Interview with Jorge García, Director of the Management System

"If management wasn't involved, the management system wouldn't work."

Jorge García coordinates the management system of the 10 plants that make up the DS Smith Tecnicarton division. It is a task that involves standardising the work system and harmonising the way more than 200 people work.

Question: Jorge, what is your job at Tecnicarton?

Jorge García: My responsibility is to coordinate the management system in all the plants and give them support so that they can develop it in a homogeneous way. We have a unique system for all the plants, although each one of them has its own structure. What we have to do is incorporate a unique methodology that brings value.

With this system we are able to have an interrelationship between all the plants and a similar way of working.

In general, it is a question of any employee knowing the working methodology at any stage of the value chain.

Question: What team do you have?

Answer: In each plant there is a person who performs the functions of the person responsible for the management system that coordinates, together with the support of the Plant Management, the tasks of the system: Monitoring and measurement of processes, management of the training of current staff and new hires (for knowledge of the management system), management of accidents, incidents and non-conformities (audits, customers, suppliers, internal, etc.),....

Question: So there are people involved in the management system at all plants? Is this a strategic management decision?

Answer: Yes, there are people in all plants who coordinate the management system, apart from the management, of course. If management were not involved, the management system would not work. I entered 1990 with other functions. In 1996 we obtained the ISO 9001 certification with design in Ribarroja del Turia plant. At that time we were the first packaging company in the Valencia Region to obtain it, since that date we have been working on the system and implementing it in all new plants as they were opening. Evidently, the system has been evolving and incorporating other management systems such as those related to the environment, occupational health and safety, or food safety.

Question: And how has the management system and your job changed in these 27 years that you have been with the company?

Answer: When I entered there was almost no structure. And I went through several departments: technical office, planning, production. Until 1995, Francisco Ortega, the general manager, trusted me to assume responsibility for the quality department. At that time we were only located in the Ribarroja plant.

As I have previously mentioned, as plants have been incorporated into our firm, the system has been implemented, perfected and adapted to the needs.

We currently work with environmental management systems, R&D&I management, Health and Safety at work. In this sense, occupational safety and health is the most critical and strictly controlled system. And since our incorporation into the DS Smith multinational, even more so, if possible.

We have also incorporated food safety certification. In this case, we do have certification for the Ribarroja and Seville plants. And this means that when we need to certify any other plant, we already have the system built in, so it would be easier and faster to obtain it. We already work with the quality standards of many standards.

Question: How has DS Smith membership affected your area?

Answer: To date, it has not interfered too much with the management system, although there are guidelines for incorporating new areas such as chain of custody under Chain of Custody standards, and obtaining certification in all plants. At the moment we have the certification in 3 plants and the Central, and throughout the year it is foreseen in the rest.

Question: What project are you currently developing to further improve the management system?

Answer: At the moment we are working on including Lean and continuous improvement methodology in our own management system. We understand that we have to adapt and incorporate proposals that add value.

On the other hand, we must not forget that the management system must be flexible but rigorous, and capable of adapting to new legislation and customer requirements. The demands of projects, and more in our case, which are personalized projects, require a management system that takes this into account. We are taking advantage of the new versions of the reference standards (ISO 9001,14001 and 45001) to make all these improvements.

Question: The incorporation of management systems can sometimes spark off some resistance among employees or collaborators. Does this happened at DS Smith Tecnicarton?

Answer: Sometimes yes, but it hasn't been a big problem. It is important to start by raising the awareness of all employees and collaborators and, of course, management. Although in our case, as I mentioned earlier, the direction is involved and therefore everything is simpler. In addition, the focus of the new versions of the standards is even more underscored than the top management system manager is the Directorate.

The truth is that the new versions are based on a more complete management model and business vision that takes into account market analysis, strategy, planning, etc.

In short, we have a major project in hand that we have to implement this year to continue evolving and achieving the strategic objectives.