You can get ISO 9001 certified with five simple steps; Preparation, Documentation, Implementation, Internal Audit, and lastly, Certification. While it can be tempting to get too excited and want to rush into a certification, remember that learning the standards, why they are there, auditing your current procedures, and implementing the new processes are all important parts of getting ISO 9001.
To identify what standards, if any, are required for your specific company, you should talk with a trusted ISO Certification Consultancy about your leadership goals and challenges. AvISO Consultancy will help you properly design your management system to meet ISO standards requirements, you must first know where your business’s current management system stands in relation to the standards.
Now that we have an understanding of the role of a quality management system, let us look more closely at ISO 9001 to find out whether this is the right certification for your company.
To become certified, you essentially need to put in place a quality management system according to the latest ISO 9001 standards in order to establish a QMS, and then continue with having this QMS audited by an accredited auditor. ISO Certification is kind of like a seal of approval stating that the business’s management systems, processes, services, and products all comply with standards requirements. Their certifications are done by outside bodies that are certified, so it is impossible for any one company or organisation to become ISO certified on its own.
Therefore, organisations that have ISO 9001 certifications can be assumed to deliver products and/or services in accordance with rigorous quality management standards. ISO 9001 helps organisations to ensure their customers receive high-quality products and services on an on-going basis, which in turn brings a number of benefits, including satisfied customers, management, and employees. Certification in the ISO 9001 standard can strengthen an organisations authority, showing customers that their products and services are up to scratch.
ISO 9001 is also designed to help you continually enhance and manage the quality of your business, as well as identifying areas where improvements are needed. Once your company has been inspected against all ISO 9001 requirements, and the amount of non-conformances (or incompatibilities) has been reduced to manageable levels, your company is ready to undergo an overall audit. Once certified, your organisation should prove, by way of an internal follow-up audit, that processes and documents to get your business up to standards compliance are being followed. ISO 9001 sets forth a variety of criteria (or standards) for defining the principles of quality management, such as customer-centricity, optimising leadership and management throughout an organisation, improving and refining internal processes, and overall methods for continuous improvement.
ISO 9000 names both a standard and an introductory standard that covers fundamentals about how a quality management system should look, defines vocabulary, and describes seven quality management principles in ISO 9000. ISO 9000 is a series, or family, of standards issued by ISO, the International Organisation for Standardisation, which describes best practices in the field of quality management.