CONSULTANCY SERVICES

General Management System Standards

ISO 9001

Introduction

Customers are becoming more sophisticated, better informed and their expectations are growing. Any business that wants to stay in business has to keep up by offering quality products and services as well as providing assurance of this commitment. Organizations can demonstrate this and secure themselves a future through an ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS) certification.

This standard is recognized worldwide in more than 140 countries and belongs to the ISO 9000 series of standards. The ISO 9000 series is amongst the International Organisation for Standardisation’s (ISO) most widely known and used standards.

ISO 9001 has been designed to be a ‘generic’ management system standard, applicable for organizations of any size and type. Thus, it is widely accepted and adopted by manufacturing and service organisations, non-profit organizations, and even governmental departments the world over. The ISO 9001 provides an effective framework for any quality conscious organisation that would like to consistently provide products and services that meet their customers’ requirements; and continually improve on their products, processes and system to enhance satisfaction.

Benefits of Implementation

ISO 9001 provides uncountable benefits - both tangible and intangible. A typical organisation would enjoy the following:

• a systematic approach to control all its processes and well defined procedures and supporting documentation
• greater transparency and consistency in its output
• an established plan-do-check-act approach that drives improvements
• greater quality awareness amongst employees and reduced defects, scraps, rework, failures and service recovery
• the means to assure a sound quality management system by having a third party certification that is recognised worldwide
• correspondingly, a reduced need for multiple second party audits
• and ultimately, a reduction in customer complaints, retention of customers and an increase in its ability to penetrate new markets and increase its market share

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Does ISO 9001 mean paperwork?

NO. This standard only describes, “What the organisation needs to do” but not “How to comply”. Thus, the organisation always has the flexibility to determine the complexity and amount of documentation in its QMS.

How do I select my Certification Body?

In selecting a certification body, it is important to consider if the certification body is accredited to provide certification services in your area of activity. On top of that, it may be important to find out from your customers as to the preferred certification body that they would want your organisation to appoint.

Can the ISO 9001 Quality Management System be integrated with other systems?

YES. This standard can be integrated with other systems such as ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, ISO/TS 16949, ISO/IEC 17025, ISO 22000, HACCP, ISO 13485, and many others.

Is there a minimum number of employees that I must have to implement ISO 9001?

The number of employees is not a requirement to implement ISO 9001. One may be a 5-man organisation or a 5,000 strong organisation. Size does not matter.

How does the ISO 9001 QMS compare to quality awards such as the Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award given by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Singapore Quality Award / Class (SQA/SQC) provided by the Productivity and Standards Board, Singapore?

These 2 awards are initiatives by the respective countries to recognise organizations that demonstrate business excellence of world-class quality and have their own individual core values and concepts. An organisation with a ISO 9001 QMS does fulfil in part some of the evaluation criteria for such quality awards.