Click here to get your free guide to achieving IS0 9001
To gain ISO 9001 you need to show that you conform to British Standards. To show conformance your organisation should follow 8 principles of quality which are:-
- Customer focus
- Leadership
- Involvement of people
- Process approach
- System approach to management
- Continual improvement
- Factual approach to decision making
- Mutually beneficial supplier relations.
In a recent survey by Lake Market Research in 2014 companies who had achieved ISO 9001:2008 claimed they had felt these benefits.
The advantages are that you can produce an effective, efficient business and be successful by eliminating problem areas that may jeopardise your success, such as employees producing the same outcome but working differently. You will be ensuring a consistently high standard of products. Flow charts that show how you carry out your operations mean that the prospect of staff being absent, or leaving, will have little effect on your business.
Having the ISO logo on your letterhead can give confidence to potential customers and some contracts (for which you bid for) may insist that you have it: therefore you are increasing your potential for securing new orders. Having the certificate in the entrance hall of your business and having the logo displayed on your vehicles looks impressive.
How do I go about it?
In the first instance many large, medium and small enterprises, employ a consultant to come and install a Quality Management System (QMS) by formulating all the necessary documents and preparing them for a visit from a certification company. Secondly, they commission a certification company, such as ISOQAR Ltd which is accredited by UKAS, to visit and assess them. There are no alternatives for the second stage, but there are for the first. How about doing it yourself? The CADMUS.pro package offers an alternative simple solution. It is easy to follow and will be all you will need for the first stage. For further information visit the CADMUS.pro page.