There are many companies that could potentially gain a lot by implementing a Quality Management System created with ISO 9001 in mind. Following the rules of the international norm gives a big competitive advantage, but most of all, allows companies to make their actions and processes higher quality than it is actually required by law. With consumers getting more choice over what products they use right now, there is no longer the question of how many people will the company reach, but what it will do to stand out above the competition and make authorities and clients happy. How do you implement ISO 9001 in a company?
5 steps of ISO 9001 implementation
There is no easy, shortcut road to ISO 9001 implementation, especially if you are actually willing to make an effort and keep the certificate as long as it serves you. First of all, you need all parties committed and that includes the top management tier. There are many instances where the team responsible for quality management will decide to implement ISO without getting the management know what it will take and how will it benefit the company. As a result, processes fail and achieving the certification is much more difficult.
Once everyone is notified about the plans and agrees with them, it’s time to establish an implementation team and let them work on ISO 9001 awareness programs and trainings to make sure that once the implementation goes into work, everyone knows what to do and why is it necessary.
Third step would be to get an internal quality audit going, usually referred to as the gap analysis. This one will provide you with information on what things need to be changed and where the quality management is still not meeting the ISO 9001 requirements. As a result, you will be able to make a plan on how to change things and how the changes will be implemented.
One of the most necessary things with any ISO implementation is creating proper quality management system documentation and establishing document control that will allow you as well as the certification body to see the whole implementation actions step by step. You can prepare that using ins2outs – platform able to making your implementations easier.
Now it comes to the actual implementation part. Remember that each change might need time to settle in and be comfortable to everyone. Some things need time and you can’t rush the implementation process as it will cause some major risk factors and might compromise the whole idea. Remember to always consider improvement and risk assessment as the most important factors of ISO 9001 and your implementation process should go smoothly.
