Getting certified to one or more ISO Management System Standards can be a confusing and overwhelming process, especially if this is a brand new concept for you. What exactly are the ISO Management System Standards, and why are they important for a business? Most importantly, how can a business actually get certified to an ISO Standard?

We get it, the whole ISO world sounds complex, and can seem a bit confronting. But let’s start from the beginning, and clarify all these big questions.

What is ISO?

The International Organisation of Standardisation (ISO) is an independent, global body, made up of an extensive network of individuals that specialise in different areas. ISO is a non-governmental organisation that forms a bridge between the public and private sectors. Initially founded in Geneva, Switzerland, its memberships now extend to more than 160 countries.

ISO develops standards to ensure the quality, safety, sustainability and efficacy of products, services and systems. As technology and new markets continue to rapidly develop, new ISO Standards are drafted and implemented by ISO members globally. This ensures that businesses of all size, type and nature can benefit from International Standards.

What are ISO Standards, and how are they developed?

Essentially, an ISO Standard is an internationally proven and recognised way for a business to run its operations aligned with a particular discipline and objective. But how are ISO Standards developed?

ISO Standards are only developed once there is an identified industry need for standardisation. Experts begin working to prepare a draft, including its scope, key definitions and content. The draft is then shared with all ISO National members for review, where the approval process begins in various stages. Once all ISO members are satisfied with the standard, it will be published and available for the public to use, and in some cases, for business to work towards its Certification to that Standard when applicable.

All ISO Standards are then reviewed approximately every five years by the relevant ISO member bodies. This could result in confirmation, revision (resulting in a new updated version published), or complete withdrawal of the standard.

What are the main ISO Management System Standards?

There are over 24,000 ISO Standards available, each one developed to address different aspects or challenges that affect organisations globally. The standards serve as a framework to manage a variety of technical topics and processes throughout a business and achieve set goals and industry requirements.

The most widely-adopted ISO Management System Standards are:

ISO 9001:2015, ISO 45001:2018, ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 27001:2013.

Let’s briefly have a look at each of these standards:

Business needs – Which ISO Standard is recommended?

It can be challenging to know exactly which ISO Management System Standard a business needs, as not all businesses will require the same ISO Standards.

Some businesses will need to be certified as part of contractual or regulatory requirements. This could be imposed by a client, a regulatory body, or for a government tender. In these cases, it’s easy to know which standards a business needs certification to – simply confirm with the appropriate interested party (it could be provided on a document from the requesting party, listing the standards).

If a business needs certification for any other reason, such as business improvement in particular areas, it will then be a different process. The business will need to analyse each standard, and figure out the most suitable and beneficial one for their particular industry to meet the desired objectives. Reading and understanding the actual standards you are interested in will help you understand more to make such a decision.

How can ISO Standards actually help a business?

Not only will the implementation of an ISO Management System Standard benefit a business, but the actual Certification itself will also provide businesses with a number of benefits, including:

How to become Certified to one or more ISO Standards

Once a business decides which ISO Management System Standards to go with, the journey to achieving certification begins.

The entire Certification process can be summarised as follows:

The business will need to define the standards required, and then purchase a copy of the chosen ISO Standards (this is an actual licensed document developed by ISO that you purchase, which contains all the requirements).

If the business already has a variety of things in place that could be used for meeting the requirements (such as established processes and policies), a gap analysis could be performed. This will determine what still needs to be done, to then plan the next steps.

The business will then need to develop all documentation required to meet the requirements of the chosen ISO Standard(s). This documentation is what the Standards refer to as a Management System, and could include business processes, policies, and software or templates to capture records, etc.

Once the documentation is developed, reviewed and published (live and ready for use), the next step is implementation.

Implementing the Management System means actually putting the system into practice. This involves coaching the team on how to use it, following the new processes, populating forms, saving records, and making sure it’s fully embedded in the day-to-day business activities.

Once the system is implemented, the business will need to conduct an Internal Audit and a Management Review, to define the strategy moving forward for the monitoring of the effectiveness of its Management System.

Internal Audits are a requirement of the main ISO Management System Standards. An Internal Audit is a full review of the management system to ensure that it has met all of the ISO Standard requirements, as well as the organisation’s own requirements, before going for certification. The ISO Standards require that an auditor has to be deemed competent to conduct these internal audits. Therefore, if a business does not engage an external auditor, and decides to use its internal resources (employees) to conduct these Internal Audits, they have to make sure these people are trained and qualified to do so.

Our Management Systems Internal Auditor training is a practical eLearning course that teaches how to conduct effective Internal Audits in accordance with the core ISO Management System Standards. In addition to a Certificate of Completion, included in the course is also a competency assessment (and Verification of Competency Certificate) that will demonstrate that your are qualified to conduct internal audits.

When the business is ready for certification, they will need to be audited by an Accredited Conformity Assessment Body (CAB) – also known as Certification Body. A CAB is an organisation that is accredited to conduct audits of businesses’ Management Systems and issue internationally recognised Certifications to the ISO Standards.

The Certification Audits are split into two stages:

If all business activities prove to conform according to the requirements, the CAB will issue the Certification(s) to the audited business.

Note: The Certification Audit is also commonly referred to as a Third Party Audit.

After the business has achieved Certification(s), the 3-year certification cycle begins. During this period, the Certification Body will return to conduct yearly Surveillance Audits to verify that the Business Management System is still meeting the ISO Standard(s) requirements, as well as their own operational requirements.

Note: The business is also required to conduct Internal Audits each year. With our Internal Auditor training, your team can become qualified to conduct these.

Download a summary of the entire Certification process below!

Get your FREE Certification Process Diagram today!

Now that you know what it means to be certified to an ISO Management System Standard, it’s time to decide what your next step is and your role in this journey. Are you assisting a business in achieving certification? Is it for your own business?

The post What Exactly is Certification to ISO Standards? appeared first on ICExperts Academy.

When talking about ISO Management System Standards, ISO 9001:2015 is the world’s most popular standard. Even those who aren’t familiar with ISO terminologies and practices recognise that certification to ISO 9001:2015 speaks for the high quality with which a business operates and delivers its products and services.

More precisely, the ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems standard provides a framework for world-class business growth via a risk and opportunity based process approach to managing businesses. It determines the requirements that an organisation must meet to:

Some people may refer to this standard as ISO 9001 only. However, the ISO Standards should always be identified by their version year (:2015 for ISO 9001), to ensure everyone is referring to the most recent published version of the standard.

Keep reading to get the most common questions about ISO 9001:2015 answered!

What are the benefits of ISO 9001:2015?

In essence, this standard focuses on continually identifying opportunities for business improvement and meeting customers’ requirements and expectations, while also focusing on leadership and management commitment. It’s no surprise then that organisations that implement the requirements of and achieve certification to ISO 9001:2015 experience benefits such as:

What are the ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System requirements?

The following clauses specify the requirements when implementing a quality management system:

In order to achieve certification to ISO 9001:2015, the quality management system must meet the requirements detailed in the clauses noted above. Not all requirements may be applicable to an organisation; in this case, a justification of why the given requirement wasn’t addressed must be provided and recorded as part of the management system scope wording. To review all requirements, you need to purchase a licensed copy of the Standard, which is an actual document setting out all the requirements.

What is the ISO 9000 Family of Standards?

The ISO 9000 family is an internationally recognised quality management set of standards that provide the framework for business continual improvement and operational excellence. It consists of:

Your business can only be certified to ISO 9001:2015. The other standards in the family are supporting guidelines for the implementation of the ISO 9001:2015 Standard. Therefore, there’s no certification to achieve for these.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look at the ISO 9000 family of standards as a whole. Using it taking an integrated approach is key to providing the most significant value to an organisation pursuing effective quality management.

Specialists recommend first using ISO 9000:2015 to become familiar with a quality management system’s fundamental concepts, principles, and vocabulary before adopting ISO 9001:2015.

Furthermore, ISO/TS 9002:2016 contains technical specifications with examples, descriptions and options that aid both in the implementation of a quality management system and in strengthening its relationship to the overall management of the organisation, while ISO 9004:2018 focuses on making the management system more efficient towards achieving the business goals and objectives.

Where to start with implementing the requirements of the ISO 9001:2015 standard?

Interpreting the requirements and matching them with the business needs and current state can be an overwhelming task. That’s why getting help from a professional ISO Management System consultant is often the way to make the management system implementation process as smooth and effective as possible.

Whether an organisation decides to implement the requirements of the Quality standard by itself or count on the services of a consultant, the business must have a copy of the ISO 9001:2015 Standard requirements document so the people involved in the project can read and get familiar with the requirements and implementation process.

Costs and timeframes for the implementation of the Management System will vary according to factors such as the size of the organisation, complexity of its operations, and systems that are currently in place.

Upon successful implementation of the Management System, the business can go for the Certification Audits with an Accredited Conformity Assessment Body. If you want to read more about this process, check out this blog article.

As a business owner or manager, you might also like to qualify your team to conduct internal audits of the Management System, as this will be a requirement to achieve and maintain certification to ISO 9001:2015. Our Management System Internal Auditor Training is a practical eLearning course that teaches how to conduct effective Internal Audits in accordance with the main ISO Management System Standards, including ISO 9001:2015.

The post What is ISO 9001:2015? Your questions about the Quality Standard answered appeared first on ICExperts Academy.