KLM Royal Dutch Airlines implements Q-Blue for organisation-wide Audit Management

Aviation is the most regulated sector and also the most over-regulated sector in the world. Rules get added, but not one is ever reversed, the result of which is a huge amount of fragmentation. That's why KLM decided two years ago to establish one central digital audit management system to support all the auditors, and all the various types of audit processes, on a worldwide basis. It was to include everything from the planning to the improvement process, and from the assembling of checklists to the full construction and distribution of the often complex audit reports."

Every day throughout the entire organisation, approximately 130 highly-qualified specialists are at work on KLM's periodic audits of all processes. Until last year, every division and in reality every auditor, had their own set of resources. KLM wanted to make a clean break with the past. "Merely digitalising processes is not really sensible", says Bart de Vries. "You are obligated to build intelligence into the processes before you roll them out, otherwise you're creating an inadequate and unsustainable basis."

We came to Quality Online via a selection process which showed that they were the best provider for us. It is nice to work with a completely Dutch company, and it's even nicer when they deliver a perfect system. We now work exclusively with 'Q-Blue', as we call it at KLM. I myself use Q-Blue because I check the final round of all the automatic authorisations for the implemented corrected rules. For example, I check if a correcting rule is fully documented and recorded in Q-Blue. You need to be able to clearly show an external auditor which problem you've solved, how you've solved it and how the solution is processed in other KLM systems. It's a kind of one-stop-compliance for process improvement."

De Vries can wholeheartedly identify with the Quality Online philosophy in which the knowledge of the organisation is fundamentally integrated in the processes, which in turn are realised in clear tasking that every professional can conscientiously implement.

As we part, Bart de Vries pulls a 'IMD Business School in Lausanne' binder from the shelf. He attended a corporate training programme there a while ago. "At KLM we are always thinking ahead, particularly with  regard to the development of new IT systems and the establishment of processes, both of which have the full attention of KLM's management. One of the visions that we heard about in Lausanne is reflected in Q-Blue: fighting complexity through uniformity and harmonisation. Setting the framework from the top-down and increasingly implementing from the bottom-up, but being sure to have proper reporting at every management level. That improves the structure and clarifies the insight of all involved parties. The discipline that it generates frees people, because they can focus on content and on their craft."

About Royal Dutch Airlines
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is a worldwide company based in the Netherlands. Since their merger in 2004, KLM works closely with Air France within the AIR FRANCE KLM holding company. In terms of financial turnover, AIR FRANCE KLM is the world's largest airline partnership; it also transports the most passengers and is the world's second-largest cargo transporter.