Quality Management System- ISO 9001
What Is ISO 9001 Certification and How Is It Obtained?
Quality is at the root of success for any business whether it sells a product or service. To ensure quality as a regular and continuous feature, an organization has to create, implement, and maintain a quality management system (QMS). The existence of QMS ensures the organization will deliver quality in a sustainable and consistent manner. It also assures the customers and the regulators that the organization has a system to ensure quality. There is no reason to doubt it.
What is ISO 9001?
ISO 9001 is a set of standards to achieve a quality management system (QMS) in an organization. It prescribes a set of requirements for an organization to seek ISO 9001 certification. The ISO QMS standards were first published in 1987 and were subsequently revised and updated. The latest version of ISO QMS standards was released in September 2015.
Any industry, company, business, or organization can seek ISO 9001 certification regardless of size. The certification is an assurance that the organization is having a well-articulated and verified quality management system. The QMS essentially indicates three things:
Processes have been evaluated, enhanced, and organized
The efficiency of the processes has been verified and optimized
The QMS has in-built systems for continuous inspections and improvements
Benefits of ISO 9001 Certification
With over a million ISO 9001 certifications, it’s one of the most popular standardization certifications globally. Organizations benefit from ISO 9001 certification on multiple counts. Here are some of them:
- Customer Satisfaction: Customers expect a certain level of quality from a product. By creating, implementing, and maintaining QMS, an organization can meet the quality expectations of its customers on a regular and sustained basis.
- Integration of policies and processes: ISO 9001 requires QMS data and documents from all departments of an organization. It also requires processes and efficiencies to meet the company’s stated policies. This way, meeting the ISO 9001 standards integrates different processes of an organization.
- Improved image of the organization: Meeting ISO 9001 standards puts an organization in a different league. It demonstrates that the organization is committed to ensuring quality as a permanent feature.
- Partnership Opportunities: Many companies like to cooperate and collaborate with organizations that are quality driven. An ISO-9001 certification helps you find more partnerships with reputed organizations.
Requirements for ISO 9001
ISO 9001 certification would require an organization to submit plenty of documents related to different departments and how it defines quality. It also needs to show that it is establishing a quality management system that will deliver on expected lines right now. And, it also has an inbuilt system of inspection and evaluation to improve and upgrade to meet the demand for quality in the future.
How is ISO 9001 certification obtained?
Like all ISO certifications, ISO 9001 is also awarded by an accredited third-party certification body. An organization should make a formal request to the certification body, prepare the documents and submit them. After an audit and a few inspections, when the certification body is satisfied that the organization meets the ISO 9001 standards, it will award the certificate.
Concluding Thoughts
ISO 9001 is the most popular set of standards for quality management systems. Organizations with this certification manifest their commitment to maintaining quality throughout their processes, production, and products.