I was asked last week to prepare some answers to sales oriented questions on ISO 9001 – Quality Management Systems & ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems for a sales team, focused on small companies. I thought they might be of interest…..
1. What is it?
ISO 9001 is a standard for quality systems. It is implemented by nearly 1 million companies and other organizations in over 150 countries. ISO 9001 addresses “quality management”. This means what the organization does to fulfill:
- their customers’ quality requirements
- regulatory requirements
- customer satisfaction
- continual improvement of its performance
ISO 14001 is a standard for environmental management systems. It is usually an ‘add-on’ to ISO 9001, demonstrating a companies commitment to improving environmental performance.
2. What are the benefits to me?
- More customer focused
- More repeat business
- Over 70% of public sector tenders are won by ISO 9001 registered companies
- ISO 9001 certified companies have higher growth rates
- ISO 9001 certified companies have lower staff turnover
- ISO 9001 certified companies have higher repeat business
- ISO 9001 certified companies have higher profit margins
It has been proven that it is one of the most cost-effective ways of marketing and promoting a company
3. What does it involve?
Pre-Assessment. An ISO 9001 auditor will conduct a gap analysis to see what work you need to do to comply with ISO 9001. An action plan will be developed and you will be supported with templates, draft procedures, flow diagrams of business processed to prepare you for the main audit. Typically the work required by you before the main audit is 1-2 days.
The ‘Audit’. An ISO auditor will come and assess your compliance with ISO 9001, by auditing you against the standard. The auditor will either recommend that a certificate is awarded or identify what areas need to be corrected before a certificate can be awarded.
The timescale from pre-assessment to obtaining the certificate is typically 6-12 weeks.
Annual Surveillance visits. To maintain the certificate an annual surveillance visit by an auditor is required – typically 0.5 day.
