What benefits can we get from QMS once we get certified? Here are seven ways in which your certification will benefit your company.
Efficient quality management helps keep your clients satisfied. Adopting a globally recognised standard for quality management is a surefire way to increase sales and cut down on expenditures.
But that’s not all.
What are the benefits of quality management systems?
A QMS certification delivers immense value. Look at these seven benefits your company will reap from Management System Certification.
1. Immediate Pre-Qualification For Tenders
Many business contracts have certification as a minimum requirement. Only certified organisations are eligible to be part of the selection process. It is one way to rule out unqualified competition.
2. Consistent Profit Margins
Your profits rely heavily on your ability to minimise errors and learn to improve your operations. ISO certification process paves the way for consistent processes where mistakes are kept to a minimum, ultimately contributing to more consistent profit margins.
3. Optimised Documentation Equals Growth
The certification process involves organising your information to quickly access your documents and records. Streamlined documentation gets your organisation in an excellent position to carry out its operations efficiently.
4. Consistent Reporting And Monitoring
We are familiar with how bottlenecks can occur at any point in our processes, hampering our ability to operate efficiently and serve our customers well.
Alerts through the FocusIMS system report the status of every part of your business through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Actions to address unmet KPIs smooth out the bottlenecks before the situation escalates to a position that is difficult to recover.
5. Identify As A Preferred Company To Work With
Prospective employees prefer to work for successful organisations committed to professional growth. Your certification signals to others that you value training and development and see them as an integral part of your business.
6. Achieve Your Organisational Goals
Being certified means that you have a structured planning process. Identifying risks and opportunities for your organisation, followed by actions and regular monitoring, provides a clear path to achieving your organisational goals.
7. Improvement Through Learning
Every business has things that go differently than planned at times. The difference between those who fail and succeed is the ability to learn quickly and efficiently. Corrective action is an essential process within the certification standards. It aims to get to the bottom of the cause and get things back on track quickly, with less chance of deviating off the rails in the future.
What is ISO 9001 Quality Management Certification?
ISO 9001 accreditation ensures streamlined and automated quality management.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 is a benchmark for quality management worldwide.
ISO 9001 is mandatory in several industries, including aviation, construction, manufacturing, and medicine, and has gained widespread acceptance worldwide. It is sought after by many businesses because of the advantages it provides, particularly in the realm of international trade. In 2021, China had the most ISO 9001 certifications of any country, followed by Italy and Germany.
Those in charge of quality assurance must ensure that their companies do the following:
- Find the broken parts of the system and fix them.
- Use reliable methods of evaluation.
- Employ methods of statistical analysis for the generation of helpful information.
Implementing the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle is crucial to any successful quality management system. It takes an evidence-based approach to quality management.
What does PDCA stand for?
- Plan: The planning process comprises three main steps: setting goals, allocating resources, and recognising potential risks and opportunities.
- Do: Quality management plan implementation.
- Check: Verify by looking at the data and comparing it to the predicted outcome.
- Act: Making adjustments and fixing inefficiencies.
With ISO 9001:2015 quality management, businesses can ensure their products and services consistently impress their clients and adhere to all applicable regulations. ISO 9001-certified companies can achieve the following seven tenets:
- Customer: Satisfying the needs of one’s clientele and going above and beyond
- Leadership: establishing systems and establishing objectives to ensure customer satisfaction.
- Engagement: Promoting employee participation and contribution
- Processes: Establishing criteria and methods for achieving organisational quality objectives
- Improvement: Improving quality and fueling innovation
- Decision-Making: Using KPIs and the PDCA cycle to drive continuous quality improvement
- Relationships: Building solid relationships with clients and suppliers
What are the ISO 9001 Requirements?
ISO 9001 includes seven quality management principles, as mentioned earlier. They give upper management a basis for making constant advancements in the company.
Businesses must adhere to these seven guiding principles to comply with ISO 9001 standards.
The seven standards of ISO 9001 are as follows:
1. Customer Focus
Business success depends on understanding both the current and future needs of customers. You need to make an effort to please your customers.
It’s easier to grow your business, build customer loyalty, and attract new clients if you provide excellent service. Finding innovative methods to solve problems for your customers is equally crucial.
2. Leadership
A company can only thrive with dedicated leadership. Leaders are responsible for charting the course of the organisation. They can inspire employees to work together toward common aims and objectives by shaping the company’s culture.
Strong leaders foster cooperation, clear lines of communication, and consensus using cutting-edge methods like the ISO 9001 quality management system.
3. Engagement
There is a connection between leadership and the concept of engagement. An engaged and involved workforce is one of the most evident indicators of a leader’s success.
An engaged workforce reduces the likelihood of burnout and stress in the workplace and increases performance, productivity, employee retention, and attendance.
4. Process Approach
Taking a process-oriented strategy implies prioritising process management and control within the company. It’s a management approach in which the procedures, their inputs, and their outputs all work together to generate a unified, measurable system.
Incorporating a process approach helps businesses understand regulatory, contractual, and customer requirements.
5. Improvement
Unfortunately, only a few organisations make improvement a primary goal. Improvement at every level of a business should be a top priority. Essential aspects of ISO 9001 compliance include:
- Improving products and services.
- Boosting customer happiness.
- Revising methods that are counterproductive to reaching set objectives.
6. Evidence-Based Decision Making
Thoroughly analysing data allows you to make judgments based on solid evidence. It is vital in the quality management system defined by ISO 9001. With ISO 9001:2015 quality management software, firms can collect reliable data, store it in a readily accessible format, and conduct insightful analyses of that data at any time.
7. Relationship Management
There is a mutual dependence between businesses and their suppliers. Once you do, and you make an effort to work together to generate good results for both sides, you can promote enormous value. Business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) relationships can benefit from quality management systems.
How Do You Implement a Quality Management System Based on ISO 9001:2015?
Implementing an ISO 9001:2015 QMS can be quick, efficient, and effective if you adhere to these guidelines:
1. Educate Yourself About ISO 9001
Learn ISO 9001 inside and out, including its documentation and procedure needs. ISO 9001 is adaptable, offering a framework for a quality management system that may be applied sensibly across industries. Creating a quality management system (QMS) requires that you learn about the structure within which it will operate.
2. Get Senior Leadership on Board
Share your ISO 9001 QMS objectives with upper management. Educate them on what ISO 9001 is, how it may benefit your company, and why implementing it is essential for streamlined operations. Support from upper management can speed up the transition.
3. Assess Your Current System
Evaluate how well your present process conforms to ISO 9001.
What benefit can we get from QMS audit?
An audit against ISO 9001 standards can give you a good idea of how far your company still has to go before it complies with the standards.
The ISO 9001 standard mandates a process audit, and an audit checklist is integral to the audit’s planning and execution stages. The audit results can guide improvements to your current QMS.
4. Plan the Implementation
A well-thought-out strategy for implementation can help the migration go off without a hitch. Implementing a plan requires having the appropriate personnel and procedures in place. Having a feasible plan increases your chances of success.
5. Establish Policies, Objectives, and Responsibilities
Successfully measuring the effectiveness of your QMS requires that you define your policies, your goals, and your roles. Encourage your staff to stay focused on the company’s goals and the satisfaction of your clients.
6. Documentation
Decide how you’ll keep track of Quality Management System data. To achieve ISO 9001 certification, you must maintain detailed and complete records. Some paperwork is necessary for certification, while others may be useful for maintaining smooth operations.
Transparency and careful attention to detail are hallmarks of top-quality products and services. A quality management system (QMS) is a formal, written collection of protocols that a company builds and follows to increase quality at each production stage.
What benefits can we get from QMS?
QMS ensures the quality of your goods and services. It has a snowball effect that benefits your company.
QMS increases customer satisfaction and retains existing clients. Your company may better satisfy your customer’s needs with the support of a well-designed quality management system.
