Boards on Fire: Effective Support for Quality & Environmental Managers

In the Manufacturing Industry, Environmental and Quality Managers Play a Central Role in ensuring that operations comply with both internal procedures and external regulations. Their work is essential for maintaining high quality, reducing environmental impact, and continuously improving processes.

Typical responsibilities include:

• Implementing and monitoring quality and environmental standards
• Reporting and analyzing deviations and incidents
• Documenting processes, procedures, and corrective actions
• Conducting risk assessments and driving continuous improvement
• Providing support and training to teams

Common Challenges for Quality and Environmental Managers

Everyday work often comes with practical challenges that make the role both time-consuming and complex. Some of the most common challenges include:

1. Fragmented Information and Unclear Follow-up
   As a quality or environmental manager, you know how difficult it can be when deviations and cases are scattered across multiple systems and documents, especially when several factories work closely together. The time spent collecting and consolidating information is significant and could instead be used to drive improvements.
   
   Fragmented information also limits, and sometimes delays, insight into the organization’s actual status, affecting overall performance. When data is fragmented or outdated, important trends or problem areas can be missed, making analysis, prioritization, and decision-making more difficult.
   
   
2. Unclear Responsibilities
   Analog methods, such as whiteboards and paper documents, can quickly become messy and lost in the flow of information. When it’s unclear who is responsible for what, confusion, duplication of work, and inefficient workflows easily arise. It becomes challenging to follow up on deviations, ensure corrective actions are implemented, and report accurately to management.
   
   Unclear responsibilities also risk important issues falling through the cracks, potentially affecting both quality and safety.
   
   
3. Inefficient Communication Channels
   Unclear accountability often leads to information being passed back and forth between multiple people, causing delays, misunderstandings, and decisions being postponed or made based on incomplete information.
   
   
4. Managing Deviations and Improvements
   When deviations and improvement suggestions are not documented or followed up in a structured way, they risk being overlooked. This makes it difficult to get a complete picture of the scope of deviations, the status of actions, and the impact of implemented improvements. The result affects quality, safety, and environmental performance, while also creating stress and inefficiency for you as a manager.

Digital Daily Management in Practice

Digital tools like Boards on Fire enable environmental and quality managers to handle these challenges in a structured, data-driven way. 

With digital daily management you can:

1. Fast Follow-up and Immediate Action
   With real-time updates on key metrics, deviations, and results in Boards on Fire, quality and environmental managers can immediately see where issues arise and act quickly. Pulse meetings become more efficient, root cause analyses can start instantly, and decisions are systematically followed up. The result is that quality and environmental work moves beyond reporting and leads to tangible improvements.
   
   
2. Full Transparency and Clear Accountability
   Through visual and digital daily management, it becomes easy to display goals, results, and actions for everyone, regardless of role. This increases engagement and creates clear ownership among employees. Improvement work becomes a natural part of daily routines instead of isolated tasks that risk being forgotten.
3. Continuous Improvement That Actually Happens
   Boards on Fire links improvement suggestions directly to deviations and KPIs, assigns responsible parties, and systematically follows up on actions. This makes improvement work an integrated part of operations, rather than something that falls through the cracks.
   
   
4. Data-Driven Decisions Without Losing Team Engagement
   Data is visualized clearly, providing fast insights into patterns and priorities. Decisions can be made based on facts, while team engagement and daily dialogue are maintained—exactly as Lean principles for daily management advocate.
   
   With the right digital tools, you as an environmental or quality manager can free up time from administrative tasks and instead focus on what truly creates value: high quality, reduced environmental impact, and continuous improvements.

Learn more about how Boards on Fire can simplify and streamline your daily work!

Boards on Fire in Practice: Customer Case with Elektromontage

Elektromontage, an electrical engineering company, has been using Boards on Fire for about six months and has already seen clear positive effects. Sebastian Edänge, Quality and Environmental Manager, describes how the tool has transformed his daily work from several perspectives:

Since Sebastian started using Boards on Fire, handling deviations has become significantly smoother. All relevant information, including photos, is gathered in one place, making it easy to follow up on deviations and other critical information in real time. Teams can see for themselves how deviations are being handled on their boards, which increases transparency and creates clear ownership. Important issues are highlighted and integrated with other improvement initiatives, instead of risking being overlooked.

"The biggest difference for me is that deviations are now an active and integrated part of the teams’ daily operations. Quality meetings require minimal preparation, and the focus can be on analysis, prioritization, and concrete actions that improve both quality and environmental work," says Sebastian.

He also notes that quality meetings have become much more efficient. Preparations no longer take as long because all information is already in Boards on Fire and can be easily visualized for everyone. This makes collaboration around issues much easier.

Summary

Environmental and quality managers play a central role in ensuring quality, reducing environmental impact, and driving improvements. Daily operations can be complex, with scattered issues, unclear responsibilities, and time-consuming administrative work. This is where Boards on Fire’s digital solution for daily management comes into play.

Boards on Fire makes work easier through real-time overviews, clear transparency, and structured follow-up of deviations and KPIs. Teams can track their issues, and improvement work becomes a natural part of everyday routines. For Sebastian Edänge at Elektromontage, the tool has made quality meetings smoother and freed up time for analysis, prioritization, and concrete actions that strengthen both quality and environmental performance.