ISO 9001
Quality Management Systems
ISO 9001 is what most people think of when you mention ISO – it’s the universal standard for quality management. Certification gives your customers confidence that you are working to standards and procedures that will ensure a high level of customer service and product.
It is also a way to efficiently manage your business and drive continuous improvement across your organisation. Using ISO 9001 helps ensure you produce consistent, quality products and services, which in turn brings many business advantages.
The Benefits to Your Business
- Increased chances of success when tendering for new contracts
- Less wastage
- Increased efficiency, productivity and service
- Improved customer retention and confidence in your product or service
- Consistent outcomes, measured and monitored
- Globally recognised standard
- Compatibility with other ISO standards
A valid ISO 9001 certificate will be a prerequisite for some of your customers and a ‘nice to have’ for others. Either way, it can give you an advantage in many negotiations, and can be used to strengthen and secure your business.
What Quality Management Principles are the Foundation of ISO 9001?
There are seven principles underlying the ISO 9001 Standard. Each has been identified as a key area affecting the performance of any organisation, and therefore essential to a meaningful, worthwhile and effective management system.
The Principles are:
Customer Focus
It almost goes without saying - but customer requirements are central to the purpose of an ISO Standard. Your ISO 9001 certification will tell your clients they can expect goods and services of the quality they expect. Your certification will aid you with continuous improvement to allow you to deliver a higher standard of service - to go beyond your customers’ expectations.
Leadership
It is key to the success of a management system that the whole organisation - executives to shop floor - support its implementation. Without a fully engaged leadership team, the objectives and goals the Standard is designed to bring may be lost.
Process Approach
Your management system will comprise a number of different and interrelated activities. These need to be fully understood and designed to run alongside each other efficiently and coherently. When this happens, the desired results will manifest much more easily.
Engagement
Strong, clear explanations of the benefits ISO 9001 can deliver for everyone in the business is important. If the work force doesn’t understand why they are being asked to adopt new practices, or to monitor outcomes, your certification may quickly run into non-compliance.
Improvement
It is a founding principle of the ISO model that organisations adopting a Standard should do much more than sit on their laurels. Continuous improvement, a search for excellence in customer delivery and across the other principles, is ingrained in the definition of success that certification can bring.
Evidence-Based Decision Making
Your management system will have tools built in to enable clear evaluation and analysis of your processes. With the right data, you can make business decisions based on current, realistic facts and figures. If something is going wrong, you’ll be able to identify what and why. If something is going right, you can work out how to amplify the success.
Relationship Management
It surprises some companies that the ISO Standard requires them to consider such ‘human’ factors. The importance of the people involved is never underestimated. Clients, suppliers, neighbours, community - you will be encouraged to consider each of these in your plans, and to seek improved and satisfactory outcomes for them.
There is more to an ISO Standard than meets the eye. It will encourage you to take a broader view of your operation and all those involved in it. To see the value you can gain, as well as the value you can deliver.
