“ManualMaster saves us a lot of work,” say Maxime Boelen and Daisy van Leeuwen, Quality Assurance Specialists at MPS-ECAS, in unison. “In the past, all changes had to be manually entered per document, along with the reason for the change. This meant sifting through piles of documents and updating them in Teams. Add to that the time spent tracking down documents, and you can imagine it was a time-consuming task. The search function and version control of the ManualMaster DMS have greatly simplified this work.”

Audits en certificates

MPS-ECAS conducts independent audits and certifies organizations in the horticulture sector. They offer a diverse portfolio of certification schemes for the floriculture and fresh produce sectors, based on environmental standards, good agricultural practices, food safety, potting soil, management systems, and social conditions. Through this, the organization actively contributes to the global sustainability of the horticulture industry.

Linking standards to  documents

MPS-ECAS itself must comply with accreditation standards. The organization is audited annually by the Dutch Accreditation Council (RvA – Raad voor Accreditatie). Maxime: “The council wants to see how our quality standards are covered. With ManualMaster, our ISO standards are linked to documents containing our processes and work instructions that demonstrate compliance. We can easily update them continuously. For evaluations, we send the council complete overviews. The linking of standards to documents within the document management system is very convenient and makes the work clear and quickly executable.”

Maxime Boelen (left) and Daisy van Leeuwen

About MPS-ECAS

Dashboard MPS-ECAS

Increase in document feedback

MPS-ECAS manages a large volume of documents with process descriptions and work instructions. Maxime and Daisy keep track of these with ManualMaster Trevally. They report that end users make intensive use of the application, particularly with the comment functionality.
“Our colleagues in the Back Office, Planning, and auditors use it to indicate when they have read something that needs to be updated. Feedback on documents has increased significantly as a result.”

Documents with revision dates

“All documents are tagged with revision dates. This ensures that they automatically reach the people responsible for the document on time. A function that saves us a lot of time. A useful feature is that you can immediately see what the differences are compared to the previous version of the document.” All files that colleagues need are accessible via a logical, clear, and straightforward DMS dashboard.

Process management according to the UPN method

The QA specialists have set up process management using the accessible UPN (Universal Process Notation) method. Daisy: “The method is easy to understand, without complicated language. The process steps are formulated in the imperative. This leads directly to actions.
At a glance, our colleagues can see what needs to be done. Clear work instructions are linked to the actions to be taken, without complicated flowcharts. You can immediately see who is responsible.”

Process diagram MPS-ECAS

Risk inventory based on processes

Maxime and Daisy have started setting up the ManualMaster Risk Management module by inventorying risks based on established processes. Known risks are linked to process steps and the measures that need to be taken in response.

The workflows have been visualized by Maxime and Daisy using Visio. ManualMaster end users are intuitively guided through the process steps to be taken. Instructions are added to each process step, telling users what to expect and what risks might arise. A next step in building the quality management system for Maxime and Daisy is implementing the ManualMaster Q-Learning module, which allows staff to be trained and tested on their knowledge.

Managing and improving work instructions

Around ninety MPS-ECAS colleagues use ManualMaster. Auditors, Back Office, and Planning work with many different certification schemes, to which documents are linked. The document management system is set up so that everyone can quickly and easily access their documents via their own dashboard.

“We regularly inform process owners about new developments and features within ManualMaster and how they can manage and improve documents and work instructions. ManualMaster is seen as a significant improvement over the previous document management system we used. Documents are easy to find, and the ability to add favorites, use the search function, and pin documents all contribute to increased job satisfaction.”