ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems Certification

ISO 9001 Certification

ISO 9001 is a critical certification that will give your organisation a distinct competitive advantage, whilst expanding your opportunities to participate in tenders.

Our experienced team will guide you through the certification process by simplifying the application and auditing process. Our experienced auditors provide audit outcomes that add value to your organisation and its processes.

Overview

Designed for organisations of any size and any sector, ISO 9001 certification helps ensure that your clients experience consistent, good quality products and services. Over one million companies and organisations across the world are certified to ISO 9001.

The ISO 9001 certification is based on a number of quality management principles including a strong client focus, the motivation and implication of top management, the process approach, and a commitment to continual improvement.

Benefits of ISO 9001

ISO 9001 certification can help your business:

  • Build market differentiation and competitive advantage
  • Prove your claim to operational quality
  • Reduce your exposure to liability
  • Provide safety system compatibility
  • Boost improvement and cost-efficiency
  • Improve organisational morale

The ISO 9001 certification process

There are six key stages in the ISO 9001 certification process your business will need to complete:

#1. Understanding ISO

A comprehensive understanding of the ISO 9001 standard, its purpose, and what it means for your organisation will help make the certification process smooth.

#2. Recognise the gap

A gap analysis will determine your organisation’s current quality standards. From there, the steps required to achieve and maintain your ISO 9001 certification can be determined and a timeline created.

#3. Prepare your documentation

The ISO 9001 standard’s purpose is to provide your organisation with an ongoing quality management system. A key component of this is documentation. Documentation will be prepared at this stage which provides procedures, objectives, and policies to help your organisation stay ISO 9001 compliant.

#4. Implement your plan

At this stage, your ISO 9001 requirements will be integrated into your organisation. This is often the most time-consuming phase and involves, among other things, training and educating employees, business planning, and developing an internal audit schedule. QMS assesses your organisation’s management system once you’ve implemented it.

#5. Assessment

Ongoing internal and external assessment is a crucial element of ISO 9001 certification. It means challenges and issues can be identified, efficiency and safety improved, and compliance maintained.

#6. Ongoing Improvement

ISO 9001 Certification is not a simple one-off process, it’s about creating a culture of continual improvement. Through ongoing auditing from independent assessors, your organisation will continually improve and stay up to date with ISO standards.

Learn more about the 6 stages of the ISO 9001 process.

The assessment process

When applying for ISO 9001 certification, your organisation will undergo an assessment process to review its operational sites, functions, products, services, and processes. Your organisation will have to demonstrate that it has effectively implemented sections four to 10 of ISO 9001.

These include:

Context of the organisation

  • Understanding your business and its relationship with stakeholders
  • Determining the needs and expectations of employees, customers, regulatory bodies, and government
  • Ascertaining the scope of your business
  • Understanding your business’s processes

Leadership

  • Commitment to ensuring management system success
  • Quality policy creation and communication
  • Management of organisational roles, responsibilities, and authorities

Planning

  • Addressing risks and opportunities
  • Creating quality objectives and ways to achieve them
  • Preparing for changes

Support

This pertains to:

  • Resources including people, infrastructure, environment, tools, and knowledge
  • Competence, knowledge, and skills to perform tasks in accordance with policies and procedures
  • Awareness of policies through communication with stakeholders
  • Documented information required to maintain an effective quality management system

Operation

  • Operational planning and practical considerations
  • Determining product and service requirements including meeting customer requirements, product and service design and development
  • External process control
  • Production and service provision
  • Release of products and services
  • Control of nonconforming outputs

Performance evaluation

  • Determining what needs to be monitored and measured
  • Performing internal audits to measure and analyse the identified items
  • Determining an evaluation timeline
  • Performing management review of the quality management system to ensure its effectiveness

Improvement

  • Monitoring the quality management system
  • Identifying areas for improvement including corrective action to prevent and minimise potential and existing issues
  • Making necessary changes to products and services

Ready for QMS to help you take the lead?

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Learn how QMS helped Varley Group reduce operational costs of certification, leveraging deep industry knowledge and experience.

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Is your business ready for certification? Find out today by downloading our self-assessment checklist

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