The International Organization for Standardization, known popularly as ISO, is a non-governmental federation with more than 140 members. It is an international body comprised of national standards organizations from different countries. The ISO aims to develop industries and businesses, promote innovation, and address global challenges.
With globalization increasing over the years, countless industries have boomed. With this abundance of businesses, trade, imports, and exports, safety, uniformity, and more are also more significant issues. The ISO's objective is to promote the standardization of global trade in all industries—food, healthcare, construction, agriculture, technology, and more.
Founded on 23rd February 1947, the ISO issued certifications for quality management standards for companies worldwide.
What is ISO 9001?
ISO 9001 is a global standard that is recognized for quality management. It allows businesses, big or small, to measure and improve their performance, meet customer expectations regarding service quality, and more. ISO 9001's requirements include defining, establishing, implementing, maintaining, and improving quality management systems (QMS).
ISO 9001 is also one of the world's most widely used quality management standards. In fact, more than one million certificates have been issued in 189 countries. While certification is not mandatory, implementing ISO 9001 has several benefits for organizations.
For starters, it allows businesses to implement effective processes, train staff, and deliver high-quality products every time. It also defines seven quality management principles, including strong customer focus, continual improvement, and training standards. It is also the only standard that can be certified.
The Benefits of Implementing ISO 9001
Some of the most common benefits of ISO 9001 include:
1. Customer Satisfaction and Confidence
Implementing ISO 9001 and adhering to standards ensures businesses can provide customers with high-quality products and services. It also ensures detailed quality control practices and increases customer trust.
2. Efficient Complaint Resolution
Complaint resolution, whether internal or external, is crucial for any organization. ISO 9001 comes with guidelines to resolve customer complaints efficiently. This increases customer satisfaction and experience.
3. Improves Processes
ISO standards help identify and eliminate redundant processes, increase efficiency, streamline workflows and operations, and more. They also help reduce costs and allow organizations to make better decisions.
4. Encourages Regular Audits
ISO 9001 encourages regular audits and reviews. This allows organizations to continually identify, refine, and improve their quality management systems. This helps them maintain competitiveness and improves long-term success.
What are Certification Audits?
Businesses that want to implement ISO standards that require certifications also need to undergo special certification audits. For example, if an organization is seeking certification for ISO 9001, a certification body will conduct the audit and then issue a compliance certificate. This certification is valid for up to three years. Document control is a major point of focus in all audits, including ISO certification audits.
The organization will then need to maintain the product controls, processes, systems, and other operations covered by the ISO 9001 certification. Essentially, ISO 9001 for Quality Management Systems is a set of guidelines that dictate how an organization handles its everyday operations, improving customer satisfaction and quality-related tasks. It covers a wide range of daily operations and processes to help organizations maximize their potential and optimize their operations. Complying with ISO standards is also a common requirement in many industries, and an ISO 9001 certification is proof that your business is compliant.
How ISO Training Can Help You Prepare for Certification Audits
For a successful ISO certification audit, preparation is important. ISO training and preparation increase the chances of achieving certification. Some tips include:
1. Training and Research
Training employees is vital to staying certification audit-ready. All relevant employees should understand their QMS. Training should cover how to use the system, why it has been implemented, and its benefits. Training sessions should be designed and conducted according to the requirements of different departments.
Familiarize all employees with the requirements and intent behind them. Conducting internal audits and gathering the necessary documents and examples of your organization's processes that meet ISO standard requirements can improve the audit's outcome.
2. Creating Audit Schedules and Checklists
ISO training helps relevant employees in creating schedules to help streamline the certification process by breaking down larger goals into more manageable projects. This also allows organizations to train staff and delegate the right activities to the right personnel.
Audit checklists can also ensure no steps are missed during the audit process. They also ensure that organizations understand how certification audits fit into the business's overarching goals.
3. Conducting Internal Audits
Internal audit management software allows organizations to streamline audit programs, plan individual audits, and customize schedules. With proper ISO training, your organization can ensure seamless internal audits as the teams will know what is expected of them.
Further, clients can plan and record preparations, create and manage checklists, track audit tasks, and more. Internal audits ensure that those organizations are well-prepared for external and certification audits.
Since certification audits aim to understand your organization's progress towards aligning with ISO standards, an internal audit can begin that process with effective training.
Wrapping Up
ISO 9001 is applicable across numerous industries, to businesses big or small, and is not product or industry-specific. This flexibility allows businesses to harness and customize the standard to meet their organization's requirements. However, many companies that receive their ISO 9001 certifications lose interest in maintaining and performing certification audits due to the countless complexities it entails in documentation, implementation, and maintenance.
QMS software can allow businesses to overcome the traditional ISO 9001 methodologies and allow companies to retain their staying power. It ensures that the complete procedure is simplified and fills the gaps between certification and businesses via its effortless, automated services.
Effivity's QMS software allows companies to meet training requirements by centralizing training files so employees can easily access them, tracking training tasks to ensure they are completed in a timely manner, simplifying the identification of training needs, and maintaining audit-ready training records.
It can also create and customize an audit schedule, plan and record audit preparations, collect and store audits, distribute audit reports for review and approval, and ink audit findings to the necessary corrective actions. To know more about how Effivity can help you successfully navigate certification audits, visit our website today!
