QHSE Meaning and Evolution of Quality, Health, Safety and Environmental Management Systems

QHSE is the term famous for the two professions collectively and in fact for four areas or roles i.e. Quality, Health, Safety and Environment or environmental.

In some industries the security is also part of QHSE where it is abbreviated as QHSSE. In addition you may observe the terms HSEQ, QSHE, SHEQ which in fact are fulfilling the same purpose i.e. referring to Quality, Environmental, Health and Safety professions. Different organizations use these alphabets with different sequence as per their hseq policy.

The order of alphabets reflects the emphasis of its usage like starting from Q means the organization keeps very thing under quality umbrella. Therefore quality department will dominate and will cover the HSE as part of it as well.

On the other hand starting from S reflects that an organizing is putting much emphasis on safety and other areas are covered with putting more stress on safety.

Now lets understand the hseq or qhse meaning.

What QHSE Components Cover?

1. Q for Quality: This covers overall processes of a company that impact the quality of a product or service. All measures to make a customer happy includes designing, manufacturing, constructing and developing a product as per standard requirements. The latest international management standard that covers Quality requirements is ISO 9001:2015.
2. H for Health: This covers physical and psychological health of employees, suppliers, visitors and general public which is related to any business. The purpose is to make sure that the work environment is healthy and not creating or developing mental stress for the employees of an organization. A healthy working atmosphere always impacts productivity and quality of out come or products.
3. S for Safety: This component makes sure that all activities of a company are safe for the workers and any other party that may be involved. To provide safe environment companies conduct risk assessments and based upon that control measures are suggested and implemented to make sure no accident, incident or injury happens.
4. E for Environmental: This area of work ensures that the activities of any organization are not spoiling the environment. That also includes to make sure that disposable products and wastes are biodegradable and in long term not harming the overall global atmosphere. Organizations are bound internationally to ensure their processes are environmental friendly. ISO 14001:2015 is the international environmental management standard that most organizations are following.

Quality Assurance & Quality Control QA/QC

QA/QC is the core part of any industry and profession, that encompasses customer satisfaction achievement because customer is the driving force for any business.

No business can run if there is no customer. If we think of a software developer the QA/QC takes different shape and when one thinks about manufacturing, medicine and chemical industry the same field becomes another way of work.

In order to implement an effective quality management system ISO 9001 is well known standard which states the requirements for achieving best quality of product or service. ISO 9001:2015 is latest QMS which organizations are now following.

The latest quality assurance version focuses much on leadership role in achieving the quality targets while considering all opportunities and risks.

Field of quality can be adopted by obtaining some basic training’s for the area of work and then developing the employees through short courses and certifications i.e. quality auditing, non destructive testing, welding control, inspection techniques.

There are many international accredited courses as well like Lead Auditor, Certified Quality Professional, Certified manager of quality, certified quality engineer etc. These courses are offered by institutes like ASQ, CQI and BSI etc.

Health & Safety Monitoring & Control

Work place fatalities are major concern all over the world that causes industries and organizations huge costs that include damages as well as medical and asset insurances and claims etc.

Due to negative social and economical impact of work place incidents most of governments have developed legislation’s in order to control the work places.

Companies are bound to comply local and international labor, health and safety laws, otherwise penalties are very high if an organization risks the life of its workers.

OHSAS 18001 is BS standard that is now replaced by ISO 45001 an International Standard, which provides the requirements for occupational health and safety management system. Major focus areas include construction, mining, demolition, transportation etc. where risk of fatality and critical injury is high due to fires, falls from height, working in confined spaces, mechanical entanglement, electrocution and occupational illness etc.

ISO 45001 specifies requirements for an occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system, with guidance for its use. By implementing the 45001 system an organization proactively improves its OH&S performance in preventing injury and ill-health. ISO 45001 is intended to be applicable to any organization regardless of its size, type and nature.

New ISO 45001 standard also enables an organization, through its OHS management system, to integrate other aspects of health and safety, such as worker wellness/wellbeing and any requirements required by applicable legal laws and regulations.

Security has also become part of QHSE field in some organizations although that requires separate organization mostly. As a whole we can say that security is also part of safe work environment and complete integrated system sometimes abbreviated as QHSSE system.

Environmental Protection & Conservation of Natural Resources

The E in the profession of QHSE is most important but mostly ignored part, because this areas requires lot of monitoring and data collection in order to make the things improving. Environmental protection is also part of international treaties among powerful and industrial countries.

Also each country is having its own environmental agency that ensures that all private and public sector businesses comply the legislative and international requirements.

The requirements related to environment include pollution control, conservation of natural resources like electricity and water, use of alternative or renewable energy, minimal use of papers and promotion of recyclable and recycled products etc.

Evolution of QHSE Profession

During the recent developments in QHSE field and introduction of digital information management systems these fields have become very close to each other. Approximately 10-15 years back companies were maintaining separate departments for Quality and HSE. Now this discrete approach is replaced by adopting the integrated approach.

New integrated approach is also supported by ISO when they revised their recent Quality, Environmental Health and Safety standards with same structure, i.e. release of ISO 45001. Hence making easy for businesses to establish and implement integrated management system approach.

Now companies are having single QHSE department which some times led by quality personnel or rarely by HSE personnel.

A senior quality engineer or manager can easily develop himself by getting on ground experience of HSE and adding some courses like NEBOSH / IOSH certificates and Diploma. To become an HSE professional international accredited certification is mandatory in most of the countries.

To become a successful QHSE engineer or professional one must have good command on analytical, presentation and computer skills. The hseq field requires dedicated and focused learning in multiple directions including for example process monitoring, TQM, Six Sigma, 5S, occupational health, safety and health standards regulations and local legislation etc.

Hope this article helped you to understand qhse meaning and intentions behind each management systems.