ISO 9001 is the most highly sought after certification worldwide, with over a million businesses ISO 9001 certified worldwide. It maintains a quality assurance system for every kind of organisation.  Internally, ISO 9001 improves operational efficiency and improves customer satisfaction.  ISO 9001 and its standards ensure that your business is practicing quality business management.  

Attaining ISO 9001 certification makes your business more valuable.  It assures that your organisation is committed to continuously improve its practices and customer satisfaction.  It improves trade, as other organisations are more likely to engage in business and trade with other ISO 9001 certified companies.  The credibility ISO 9001 provides attracts potential clients.

 ISO 9001 has been implemented by more than 1 million organisations in more than 75 countries.

While there were earlier standards for quality management systems, ISO first released its 9001 standard in 1987 with updates in 1994, 2000, and the current version 2008.

The ISO 9001 quality management system standard was developed by an internationally selected standards committee to help all types of organisations (including commercial businesses, governments, non-profit organizations, etc.) adopt “good management practice”.

ISO 9001 is packed full of good management practices including that every good organisation:

• Should have a policy statement (a motherhood statement)
• Should have objectives
• Should have management plans to help meet its objectives
• Should have competent human resources
• Should have a written management system (or policies and procedures) and that the management system is approved, available, and up-to-date
• Should be customer focused and deliver customer satisfaction
• Should understand and meet customer requirements
• Should select suppliers based on sound criteria
• Should minimize its mistakes and non-conformances
• Should learn from its non-conformances and improve

The above list is not comprehensive, but hopefully you get the picture that even this short list represents good management practices.

The term quality simply put means meeting requirements. Therefore organisations that adopt a quality management system will enjoy such benefits as higher profits because the customer is satisfied, does not need to keep looking for other competing organisations, and the organisation may even be able to command a higher price.

There are other features of a quality management system that should also be considered. Organisations adopting an ISO 9001 quality management system are more likely:

• To make the less mistakes
• To minimize waste
• To gain greater control over its processes and therefore greater control over the results
• To continuously improve.

As with other standards such as: ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems and AS/NZS 4801 the requirements of each standard are designed to integrate well between each other. This means that dual certification with another management system standard is simplified.

Working with Scarab Systems to gain certification to ISO 9001 is an important step to realising all of the above. Consider the following benefits:

• Cost: low price and high quality work. We don’t use templates
• Speed: up to 90 days from start to finish meaning you can stop procrastinating and start winning tenders
• Use of internal resources: use of internal resources is minimized by our lean approach to consulting meaning every moment you spend with us is more effective
• Quality: as a testament to our lean approach to consulting, all of our clients maintain certification to ISO standards without further need for a consultant. This alone can save $20,000-$80,000 per year for a small to medium-size business. The savings just keep coming.

 Contact us today and one of friendly Scarab System consultants will be pleased to help you.