The ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System Standard is built on quality management principles that ensure an organization or business is set up to consistently create value for its customers. Any organization or business in any industry has the ability to become ISO 9001:2015 certified. ISO 9001:2015 has been designed to be more inclusive of other organizations, beyond the manufacturing industry. The following are 7 steps to start the journey towards ISO 9001 certification:
1. Read the ISO 9001:2015 standard to learn the requirements of the standard.
2. Meet with leadership to ensure adequate resources are in place to implement ISO 9001, such as time and team members. It is essential to have a unified direction or mission from strong leadership to ensure that everyone in the organization understands the goal of certification.
3. Analyze your organization’s operations to identify any operational gaps that do not meet ISO 9001 requirements.
4. Design and develop required ISO 9001:2015 management system documentation, including a quality policy, quality objectives and procedures.
5. Identify key organizational processes used for meeting objectives and customers’ needs. Ensure that within each process there is a clear understanding of the customers’ requirements as well as a guarantee that these requirements are met each time for every customer. Work on ensuring the requirements of the ISO 9001 QMS are being implemented and complied with.
6. Perform an ISO 9001 internal audit. Ensuring your internal auditor is competent on the ISO 9001:2015 standard, has knowledge of ISO 19011, maintains professional behavior and adheres to the audit scope, are major keys to a successful ISO 9001 quality management system audit.
7. Successfully undergo a certification body audit. Making sure Top Management has a clear understanding of the certification audit process is the first step to a successful certification body audit. Provide leadership by educating team members on the auditing process and communicating expectations. When people know what to expect, it can relieve some of the stress they might be experiencing. Ensure team members are aware of their possible participation in the audit. It is important to make sure that employees are knowledgeable about key policies and procedures. In order to have a confident certification body audit provide leadership by educating team members on the auditing process and communicating expectations.
The success of a company should not be based on luck. When properly planned, designed and implemented, the ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS) Standard can help align people and processes to achieve repeatable success. The time and resources spent on developing a QMS can provide an organization with a lifetime of benefits and support continual improvement goals. By identifying, documenting, and implementing policies and documentation for processes, an organization can ensure that its people and processes are aligned and are working in sync. Check out our article The Benefits of ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System Standard to learn more about ISO 9001. Contact us to find out more about getting ISO 9001:2015 certified or to schedule your certification audit. Check out additional news articles here.
