ISO 9001 Accreditation Information

You can read article after article outlining the benefits of ISO 9001 and the reasons why your company should implement it, but what are the real facts behind the certificate that will be hanging on your wall?

An ISO 9001 certification is an internationally recognised certification for quality management. It implements a streamlined quality control system into a company to make sure that the quality expectations of your product or service are met.

The certification implements a thorough methodology which means that nothing slips under the radar. It begins by making sure that procedures are in place to plan for any problems, followed up with a plan of action to solve these problems. The ISO 9001 management system also includes processes which verify the quality of the product and finally it continually updates itself to make sure any issues that arise are accounted for.

Many businesses are put off by the thought of the assessment process when they are looking to be ISO 9001 certified, and unless it has not been properly explained this worry can be understandable. The majority of certifying companies will make sure that minimum staff and management time is taken up during the assessment which will last for between 1 and four days depending on the size of your company.

To ensure that you don’t have to undergo a huge overhaul of your processes an ISO 9001 assessment generally includes a ‘gap analysis’ this means that rather than implementing new procedures your original ones can be simply adapted so that you conform with the international standards. This also saves on staff training time after the changes have been made.

Following your assessment you will have a certain number of days to carry out the changes, and once you can prove they have been made you will be presented with your certificate.

ISO 9001 is a quality management system that reflects the ability of an organisation to effectively meet the needs of its customers. Gaining certification involves an auditor comparing the existing quality policy with the certification requirements, which covers a range of areas. Although the specific methods of providing good quality customer care is unique to every organisation, one crucial aspect that should be focused on in all cases is customer communication. By working on this, your organisation is more likely to fulfil the criteria of the quality management system standard, and to become successfully ISO 9001 certified.

Perhaps the most important aspect of customer care, and therefore of becoming ISO 9001 certified, is having in place an effective communication system. This should allow customers to find out information about products, to order products, to make enquiries and to leave feedback or make complaints. For these purposes, it is often advisable to provide customers with a telephone number, email address and, if possible, a website. In a world where most people’s first port of call is Google, you will be more easily found on the web than with a simple entry in the Yellow Pages. Having a business website is not only more lucrative in terms of bringing your name to the forefront of customer searches, however, but it means that even once you have been found, both new and existing customers can be enticed by easy access to information about you and your products. Customers are far more likely to purchase a product if they can find out all about it, and even see a picture of it, at the click of a button, rather than having to travel or make a phonecall to receive the same information. Having the option to purchase online is also extremely beneficial because, in the same way it is better to gain information online, it is much simpler to buy products from the comfort of your own home than to have to travel.

Once customers are able to make purchases from your business online, providing a way of making inquiries or leaving feedback is the next step to meeting ISO 9001 criteria. People are more likely to feel satisfied, and therefore purchase more in the future, if they feel their needs and views are taken care of. Having a page on your website where customers can send you questions, ideas for improvement or simply compliment you not only helps you overcome problems within your business, but makes customers feel valued.

In this short post I outline the importance of ISO 9001 - giving you a basic understanding to help you decide whether it is right for your organisation.  

ISO 9001 provides a guide to creating a quality management system. It mainly concerns the procedures which create and manage the services or products a company offers. The overall result is that the procedures are streamlined and become more efficient and productive. This improvement to procedures is continued by having regular evaluations in place. Once the system is in place it maintains and updates itself because that is built into the ISO 9001 certification. One of the first steps when becoming certified is to outline your current procedures; this will allow you to recognise any procedures that are ineffective or outdated. Outlining procedures in this way also makes it simpler for new employees to get to grips with their new work and helps to define the roles of your current employees. Behind ISO 9001 and many other ISO certifications there is a “plan, do, check, act” method. In ISO 9001, the planning is looking at your current procedures, evaluating them and updating them, the do is implementing these updates, the check is then evaluating how well the updated procedures are working and the act is to further improve them if possible. As I mentioned previously it is a self perpetuating system. ISO 9001 is one of the most widely used and recognised management systems and can help provide your organisation with a competitive edge as well as potentially open up an international market. Hopefully this has given you some insight into how ISO 9001 works and some of the benefits of becoming certified can be.

ISO 9001 is one of the most well known and respected management systems; over 1,064,000 organisations in 175 countries worldwide are ISO 9001 certified. It began just after the Second World War with the Ministry of Defence creating a quality standard system so that their suppliers of military equipment were consistent. From there it was so successful it spread into other departments and was eventually adopted by the British Standards Institute (BSI) in 1979. It has gone through various alterations and become applicable to as many varying organisations as possible and obviously renamed ISO 9001 (after going through several names and having three names at the same time at one point). Today ISO 9001 is very widely used in the UK (however still less than 5% of UK businesses have become ISO 9001 certified since 1979). Whereas in the USA it is still in the early stages of development, however this looks set to change in the future with more major companies making being ISO certified a requirement of working with them. One of the major companies with is doing this in the USA is major vehicle companies. This is actually becoming somewhat of a trend, despite this not being the intention behind becoming ISO 9001 certified. For example a cleaning company who had worked for a major airport for over 35 years were told if they did not becoming ISO 9001 certified their contract would be terminated. This kind of use of certifications is not supported by the BSI or the Institute or the Department of Trade and Industry.

ISO 9001 ensures a high quality of standards where Quality Assurance Procedures are enforced. As an internationally recognised certification it can open up many doors to the growth of a business as other companies with this certification will look to working alongside others who are ISO 9001 certified to guarantee the same level of quality.

ISO 9001 is open to both small and large organisations and they all have to go through the same process to achieve this sought after status. Initially a company who certifies and assesses for ISO 9001 needs to be located and following this initial contact an assessor will visit the business to investigate the current quality procedures in place. The assessor will identify areas to improve so that your internal standards meet the International Standards. Rather than overhauling the main operations of the business procedures that already exist the assessor will aim to improve the internal quality of these processes.

Once all the standards required for the ISO 9001 certification are met the organisation will be presented with a manual, wall plaque and a certificate.

The way in which a business would achieve ISO 9001 certification has changed recently, unlike before it is not a lengthy and costly process. With these changes all businesses can reach accreditation and reap the benefits on all aspects of the organisation.

ISO 9001 is an internationally recognised standard for quality management that is available for companies of all sizes. It not only helps organisations to ensure that they have the correct internal processes in place to be able to grow and improve their business, but it also shows potential clients that if they choose your company, that you will uphold a certain level of quality.

Many people think that ISO 9001 is an extravagant cost, and that only larger companies can afford but actually many auditing and certification companies have set up payment plans so that it can be accessible to everyone.

In general, pricing for ISO 9001 is calculated according to the size of a business. The smaller the business, the smaller the cost. This is because a large company will take far longer to audit and will require more than one consultant or auditor to come in to the business. There is a one-off payment for the initial audit and certification and then there is an annual audit fee as well so that you may keep your certification. The annual audit fee is also subject to how large your company is.

It is well worth investing in an ISO 9001 certification for your business, it not only makes your business run better because it is built on core-processes, but it also means that your time can be better spent in improving your company and developing it. Having an ISO 9001 certification can bring great returns if used properly. Many other companies looking for new suppliers will check whether a potential company is ISO 9001 certified before taking them on. This is especially true in the public sector. 

In terms of international quality standards, ISO 9001 been one of the fastest growing certifications worldwide - with thousands of organisations gaining the standard every year.

Quality Acceptance is a widely accepted and even encouraged concept throughout the UK; in particular ISO 9001 is the most advanced market in the world. For instance, within the USA ISO 9001 is still in the early stages however it is expected to become much more customary due to things like the major vehicle manufactures recently implementing ISO 9001 and requiring it from their suppliers.

ISO 9001 has a simple basic principle that you should state what it is you do (write your procedures), you should then put this into action (carry out your procedures) and finally provide evidence you have done this (through internal audits). Even though ISO 9001 has been successful in the UK the estimation is that fewer than 100,000 organisations have achieved ISO 9001 certification (this is taken since 1979, meaning it is less than 5% of all UK business that have this certification). The majority of these certifications are from large and medium businesses; this could be due to the amount of money the process of getting certified requires generally making it a less viable option for smaller businesses.

ISO 9001 is a relatively hot topic at this point in time, a quotation from one magazine is even “….Britain has gone ISO 9000 mad”. It is becoming a trend that customers are stating being ISO 9001 certified as a requirement of doing businesses with organisations. There have been a couple of cases that illustrate the extent of this; a group of morris dancers were asked by their local authority to become ISO 9001 registered otherwise they would not be able to perform at the next fete and the other example is of a cleaning company who had been cleaning a major airport for over 35 years but they were asked to get ISO 9001 certified or they would no longer be able to continue their cleaning contract.

This is not the intention of ISO and this kind of behaviour is not endorsed by the Department of Trade and Industry or the British Standards Institute. It is meant to be completely voluntary process, however someone may want to notify others of this as many seems not to have taken it into account. ISO 9001 will undoubtedly continue to grow as more suppliers demand it and more businesses realise it can provide a competitive edge in ever crowding and changing markets. If you are not already ISO 9001 certified it would definitely be something worth considering. 

Please read more of our other posts to see whether this is right for you.

ISO 9001 is an international quality management standard that is flexible enough to be applied to any type of business or organization, regardless of sector, line of business or field. Regardless, of whether you are a sole trader, SME or multinational corporation - quality management is essential for internal processes and getting ahead of competition that do not have the certification.  

There are a number of reasons why companies decide to get ISO 9001 certification – and the most common is the most simple; they need it in order to go in for a tender or bid for a contract. So why is it that ISO 9001 can be such a game-change in these processes? Well, large organizations and companies will be looking for the elements that separate a supplier out from the crowd. Asking for ISO certification is a way of narrowing the field – and because ISO 9001 is an internationally recognised standard for quality management, it is fair to assume that any company with ISO 9001 has a focus on quality. They will have procedures for quality assurance, will take action on complaints cases and will have procedures in place for everything from staff training to recording purchase orders.

But alongside the obvious “I’m getting ISO because I need it” there are a range of other reasons that companies decide to go through the certification process. For example, being able to say that you are ISO certified is a clear demonstration of your commitment to quality to your customers, partners and business community. For small businesses it is a differentiator that can help to put you on the radars of larger clients – a lot of public sector organisations ask their suppliers and contractors to be ISO 9001 certified, so if a small business is gunning for public sector contracts, ISO is a must-have.

In addition to these reasons, there are genuine benefits to your business to be found from the ISO certification process. The assessment can be used as vehicle for identifying areas of your business for improvement and streamlining. Once you have your ISO 9001 manual, you have a clear guide to the internal standards that you set – which can be helpful both in terms of informing staff of your expectations and training new staff members as you grow.

Maybe the most important benefit of ISO 9001 certification is improved quality – having clear quality management procedures in place can lead to better customer relations, a better reputation, more leads and business opportunities – an therefore a return on your investment which can be tracked in your bottom line!