ISO abbreviation – International Organization for Standardization ; International Standards Organization
What is ISO 9001? (Based on nqa.com)
ISO 9001 is defined as the internationally recognized standard for Quality Management Systems
(QMS). It is the most widely used QMS standard in the world, with over 1 million certificates issued to
organizations in 178 countries.
It provides a framework and set of principles that ensure a common-sense approach to the
management of your organization to consistently satisfy customers and other stakeholders. In simple
terms, ISO 9001 certification provides the basis for effective processes and effective people to deliver an
effective product or service time after time.
Why is ISO 9001 important?
10 Reasons why you need ISO 9001 Certification: (based on 9001Simplified)
(https://www.9001simplified.com/learn/reasons-for-iso-9001.php)
THE INTERNAL BENEFITS OF ISO 9001 (1-5)
1 – Improve Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
Customer satisfaction is a key focus of ISO 9001. The standard requires that your organization
not only determines if customer requirements have been met but also monitors your customers
subjective perception of it. This almost inevitably ensures that a properly implemented quality
management system will deliver customer satisfaction.
The importance of meeting – and indeed exceeding – customer expectations can't be overstated.
Satisfied customers will be retained: they will become repeat customers and eventually develop a strong
sense of loyalty. In due course they may generate additional revenue streams though written or word of
mouth recommendations.
2 – Happier and More Competent Employees
In our article, How ISO 9001 Benefits Employees, we discussed how a robust ISO quality
management system can impact positively on staff. Benefits typically include:
Empowered employees
The feeling of being empowered plays a major role in boosting job satisfaction. Involving and engaging
employees are among ISO's core principles, and ones that contribute greatly to a happy, motivated
workforce.
Employee training / Professional growth
Another key tenet of ISO 9001 is employee training. Employees always respond favorably to training
programs, staff reviews and evaluations, additional responsibilities, and opportunities for career
development. Employees enjoy knowing they're part of a company that's moving forward and their
career is in safe hands.
Better understanding
The ISO standard's strong focus on customers and customers' needs helps staff better understand how
their actions affect the end product or service, and how their actions can help pave the way to
improvements.
Greater employee engagement
ISO 9001 fosters a strong supportive culture that engenders enthusiasm, engagement, and increased
productivity.
A happy, engaged, well-trained and competent workforce is a productive workforce. In this respect,
employee satisfaction is a major benefit of ISO 9001.
3 – Better Quality Products and Services
Better quality is what's typically associated with – and expected from – ISO 9001 and certified
companies. It is in fact one of the key benefits of implementing the standard. The following case studies,
published by the International Organization for Standardization, illustrate this point very well.
4 – Increased Efficiency , Fewer Mistakes, and Less Wasted Time
Several of the Standard's requirements result – directly and indirectly – to improvements to
operational processes, both in terms of efficiency and reliability. For example, the requirements on
employee competence, updated documentation and supplier controls all play a role in achieving less
scrap, waste, and rework. The process approach and risk-based thinking, both of which are fundamental
concepts of ISO 9001, contribute to a better and more efficient integration of operational processes with
less room for error.
5 – Reduced Overall Risks
Risk-based thinking is an important component of the 9001 Standard. To quote from the
Standard itself: "Risk-based thinking enables an organization to determine the factors that could cause
its processes and its quality management system to deviate from the planned results, to put in place
preventive controls to minimize negative effects and to make maximum use of opportunities as they
arise."
The Standard emphasizes that risk should be identified and mitigated throughout the entire
organization. And it's not only top management that's responsible – all employees need to be involved.
Once a culture of risk awareness has been established, and once the required controls are in place,
organizations will benefit from reduced overall risks.
THE MARKETING BENEFITS OF ISO 9001 CERTIFICATION
6 – Increases Sales and Market Share
The International Organization for Standardization informs us that ISO 9001 certification does
indeed enhance financial performance, and this is achieved mainly through increased sales. This is
perhaps unsurprising after considering the internal benefits discussed above. However, there is more to
it. The ISO 9001 certification mark is the world's most recognized indicator for quality, providing certified
companies with a clear advantage over their competitors. It's for this reason that certified companies
miss no opportunity informing potential customers about their 9001 credentials.
7 – Fulfilling a Sales Prerequisite
The ISO 9001 Standard requires certified organizations to implement criteria for the selection of
their suppliers. While organizations are free to determine their own criteria, a trend has emerged among
larger enterprises to stipulate ISO 9001 certification as a prerequisite. Also worth noting here is that
many government agencies are increasingly replacing their own quality standards with a requirement for
ISO 9001 certification.
8 – Easier Access to International Markets
Penetrating new markets is seldom easy, especially if your company or brand is little known
outside its country of operation. Barriers to entry may include uncertainties about your products and
services, or doubts about your ability to deliver in accordance with schedules. ISO 9001 registration
overcomes these and other hurdles by acting as a badge of quality that's respected globally. It tells
potential customers that your company can be trusted and your products or services will be among the
best on the market. Equally, the ISO certificate dispels concerns about internal factors such as efficiency,
wastage, and ethical employment practices.
9 – Prestige
The ISO certificate is a badge that deserves to be shown off with pride. It increases your
company's reputation. We already discussed the resulting increase in sales. But your reputation can also
attract more highly skilled employees and increase the potential for partnerships or even acquisition.
There are countless ways that ISO certification and the cachet it generates can directly and indirectly
benefit your organization.
10 – Increased Profits
The described benefits of ISO are impressive but for owners and investors it's often only the
bottom line that counts. Hence the question if ISO 9001 certification with all its benefits really leads to
increased profits. Or, in other words, will the internal and marketing benefits outweigh the cost of
implementing and maintaining the quality management system?
The cost side of the equation is relatively easy to pinpoint as the primary contributors are consultancy,
Do-It-Yourself tools and training, the registrar, and the time spent by staff. Putting a monetary value on
the benefits is a greater challenge. And then there is the time factor: what's the value of reaping the
benefits starting in, say, 2 months versus 1 year?
While the differing circumstances of each company will lead to different answers, these two rules are
true in every case:
A simplified ISO system with efficient processes not only minimizes the cost of maintaining it but
also tends to amplify the benefits.
A focus on the desired benefits during ISO implementation leads to the best results.
In addition, you may refer to ISO 10014 for useful guidelines on how to optimize the financial and
economic benefits of ISO 9001.
ISO 9001:2015’s seven key quality management principles
1. Customer focus approach to product development and delivery
2. Quality leadership
3. Engagement with people
4. Process driven approach to quality standards
5. Continual improvement
6. Evidence-based decision making
7. Strong relationship management of customers, suppliers and regulators
Who needs ISO 9001:2015?
ISO 9001:2015 applies to every organisation, regardless of a company’s size or the industry in
which they operate. Globally, over one million organisations have applied the standard to their
quality management systems. The overwhelming response from these companies is that it helps
them:
Better organise their processes
Improve the efficiency of their processes
Continually improve as an organisation
Are there Digital Solutions to Quality Compliance?
Companies around the world spend vast amounts of money every year on EQMS solutions to
ensure they can prove their adherence to the standards set out in ISO and by industry
regulators. These heavyweight and expensive EQMS solutions are purchased as tools to control
and manage the implementation of regulatory requirements such as training, storage of
procedural documentation and product change approval processes.
In practice, these QMS solutions are often imposed by a Quality Management function that is
removed from the teams who are actually charged with complying with their strictures. This
approach to quality tends to lead to siloed thinking with systems that are proscriptive, overly
bureaucratic in their operation and often unpopular with the teams who must use them.
But there is a new breed of graphical Quality Management System which can place the pursuit
of quality at the heart of your approach to product delivery and customer service.
How can a Graphical Quality Management System help?
A gBMS (Graphical Quality Management System)—powered by a ‘process driven intranet’—
is a series of interactive and dynamic web pages that can:
Detail your entire operational structure
Act as a secure digital repository for your quality and product management documentation
Operate as a project management tool in its own right
A gBMS is an accessible web based QMS, PM and training resource to which an entire
company can contribute. It can be an efficient and scalable way of achieving the aims of the
quality approach outlined by the seven principles:
What are the benefits of using a graphical Quality Management
system to comply with ISO 9001:2015?
Using a graphical Quality Management system can help you embed the 7 Quality Management
Principles into your organisational thinking. Here’s how:
1. Customer Focus
A graphical Quality Management system necessarily focuses on the relationship
between every part of your organization and the end products you are delivering.
The project and product management tools a gBMS offers can help you structure
development processes in a more collaborative way.
They can help you integrate the customer focused insight of a whole organization into
more iterative designs and agile refinements for new and existing products.
2. Leadership
A graphical Quality Management system is intended to sit at the Centre of an organization’s
approach and be a constantly updated source of best practice for your company. The leadership
team who installs and champion a BMS, are providing:
A mechanism to replicate quality processes across teams.
Good governance of documentation
A shared understanding of policy, goals, and strategy
3. Engaging your people
A good graphical Quality Management system is a resource for all your teams to pool
and refine their knowledge about the tasks they perform every day. These tasks are the
lifeblood of your business and ‘ownership of them’ is key to future optimization.
A McKinsey study of evolving quality systems points to the centrality of an engaged
workforce in delivering innovation and material improvements in quality outcomes.
4. A process driven approach
Achieving consistency in the quality of your end products demands consistency in the
processes you follow to deliver them.
A gBMS allows your business to build permanently available interactive flow diagrams,
with deep links to more detailed instructions and specs to help with questions and clarification.
It can ensure the proper replication of critical processes even in the face of organizational
growth and change.
5. Continual Improvement
When a gBMS becomes the authoritative, collective resource for training and
optimization purposes, it can also become the driver for product innovation and change within
an organization.
A McKinsey study shows how creating a culture where ‘quality thinking’ is owned and
curated by the people who deliver your products leads to a self-sustaining cycle of continuous
improvement in efficiency and standards.
6. Evidence-based decision making
A graphical Quality Management system can become a shared resource for everyone in
an organization to make decisions and suggest changes based on the most up-to-date data and
an understanding of the wider business context. BMSs are intended to give everyone a holistic
view of their role within a business, empowering them to make the best decisions when it
comes to maintaining and improving quality.
8. Relationship management
A graphical Quality Management system can make the range of relationships and
dependencies that impact upon work visible to every person in a workforce. This, in turn, can
lead to better and more informed decision making when it comes to managing third party
supplier, client and regulatory relationships.
