Articles

Integrated Management Systems and ISO Certification

by Isabel Blamey Professional writer
The importance of integrated management systems is deeply felt today because it helps businesses avoid repetitive strategies and improve the efficiency in their business management. Running separate management systems for every aspect of the business, including quality, risks management, workplace safety, information security, and so on not only requires more human resources and overhead costs, it can also lead to the duplication of certain common tasks. Also, having ambiguous management systems for the different areas of the business will be a major hurdle when you seek to achieve ISO 9001 certification, the key certification for quality assurance. 

Therefore, in today’s competitive era where businesses need ISO certification to benchmark their performance and exhibit their efficient management, a comprehensive integrated management system is essential. It will consolidate all the discrete management systems, provide centralized or uniform access to all operations in the business to the management, and eliminate the redundancies in management processes, thereby saving both costs and resources. 



Benefits of an Integrated Management System

Having an integrated management system in your business will certainly grant you several benefits, such as:

  • Avoid repetition in the processes,
  • More productive use of the management executives’ time,
  • Use of fewer resources, including staff, to manage different areas of the business altogether, 
  • Achieve ISO certifications effortlessly and cost-effectively,
  • Easy performance reviews and internal auditing.

Management System Integration and ISO Certifications
An integrated management system has positive impacts on the business. This includes becoming capable to get certified with the highest management certifications, such as ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 45001, ISO 31000, or ISO 14001 certification. The purpose of any ISO certification is to help the organization get better at managing a particular aspect of the business. If there is ambiguity in the overall organizational management with several prevalent systems, it is tough for the members to bring efficiency, attain their goals in an organized way, and add value to the business. Therefore, an integrated management system is crucial. It will consolidate the processes related to quality management, data security, risk management, asset management, and environmental impacts management into one uniform system. Here are some of the fundamental ISO certifications that can be achieved with your integrated management system.

ISO 9001

Certification with ISO 9001 quality management standard will help your organization demonstrate consistent commitment towards meeting the quality expectations of the customers. It acts as formal evidence that you have a strict quality management approach integrated into your management system that will bring efficiency in the processes and improve the products or services. Quality management requirements as specified in the certification involve monitoring and managing the supply chain, procurements, human resources, equipment, and everything related to the end products or services. Thus, ISO 9001 certification is regarded as the key driving force that leads to continuous improvement in the processes, quality control, and efficiency of the organization. 

ISO 14001 

Certification to this standard is essential for any organization in today’s era, as environmental concerns, such as greenhouse gas emissions, contamination of fresh water, depletion of soil resources, and natural fuels, are severe. These certifications will help businesses establish a comprehensive environmental management system that will monitor the impacts of the process on the environment, implement corrective actions, and introduce sustainable practices. It will lead the organization to have an effective environmental policy and achieve its objectives with its integrated environmental management system.

ISO 45001

ISO 45001 certification is for the employees who contribute to the growth of the organization with their hard work. Attaining certification will ensure that you have a management system that will take care of safety, hygiene conditions, and other parameters at the workplace to ensure employee wellbeing. This standard certification will help you to integrate the framework of occupational health and safety into the core management system. It will help to address the risks, accidental hazards, provide protective equipment, implement strict disciplines or policies, and enhance their provision for health insurance and claims. 

Bottom Line

Other than these three certifications, several others also use an integrated management system to address important areas in a business. For example, ISO 20000 for IT services management, ISO 27001 for information security, ISO 50001 for energy management, and so on. An integrated uniform management system can be easily adapted and expanded with additional functionalities to meet the requirements of a specific certification. There is a reason why it is so needed for businesses today. Whether you need ISO 9001 certification for quality assurance, or you want an ISO 31000 risk management system, the system can be modified to meet the requirements of the certification. So, implementing a separate system for quality control or risk management is simply not needed, which saves costs.
 
Author Bio:
Damon Anderson is a professional ISO 9001 certification consultant who helps business owners certify their management systems with ISO standards. He is a blog writer as well, and mostly writes instructional articles for businesses to achieve crucial management certifications, including ISO 45001, ISO 27001, and ISO 14001 certification.

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About Isabel Blamey Senior   Professional writer

176 connections, 6 recommendations, 590 honor points.
Joined APSense since, June 21st, 2016, From Perth, Australia.

Created on Oct 13th 2020 06:08. Viewed 450 times.

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