Is ISO 9001 2000 right for my business?
Firstly you should decide your own reasoning behind considering ISO 9001 2000 registration for your
business.
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Is the number of registrations in your market sector increasing? |
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Are your competitors seeking registration? |
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Are your customers asking about registration? |
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Are registrations increasing in your industry? |
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Are your customers asking you to become registered? |
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Have your group HQ asked you to gain registration? |
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Do you want to reap the financial benefits of registration? |
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Have the number of customer or consumer complaints increased? |
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Preventable errors reoccur again and again? |
It is not possible to state exactly what benefits your organization will gain by having a formal
quality system, primarily because each organisation is different. However, I think it is fair to say
that most organisations will benefit from having a formalised Quality Management system where:
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Work proceeds in an orderly and predictable way. |
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The same old preventable errors stop occurring. |
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Customer and consumer complaints fall dramatically. |
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Your Management System improves. |
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Internal communication within your organisation improves. |
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Returned product from customers reduces week on week. |
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The quality of your product and or service improves. |
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The level of customer and employee satisfaction improves. |
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Your organisation produces quality data to improve your business. |
By now you should have a reasonable idea of whether or not ISO 9001 2000 registration is right for
your organisation and whether or not you will gain financially from adopting the ISO 9001 2000
standard as a method of running your business effectively and efficiently.
If you are now seriously considering seeking registration to the ISO 9001 2000 standard you must
begin to understand what the standard requires of an organization. There are many books and
resources available which discuss implementing the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard into
an organisation including the articles on this web site.
You may like to begin your ISO 9001 2000 education by reading the various articles on this web site.
You will find they cover a broad spectrum of businesses, There is also an excellent
Q&A sectionthat will answer the majority of commonly asked questions about
ISO 9001 2000 registration and related topics.
Alternatively you could take an
ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management training course,
there are many available and they cater for beginners right through to ISO 9001 2000 experts.
To determine the amount of input required by your organisation to comply with the requirements of the
ISO 9001 2000 standard will require that you assess your existing management system. You could to
fetch in a consultant at this stage, a consultant will
be able to identify exactly what your organisation needs to do in order to achieve the requirements
of the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard.
Many organisations opt to carry out a gap analysis audit using a member of staff. However, the initial
gap analysis audit is arguably the most important stage in the ISO 9001 2000 registration process.
If the initial gap analysis is incorrect then both financial and human resources will be wasted.
For this reason alone it is well worth seeking professional help from a
consultant to carry out the
gap analysis for you.
Many organisations who opt to jump straight into the Gap Analysis process themselves can often waste
time, money and resources by not fully understanding the intent of the ISO 9001 2000 standard. Whereas
seeking professional advice from a consultant will set your organisation on the right path with clear
instructions on who, what, where, why, when and how things should be done.
If on the other hand your organization already has a very good understanding of the ISO 9001 2000
Quality Management Standard and has:
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A documented Quality policy. |
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Been setting and using documented Quality objectives. |
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Customer and consumer complaints fall dramatically. |
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Documented Top management reviews of your Quality Management System. |
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A documented top level Quality Management System Manual. |
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Documented effective and efficient process procedures and or work instructions. |
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Documented employee skills and training records which are regularly reviewed. |
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Documented and compliant Quality Management System Audits. |
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Formal Customer complaint process with effective corrective and preventive action methods. |
If you are doing all the above then you may be well on your way toward gaining ISO 9001 2000 registration.
However, if your Quality Management System is incomplete or immature it will require much more effort
to become compliant. You can continue to adjust your system, audit for compliance, train employees etc.
until you reach a position where you feel you have done as much as you are able to do yourself.
If however, you have reached this stage and are concerned if you have missed something important you
can hire a consultant to carry out a [Pre-Assessment]. A pre-assessment is a gap-analysis survey
carried out by a professional who compares what processes your organisation has in place compared to
those required by the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard.
The consultant will report any deficiencies in your organisations processes, it is then up to you to
decide if you want to tackle these deficiencies by yourself or to engage the professional services
of the consultant.
This Article was Provided by a Driso Consultant.
Driso provide ISO 9001 2000
consultancy,
auditing,
software, and
training
Services.
They also supply Easy ISO 9001 2000® software for
initially setting up an ISO 9001 2000 compliant Quality Management System or improving upon an
existing one.
Click here to contact Driso Consultancy Services. See what they can
do for you and your business.
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