The 7 steps to achieve ISO 9001 quality certification

by TM Maria Be a king in your own kingdom

Nowadays, the implementation of a quality management system in companies becomes more important because the markets are becoming increasingly competitive. This allows organizations to position their brand against their competitors, in addition to achieving efficient processes through the implementation of a management system under ISO 9001.

With the 2015 version of this standard, there will be a greater focus on the management and analysis of risk and sustainability of the business, restructuring of the management system, without losing sight of the continuous improvement.

According to the latest report available from the International Organization for Standardization, our country issued about 8 thousand certificates in ISO 9001. However, there are among the corporations ignorance, whether it is necessary or not and how to implement a management system. For this it is important to consider the following:

1. Need to implement a quality management system: the requirements of new clients or the detection of improvement needs to satisfy current customers, may be sufficient reasons to adopt a certification.

2. Design the quality management system: carried out by a consultant or by internal personnel who know about the methodology of the certification process.

3. Plan the system: the process of development and implementation of this system must be properly planned, identifying the processes developed by the organization, interactions, staff training, among others.

4. Training in quality: the system is typical of the organization, therefore, the company must have staff for development, implementation and above all, maintenance. As part of this competence, key personnel of the organization must be trained during the development of the project on issues related to the management system.

5. Document the system: the documentation is the support of the processes and allows to guarantee the efficiency and repeatability of the same.

6. Internal audit: compliance with all the requirements of the standard and the proper implementation of the quality management system will be checked.

7. Certification audit: once it has been verified that the quality management system is working correctly and has been implemented in its entirety, a certification body will carry out the certification process. Once it is confirmed that all the requirements of the standard are met, the ISO 9001 certification will be issued.

To add this plus to the organizations - in spite of being the most common standard - it guarantees the good practices inside the institutions, contributing an added value with the purpose of having a continuous improvement.