ISO 9001: 2015

ISO 9001 is the global standard for quality management systems. When accredited certification to ISO 9001 is achieved customers are assured that the quality systems are compliant to the international standard and that the quality of products/services they will be receiving is more likely to meet their specifications. The requirements of the standard aim to help your organization have a fuller and more solidly built quality management framework to help ensure production and delivery meets customer expectations. Therefore, the standard outlines the practices, procedures, and fundamental requirements to implement an effective Quality Management System (QMS) in an organization. Besides focusing on the quality aspect, the standard helps to increase employee engagement, performance, and overall operational efficiency.

• Leadership
• Customer focus
• Context of the organization
• Planning
• Support
• Performance evaluation
• Factual decision making
• Relationship management
• Continual improvement

The cost depends primarily on the number of audit days. The number of audit days is determined from other standards and industry mandatory documents. Factors that increase or decrease the number of audit days include the number of personnel, the level of risk, the type of industry your organization belongs to, and consideration of various factors (simplifications or complications) that help to understand the complexity or your organization. All of this to ensure there is adequate audit time to determine compliance to ISO 9001.

Each certification body determines their own day rate. The rates can vary depending on the standard, the availability of auditors and the amount auditors charge the certification body. Additional factors that affect cost are the certification body’s accreditation fees, admin costs, and other costs as outlined in their proposal. It is important to be aware of additional fees as they can add up. In some cases, a certification body’s day rate may be low, but additional fees can be high, so do your due diligence. Some certification bodies you may notice will charge premium pricing based on how they perceive themselves in the marketplace, however all certification bodies have the same credibility anywhere in the world because of their accreditation. Before choosing an accreditation body, it may be necessary to check with your customers if they care about the name of the certification body. It is very unlikely your customer cares about the name however as long as it is an accredited certification body.

Other costs can be the cost of travel including food, accommodation, etc. for the duration of the audit.

To get ready for ISO 9001 certification, it might be best to get help from a reputed consultancy firm or have an internal expert that is experienced in ISO compliance. Following are general steps to be followed:

• Understand the requirements of the standard and prepare a comprehensive plan to accomplish all of them.
• Document policy, objectives, scope, and procedures needed for achieving certification. In addition, documentation may include process flowcharts and instructions for the workers.
• After preparing compliant and helpful documentation and processes, it is time to implement the Quality Management System (QMS) and regularly monitor it’s implementation.
• Next, internal audits should be done to check whether everything is working per the requirements, and is functioning in a manner that works for the organization.
• The final step is hiring a certification body to perform the external certification audits and grant certification as evidence of compliance.

• Quality control
• Customer satisfaction
• More customers and more profit
• International acknowledgment and exposure
• Better employee engagement
• Business continuity management