ISO 9001:2015

What is ISO 9001:2015?

ISO 9001 is an International standard published and released by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It is a system that determines how an entity can meet its customers’ and stakeholders’ requirements. Companies from different sectors and of different sizes can use and implement the ISO 9001 standard as more than a million entities from over 170 countries are certified on ISO 9001. The main idea behind this standard is ‘Customer Satisfaction’ & ‘Continuous Improvement’. The ISO 9001 standard can be easily integrated with other ISO standards.

What is Quality?

According to the international body for formulating standards, quality is “The degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements”.

What is a Quality Management System (QMS)?

QMS is a group of policies, processes and procedures that is set by a company to ensure customer satisfaction through the products/services they offer. They follow the “PDCA Cycle” approach to reach their ultimate goal; customer satisfaction.

PDCA Approach

As shown in the diagram below, the PDCA cycle is implemented throughout the clauses of the ISO 9001 standard.

Quality Policy

It’s the top management’s responsibility to establish a Quality Policy. The Quality Policy should be aligned with the company’s strategic direction, its quality objectives, and the context of the organization. Moreover, it should be simple, understandable and leads to the company’s continual improvement.

Note that the Quality Objectives should be SMART:

Key to Success:

  1. The commitment and support from the Top Management
  2. Every member in the company should know their roles and responsibilities exactly
  3. Adequate resources, such as people, money materials, machines and time
  4. Appropriate training and awareness
  5. Effective audit
  6. Well-designed plan, along with documented implementation of it

Benefits of ISO 9001 standard to your company:

  1. Improve the company’s trustworthiness and image
  2. Enhance customer satisfaction
  3. Better process integration
  4. Better decision making
  5. A culture with continual improvement
  6. Better employees’ connection and communication

Integrating QMS into Day-to-Day Operations

A QMS should not be treated as a set of requirements that need to be fulfilled in order to obtain a certificate. In order to fully benefit from its QMS, an organization should be able to fully integrate it with its day-to-day operations. Perhaps the best way then is to invest in an automated ISO Management System such as the ISO ERP system that H.A. Consultancies developed. This way, the ISO requirements become part of the daily routine of the company which allows users to fully benefit from the ISO system.