What is the ISO 9001?

The standard was last revised in December 2008 by the International Standards Organisation (ISO). The Standard defines the processes and documentation you should have in order to help meet the customers' requirements and to deliver customer satisfaction.  When applied within the standard requires:-

·         Minimal documentation such as a quality manual (typically 15 pages), simple flow charts or procedures describing your processes, methods statements, risk assessments, etc.

·         Clear processes for finding out what the customer needs, e.g. surveys, quotes, tenders

·         Competent people, suitably trained and demonstrated by keeping relevant training records

·         That you are aware of relevant external regulations, e.g. building, gas, electrical, health and safety in the construction industry

·         That you set measurable quality objectives and that you measure your performance

·         That you have reliable, capable equipment, that is routinely checked and appropriately maintained

·         That you evaluate your suppliers to ensure that they are capable

·         That you have systems for recording mistakes, errors, defects, etc. and that you take action to prevent their recurrence

·         That you audit and review your processes to ensure they are being complied with and that they are effective

A bit of history

ISO 9001 has gone through many changes since its inception and is now extremely relevant to all industry sectors. .

It was originally known as BS5750 and was mainly used in the manufacturing sector. Other sectors tried to apply it with varying degrees of success.

In the late eighties BS5750 name was dropped and the international standard, known since by its generic convention ISO9000 was adopted, and the use of the Standard grew throughout other countries as well as within the UK. The standard still attracted some bad press as its adoption was commonly focused on merely achieving the standard and not developing the business. Fortunately many of the earlier criticisms of The Standard were addressed in the 2000 update, which moved away from just managing conformance, and now covers many of the wider issues concerned with managing a business, as well as laying greater emphasis on the key areas of customer focus, people involvement, and importantly, continuous improvement.

A very recent update to the Standard was released in late 2008 and the now current version to which organisations will be assessed is ISO 9001:2008, however the changes made in this version are very minor and do not significantly affect the actual requirements; the changes being mostly to clarification notes.

What are the benefits of ISO 9001?

·      Opportunity to review and improve what you do, how you do it and the outcomes

·      Clearly defined processes, understood and consistently used by staff

·      Reduced errors and defects; cost savings

·      Smarter working; rationalised paperwork and systems

·      Internal audit provides a mechanism for continual improvement

·      External assessment provides a recognition for staff efforts and raises the organisation's profile

·      Improved customer satisfaction

·      Improved ability to tender for new work

·      Improved relationships and more work with preferred customers

Typical ISO 9001 implementation plan

Activity (numbers refer to the project activities above)		Who	Days req’d	Month	Month	Month	Month	Month	Month
1. Agree the action plan		CBS with Client.	1
2. Produce the quality manual		CBS	1.5
3. Provide ongoing support through implementation of the action plan	CBS with client		5
4. Internal audit training		CBS	0.5
5. Internal audit overseeing		CBS and client.	1
6. Management review		Client with CBS	0.5
7. ISO 9001 assessment by Certification Body		Certification body and client

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