Want to get certified to ISO 9001 and be recognized as a leader in product / service quality and customer satisfaction? Choose us as your certification partner and get the service, help, attention and recognition to boost your competitive edge and image!
ISO 9001 is an internationally acclaimed standard for quality management systems, which focuses on a company’s operational productivity and efficiency to meet the quality expectations of the customer. It ensures the effectiveness of your management system and ensures a higher degree of excellence has been met. To pursue “good management practices”, companies are encouraged to meet the requirements of ISO 9001.
The system was first established in the year 1987 and has gone through several revisions in 1994 and 2008. The current version of the standard, ISO 9001:2015, is implemented by more than 1 million small to large-scale organizations globally. Compliance boosts productivity, management effectiveness and establishes a strong brand image. Getting certified to ISO 9001 shows a company’s ethical conduct, quality control and assurance in its production, service, and delivery.
ISO 9001 does not only concentrate on the quality aspect of your organization, but also promotes best practice in the following organizational modules:
1. Helps improve customer satisfaction: The fundamental purpose of ISO 9001 is to meet quality benchmarks and satisfy customers. Certification ensures that the company has maintained all quality control measures and followed the planned management protocols.
2. Promotes low-cost operations: ISO 9001 supports constant improvement to increase management and operational efficiency. As a result to that, the quality management system helps companies in saving unnecessary costs.
3. Supports stronger stakeholder relationships: A quality management system promotes stakeholder relationships as it engages the workforce and other internal stakeholders to act more proactively. The system increases employee morale too.
4. Win contracts: One of the main requirements for getting new contracts is offering a certified quality service. Depending on your industry and / or customer ISO 9001 certification can be a requirement for winning contracts.
5. Strengthen brand image: A company can not sustain itself in a competitive field if it fails to have a strong brand image. By constantly meeting customer demands, a company gradually earns a reputation. ISO 9001 certification helps to create and maintain a strong brand image and reputation.
6. Increase business consistency and allow business continuity: By establishing an effective quality management protocol, a company will increase its production which will be a major contributor to business continuity. Also, by documenting your management system, a company will function better in the absence or loss of key employees / contractors.
7. Ensures legal compliance: To meet the main requirements of ISO 9001, a company is forced to comply with the basic terms and conditions, which include statutory obligations. Therefore, the standard helps to ensure legal compliance in the proper manner.
ISO 9001 requires that senior leadership are supportive, committed, and engaged, without this, it is impossible to meet ISO 9001. According to clause 5, the leadership includes the following:
The second requirement is planning to find and mitigate potential risk factors. Therefore, according to clause 6, a company must -
In the form of organizational content, a company must determine the following:
As per clause 7, there should be adequate resources in form of:
Clause 8 covers the operations of a company and focusses on the responsibility of developing and delivering quality products / services. The operational structure should:
Clause 9 of ISO 9001 requires frequent performance evaluations for analyzing collected data from production and management to ensure among other things:
A goal of ISO 9001 is to continually improve. For that companies must:
The certification process is as follows:
Commitment - A trusted certification body is chosen, engaged, and an audit date is set.
Pres-assessment - If clients wish, an assessment before the stage 1 and 2 audits is performed.
Stage 1 Audit - The management system and documentation are reviewed to ensure everything is in place for the stage 2 audit, including determining whether internal audit and the management review have been performed. An audit report is prepared and issued by the auditor for review. If everything looks good, the auditor confirms the stage 2 audit.
Stage 2 Audit - After addressing any concerns or opportunities for improvement from the stage 1 audit, the stage 2 audit is conducted by the auditor. The auditor checks that the management system is implemented and is compliant with ISO 9001. If there are any non-conformities, these are shared by the auditor. Once non-conformities are addressed and the auditor can confirm that the standard is being met, the auditor recommends the company for certification.
Issuing the certification - With the successful completion of the two stages of audits, the certification body issues the certification.
Surveillance Audits - Every certification lasts for 3 years. The certification body organizes annual audit programs to ensure ongoing compliance.
Blue Wolf represents renowned and accredited certification bodies and offers a detailed and friendly ISO certification service. Our experts audit your management systems and determine whether they conform to your organization’s objectives and ISO 9001’s requirements.
See what our clients have to say about Blue Wolf
Firstly, on behalf of Adam and myself, we would like to thank you both very much for providing us with the support and service during our ISO accreditation and certification process.
Your professional and knowledgeable approach and support has been very much appreciated.
Mechpro
The experience was overwhelmingly really good. I thought we were ready but there were some lightbulb moments. It was a logical process. The auditor was patient. We wanted the certification for areas of opportunity and we had many recommendations. I appreciated the audit. I haven’t heard anything negative out of the process to date. It’s been good.
Affordable Staff
I’ve never been involved in auditing before. Completely new. Was not sure what to expect. The process was seamless. There were some good recommendations. I was made to feel comfortable. The process worked quite well. I’m feeling more than ready for the next audit. There was so much going on at the time of the audit that I just wanted to go back to the audit, it was more relaxing.
Affordable Staff
“One of the greatest things that initially sold me on BLUE WOLF was your approach towards partnering, understanding, and treating us with respect towards where we are at in compliance with the standard.“
“I was nervous about it until we spoke on the phone in the premeeting. Once you started talking about your approach and your process I was sold. But to see it in real life and to see it actually come true was even more (…)”
After his first day of the audit: “I’ve been through so many audits you can’t even count. Your approach is by far superior than any other audit I’ve ever been through. The contrast was night and day. I’ve got some younger people who don’t have quite the same experience as I do, and their ability to feel like they could be participatory, have value and be respected throughout the process was outstanding. I have not made a better choice in picking a company to work with us in an audit process prior to you. You’re going to be here every year if I can help it. And if ownership changes and they want to do something different, I’ll fight to keep this process going because it has so much value.”
Imerys
I’ve never been a part of one of these. I have learned absolutely so much. It was a privilege to be a part of this. I don’t ever want to experience an audit a different way.
Imerys, Quality Manager
If everybody could have an audit experience like this, more and more people would actually consider an ISO certification. Because so many people hear so many things about it, stressful myths, and everyone has a bad auditor experience from somewhere else. If more people could experience an audit this way, they wouldn’t have any reason to fear ISO.
CHS Broadbent, National EMS Director
I’ve seen some really bad crap auditors. Even I learned a whole lot from what we just went through with Seth that I didn’t even understand about the standard before.
Automated Wellhead. Operations manager
“Blue Wolf has been great with providing us with clarity and direction so that our team can focus on the important aspects of our quality and safety management systems. What seemed like a very intimidating process to achieve ISO accreditation was made simple by Blue Wolf and their team. Their knowledge and our processes have added value and elevated our quality and safety program to another level. Thank you, Seth Shea, and the Blue Wolf team for a wonderful ongoing experience.”
Safety Administrator, Clark Bros, Inc.
“Streamlined. Easy to communicate, easy to talk to. Relaxed, didn’t feel pressured. Recommended for future ISO projects.”
Inks Production Engineer, NovaCentrix
“We completed our audit today with 1 minor non-conformance and 2 observations. I would highly recommend Blue Wolf certifications to anyone else your company is working with. Our auditor Seth was so personable, made the audit process as relaxed and comfortable as possible, made our staff feel comfortable talking to him, and he was very thorough in his findings. He makes you feel like you are working together, which is HUGE and really rare in a company/auditor relationship.”
Senior Director, PEO/HR + Payroll Operations, Choice Employer Solutions, Inc.