ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems (QMS) Certification

ISO 9001 is the world’s leading management system standard. It’s designed to help organisations implement repeatable processes so they can produce or deliver quality products or services – and customer satisfaction – consistently.

Its origins are in the standards used for military procurement as far back as the 1950s. These standards were embodied in the British Standard BS 5750, acknowledged as the first quality management standard.

ISO 9001 was first published in 1987 by the International Organization for Standardization (known as ISO). The standard is flexible, enabling it to be adopted by organisations from any industry, irrespective of size. To date, almost one million ISO 9001 certificates have been issued by accredited certification bodies.¹

This holistic approach to quality, which looks at an organisation from top to the bottom and inside and out, makes ISO 9001 a powerful tool to deliver a number of benefits. Organisations who are certified claim the following benefits:

• Improved client satisfaction
• Continual improvement
• Improved risk management
• A more robust supply chain
• Fewer defects
• A more engaged workforce.

In some industries, ISO 9001 certification is a prerequisite in requests for proposals (RFPs). It can therefore be a significant benefit when competing for new business.

The latest version of ISO 9001 was published in 2015 (known as ISO 9001:2015). It comprises ten sections, known as clauses, that enable an organisation to establish a framework for quality. To achieve certification, organisations must be able to demonstrate that they meet all the requirements of each clause.

However, the standard is not prescriptive. It allows organisations to select an appropriate way to demonstrate how they meet each requirement. For example, there is no requirement for a quality manual. Instead, a company can select the media (such as a video library) that’s best suited to their needs to communicate and manage their quality policy.

As most organisations work in a complex ecosystem involving a supply chain, customers, and other stakeholders, they are required to examine what’s called the ''context of the organisation'' in relation to the Quality Management System (QMS). Stakeholders, both internal and external, must be identified and the role they play in relation to quality management considered. For example, how do you manage the quality of your external suppliers? Could it be improved?

You will also be required to engage senior leadership in the journey to certification. They must provide their support and enable those in the organisation who are responsible for the quality management system to have the resources to implement and maintain it effectively. It’s important to remember that the ISO 9001 process is ongoing, which means resources must also be available on an ongoing basis.

Any organisation looking to earn certification should start by buying a copy of the standard. This can be bought from ISO or other organisations.

1. Once you have read the standard and understood it, it’s a good idea to attend an ISO 9001 training course. This is a great way to solidify your understanding and identify how you will implement the standard in your organisation.
2. Next, you can take action and begin implementing ISO 9001. If you are not sure where to start, it can be useful to perform a gap assessment to determine the current state of readiness in your organisation. This can help show where you might already meet the requirements of the standard or where you might have work to do. NSF has a useful online tool to help you to do this.
3. Once you are confident that you have met the requirements of ISO 9001, you should select an accredited independent third-party certification body such as NSF to audit your organisation against the requirements of the standard. The time required for this will be based on several factors, including the number of employees you have. You will need to make sure that those responsible for the ISO 9001 QMS in your organisation are available when the audit takes place.
4. After the audit, the auditor will make a recommendation for certification. This might include notification of areas where you have not met the requirements of the standard. For minor nonconformities, you will have a certain period to close these out and submit to your certification body evidence of the work you have done to rectify them. Major nonconformities will likely require another audit to be scheduled to identify whether compliance against the relevant clause(s) has been achieved.
5. Finally, when all requirements have been met, certification can be granted. Earning ISO 9001 certification is a significant achievement that should be celebrated and shared: for example, via a press release and on social media.

Receiving your certificate is not the end. In fact, it is the start of your journey of continual improvement - one of the foundations of ISO 9001. Your certification cycle will last for three years. In the first and second year you will be audited to ensure compliance is maintained. And in the final year of each cycle, a recertification audit will take place.

Upon successful completion of this, certification will be granted for another three years with the usual yearly audit cycle being maintained. (Should factors such as the scope of your certification or the size of your location change, then your audit cycle might need to be changed).

As an ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) accredited third-party certification body, NSF issues thousands of certificates globally. Our auditors have years of direct experience with quality management systems and can demonstrate deep, relevant industry knowledge. We also work hard to deliver excellent customer service and take pride in the high scores we receive in our client satisfaction survey.

Today, most commonly adopted management system standards such as ISO 14001, or ISO 27001 follow the same structure. It is known as Annex SL. The benefit of this consistent structure is that management systems can be more closely aligned and integrated. This can help deliver efficiencies in an organisation when integrating two or more management system standards. We are well placed to support organisations to do this. Contact us for more information about the benefits of an integrated management system.

Our engaging and interactive training sessions delve into core principles of the ISO 9001:2015 quality management system, providing learners with an understanding of its requirements and application in real-world scenarios.

Learn more about our ISO 9001:2015 Internal Auditor training course that’s delivered virtually for your convenience and can be booked online. If you are looking to train a team or have more than five delegates, contact our team about private training.