ISO 9001 certification comes with immense benefits. As such, you may be thinking of getting the certification. But have thought about the whole process? It is essential to note the process can be costly and the reward so minimal. Nevertheless, formalising your quality management system to conform to interaction standard is a huge decision; because, another organisation will periodically be auditing your company to check for compliance.
Procedure
Preparations
This process sets the basis for the certification process. Basically, it involves the major preparations that are needed to get the certification in the right way. You and your staff will start by drafting the objectives that benefit your organisation. While doing so, remember that getting an ISO 9001 certification increases efficiency, profitability and operations.
You will decide on the right approach. You can choose to hire a consultant to be in charge of the process, in-house implementation or get a certification kit. The choice you make will largely depend on your current situation.
Again, training is vital to ensure flawless operations. ISO 9001 training is offered to the top management, employees, and the lead person.
Documentation
The documentation process is quite tricky. First, it must fit the circumstances and the needs of your business. When people hire consultants, they are not in an intimate relationship with the company, so they miss many details. And second, it must meet the technical requirements of 1SO 9001 standards. People always have a difficult time understanding, interpreting and applying these technical specifications to the circumstances of their companies.
The documents you need include Quality policy, Procedures Scope, system, process map, quality objectives, work instructions and Forms.
Remember, you cannot get these documents from any company and fit them to your needs. The documents must be both specific and suitable for your company. They must state the overall policy as well as the detailed instructions of work.
It is the only company insiders who can prepare good documentation. You can get a template of ISO 9001 and modify it your company’s specifications.
Implementation
In this phase, you have to introduce the new requirement in your ISO 9001 documentation to affected persons of your company. You’ll have to work with your employees to help them adjust accordingly.
Before implementing the strategies, your staff must understand how important this process is to the growth of the company. This way, they’ll implement it without difficulties.
The implementation must be done slowly, preferable starting with document control section. During the implementation, your team must show some changes in their mode of working, which should typically be an improvement.
Internal audit
Your organisation must evaluate itself to ascertain if the employees are following all the ISO 9001 requirements. These audits must be done while implementing the process and even after the certification is done, and they should be done by your employees who have sufficient training on ISO 9001 auditing. If not, you can subcontract.
Certification
For this process to be effected, you need a third-party ISO 9001 auditor (independent) to do a site audit, such as ATLAS ISO 9001 certification, preferably after you’ve completed your internal audit. Repeat this procedure after two months; you have enough records of your ISO process.
To get the ISO 9001 certificate, you first select a registrar (an independent body) which will, in turn, send an auditor to audit and award a certificate. You have to be careful while selecting a registrar. Search for those that are accredited by a national certification body.