ISO standards can bring significant benefits in terms of certification, however, if they are neglected the risk of losing certification increases significantly.
If your ISO system has been neglected, under-resourced, or not properly maintained it may be time to consider some external support. The most common underlying cause for major non-conformities during external audits and a subsequent loss of certification are:
- Failure to perform effective internal audits
- Lack of management commitment
- Under resourcing
- Ineffective corrective action processes
- Difficulties with management review
- Out of date processes and procedures
- Ineffective processes and procedures
An ISO system should bring benefit to your organisation and if this is not the case you need to question why. Increasingly organisations are turning to their ISO systems as continual improvement tools. How does this work?
The procedures and processes within any organisation’s ISO9001 system should be a true reflection of how the business operates. If not, there is something fundamentally wrong with the system.
The processes and procedures need to be regularly reviewed and updated. If this does not happen, they become outdated and problematic. If this is the case the processes and procedures need to be transformed into an accurate reflection of actual practice.
As part of this transformation, organisations can drive continual improvement and reduce the cost of poor quality by identifying any pain points associated with their current approach. Pain points are those steps in a process that are inefficient, simply do not work, or result in poor quality, therefore adding unnecessary cost and duplication.
The end result is a set of business processes which ensure that the business runs efficiently and also a plan for dealing with the pain points associated with those business processes. Quadra has assisted a wide range of clients to review and enhance their ISO systems, all of whom have seen significant benefit from the project and now use their ISO system as a true business management tool.
For more information on maintaining your system, contact [email protected]
