important thing to remember is that your company is always in charge. Ensuring that the organization’s service providers accurately and thoroughly report on the outsourced services they deliver is essential to meeting environmental goals and mitigating major consequences. If you give careful thought to the design, definition, and implementation of operational controls, the performance of your EMS will improve.
Source: https://ems14001consultant.wordpress.com/2023/12/02/how-is-operational-control-defined-and-implemented-according-to-iso-140012015/
