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ISO 9001 2015 Certification

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Courtesy: ISO 9001 2015 Certification

The ISO 9001 standard is generic; its parts must be carefully interpreted to make sense within a particular organization. Developing software is not like making cheese or offering counseling services, yet the ISO 9001 guidelines, because they are business management guidelines, can be applied to each of these. Diverse organizations—police departments (United States), professional soccer teams (Mexico), and city councils (UK)—have successfully implemented ISO 9001 systems.

Over time, various industry sectors have wanted to standardize their interpretations of the guidelines within their own marketplace. This is partly to ensure that their versions of ISO 9000 have their specific requirements, but also to try and ensure that more appropriately trained and experienced auditors are sent to assess them.

Effectiveness

The debate on the effectiveness of ISO 9000 commonly centers on the following questions:

  1. Are the quality principles in ISO 9001 of value?
  2. Does it help to implement an ISO 9001-compliant quality management system?
  3. Does it help to obtain ISO 9001 certification?

The effectiveness of the ISO system being implemented depends on a number of factors, the most significant of which are:

  1. Commitment of senior management to monitor, control, and improve quality. Senior managers must be strongly involved in the quality management activities, starting with the definition of a quality strategy for the organisation.
  2. Motivations to adopt the standard. Internal motivations such as a genuine desire to improve the product quality, company processes, and process efficiency tend to facilitate the implementation of the standard and to increase the effectiveness of the certification. Organizations that implement an ISO system without this desire often take the cheapest road to get a certificate on the wall and ignore problem areas uncovered in the audits. External motivations (such as stakeholder pressure or customer demand) tend to produce lower certification benefits.
  3. Making a convenient analysis of the internal context of the company that wants to adopt the standard, prepararing for the implementation of the standard (e.g. training), planning for the implementation of the standard in the organisaton, and the organisational (personnel, culture) receptivity to the implementation of the standard. 
  4. The degree of effective implementation of the standard (i.e., internalization of the standard in the processes of the organization).  That is, how well the ISO system integrates into current business practices. Many organizations that implement ISO try to make their system fit into a cookie-cutter quality manual instead of creating a manual that documents existing practices and only adds new processes to meet the ISO standard when necessary.
  5. How well the ISO system focuses on improving the customer experience. The broadest definition of quality is “Whatever the customer perceives good quality to be.” This means that a company doesn’t necessarily have to make a product that never fails; some customers have a higher tolerance for product failures if they always receive shipments on-time or have a positive experience in some other dimension of customer service. An ISO system should take into account all areas of the customer experience and the industry expectations, and seek to improve them on a continual basis. This means taking into account all processes that deal with the three stakeholders (customers, suppliers, and organization). Only then can a company sustain improvements in the customer’s experience.
  6. How well the auditor finds and communicates areas of improvement. While ISO auditors may not provide consulting to the clients they audit, there is the potential for auditors to point out areas of improvement. Many auditors simply rely on submitting reports that indicate compliance or non-compliance with the appropriate section of the standard; however, to most executives, this is like speaking a foreign language. Auditors that can clearly identify and communicate areas for improvement in language and terms executive management understands facilitate action on improvement initiatives by the companies they audit. When management doesn’t understand why they were non-compliant and the business implications associated with non-compliance, they simply ignore the reports and focus on what they do understand.

Advantages

Proper quality management can improve business, often having a positive effect on investment, market share, sales growth, sales margins, competitive advantage, and avoidance of litigation. The quality principles in ISO 9000:2000 are also sound, according to Wade  and Barnes, who says that “ISO 9000 guidelines provide a comprehensive model for quality management systems that can make any company competitive”. Sroufe and Curkovic, (2008) found benefits ranging from registration required to remain part of a supply base, better documentation, to cost benefits, and improved involvement and communication with management. According to ISO the 2015 version of the standard brings the following benefits:

  1. By assessing their context, organizations can define who is affected by their work and what they expect. This enables clearly stated business objectives and the identification of new business opportunities.
  2. Organizations can identify and address the risks associated with their organization.
  3. By putting customers first, organizations can make sure they consistently meet customer needs and enhance customer satisfaction. This can lead to more repeat customers, new clients and increased business for the organization.
  4. Organizations work in a more efficient way as all their processes are aligned and understood by everyone. This increases productivity and efficiency, bringing internal costs down.
  5. Organizations will meet necessary statutory and regulatory requirements.
  6. Organizations can expand into new markets, as some sectors and clients require ISO 9001 before doing business.
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