The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recently declared that its ISO 9001 Quality Management System standard has passed its “warrant of fitness” test.
This standard undergoes a systematic review every five years to decide whether it is still valid or needs updating. This is important to ensure the standard is still globally relevant and meets the needs of its users.
A special task force within ISO evaluates and monitors any possible market or other changes that could impact the standard and propose a revision if and when required.
When businesses are deciding which Quality Management standards they want to pursue, they can be sure that ISO regularly review the validity and purpose of their standards, ensuring they are fit for purpose for businesses facing today’s challenges.
What is ISO 9001? What is a Quality Management System?
ISO 9001 is a standard that helps you to identify and mitigate business risk and monitor and improve business performance.
An effective Quality Management System (QMS) will also provide you and your employees with a framework of policies, processes and procedures to support business growth and a practical means to drive continuous improvement within your business.
Achieving certification to this standard is an explicit demonstration of being a responsible employer and supplier, committed to high standards and a culture of continuous improvement.
Benefits to your business of holding ISO 9001 including:
- Improvement in quality of your product and/or service
- Higher levels of customer satisfaction
- Increased organisational revenue
- Improved employee engagement and morale
- Improved decision-making
- Effectively manage business risk and change
- Supply chain development
How Ellenbrooke can help
Working across all sectors, we identify which certifications will help your business achieve the standards and business objectives you require.
For example, we may recommend that your business achieve the ISO 9001 standard, in order to demonstrate product quality and/or enter a new supply chain to generate new business opportunities.
We can help you develop an action plan that will prepare your business to not only meet these standards at an inspection or audit, but also maintain the standard going forward.
