Implementing ISO 9000

You may be in a position where your customers are demanding you implement an ISO 9000 quality system or you would like to do it for the benefits it can provide your organization. You may not have the resources to hire a consultant to help you. Can you achieve this task on your own, without the help of a consultant? Yes. You do not need a consultant to implement an ISO 9000 quality management system. You can do it with the resources you have.

Will a consultant provide you a better quality system than you can implement yourself? No. I say that not as a disrespect to consultants but because quality systems are ever evolving and developing. It's not where you start that is important it's where you end up in a year or two down the road. A consultant can expedite the process and save you a great deal of time. What takes you a day to do and figure out, a consultant can do in an hour or two. Based on this, why would anybody hire a consultant? The same reason some people hire someone to mow their yard and do their landscaping, that time is more valuable to be spent somewhere else.

You may be a position where ISO 9000 implementation is required but the necessary resources are not available to hire a consultant, what do you do? The first thing is to gain information. You need to become educated in the ISO 9000 standards and what they mean and their intent. Whether you hire a consultant or are choosing to implement a quality system on your own you need to purchase the following list of standards:

ISO 9000:2005 Quality management systems - Fundamentals and vocabulary

ISO 9001:2000 Quality management systems - Requirements

ISO 9004:2000 Quality management systems - Guidelines for performance improvements

ISO 19011:2002 Guidelines for quality and/or environmental management systems auditing

ISO 10014:2006 Quality management - Guidelines for realizing financial and economic benefits

You can obtain these standards from the International Organization of Standardization (ISO), American Society of Quality (ASQ) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

The most important piece of advice I can give you, once you have purchased these standards, READ THEM. Find yourself a quiet place and read them. Read them several times. The reading is dull and the wording is somewhat confusing, it's alright, read them. These are international standards, not a John Grisham novel. You are not going to be riveted to the reading and hardly waiting to get back to it. You may find yourself more confused after reading them, that is fine, keep reading. After a several readings, it will begin to make sense to you. You will gain a new understanding of what the standards are saying and begin to realize what needs to be done and how to do it.

At this point, you understand the standard and what needs to be done. If you ever question anything or are not quite sure, refer to the standard. Go back and read it again. The first thing you need to do is provide an overview for your top management. If cost constraints prevent you from hiring someone to train top management, then provide the training yourself. Chances are, your top management knows significantly less about ISO 9000 than you do. That makes you an expert and should you travel greater than 50 miles, you can begin to charge consultant fees.

Your training to top management should answer the following questions, what is ISO?, what is it going to do for us? why are we implementing it? how much is this going to cost us and how long will it take? how are we going to do it? what role does top management have?

What is ISO? ISO 9000 is an internationally recognized quality management systems standard. It's premise is based on knowing customer requirements and continually enhancing customer satisfaction. This is achieved by developing key business processes, monitoring them with metrics against objectives to ensure effectiveness and putting forth effort to continually improve those processes.

What is it going to do for us? The adoption of an ISO 9000 quality system allows us to consistently provides products and services to our customers that meet there expectations and continually enhance their satisfaction. Why are we implementing ISO 9000? Chances are it's one of two reasons, one is your customers are requesting it or two you are interested in achieving the results in can provide. How much will it cost and how long will it take? If you complete it internally you can plan on it taking about a year (depending on your size and available resources) and it won't cost you anything other than what you are currently paying people. You should plan on spending about $1,100 - $1,300 dollars for one person to go to internal auditor training. That person can then train the rest of your designated internal auditors.

The registration audit will be $5,000 - $6,000 and the surveillance audits run $3,000 per year. Approximately, it amounts to a one time cost of $9,000 and annual cost of $3,000. How are we going to do it? We will perform a gap analysis to determine our deficiencies and develop an implementation team from that. We will track the progress of implementation. What role does top management have in ISO 9000? Top management has the biggest role. That group is responsible for the planning, development, maintenance and improvement of the system. Top management is expected to be actively involved in reviewing the designated process metric data and making decisions based on that data.

After you train top management, you must assess where you are now. There are most likely processes in place that are being done even without documentation. Write down all of your key business processes, accounting, purchasing, human resources, customer service, etc. After you get them written down, now you need to flowchart them out to document how they work. A simple downward flowing flowchart in one column with responsibility in another column and the last column has records.

Once you get them documented, now go through the standard and write down any process, clause or section of the standard that your current process does not address. These are the gaps in your system. They are the areas the standard states needs to be addressed that you are not. Once you have this, put it into a document where you can track the action against who is responsible and time line agreed to. Similar to this:

Action Responsible Date Develop internal audit process Joe F. 11-14-06 Train internal auditors Tom C 12-18-06

After you have transferred the actions needed into the above format, you have developed your implementation plan. Ensure this plan is reviewed and monitored by top management frequently. They must be kept in the loop. At some point of the implementation you will want to train the entire workforce on ISO 9000. Work out a schedule that is flexible. It does not have to be extremely detailed, but provide a good overview of what ISO 9000 is, why it is being implemented and how it will impact them. Good luck, you can do it.

Robert Badner is a freelance writer for Innovations for Quality, LLC. Innovations for Quality provides live, interactive, online training for ISO 9000 and ASQ Certification. You can visit their websites at http://www.asqcertification.org and http://iso9000training.org

ISO 9000 FAQs

ISO 9000 is a set of standards internationally accepted by businesses and consumers. It allows organizations to establish and monitor quality management systems. ISO 9000 standards are considered to be generic standards since they can apply to any business, product or service irrespective of the industry. They have been developed and are maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

1. What is the ISO 9000 family?

The ISO 9000 family consists of three quality assurance and quality management standards, namely, ISO 9000: 2000, ISO 9001:2000, and ISO 9004:2000. The ISO 9000:2000 and ISO 9004:2000 present guidelines for performance improvement, while the ISO 9001:2000 presents requirements. These standards are implemented by individual businesses, corporations, and government organizations.

2. What are the benefits of ISO 9000?

Major benefits include increased marketability, reduced operational expenses, better management control, improved internal communication, reduction of product-liability risks, and improved customer service.

3. What are the main phases involved in obtaining ISO 9000 certification?

There are two major phases - documentation and certification. Documentation process is done in-house or by the help of an ISO 9000 consultant. Most businesses seek the services of an experienced consultant to create the quality system. An agency accredited in this regard does the certification. The certification process includes documentation review and compliance audit. Documentation review is done with or without visits to the organization. Compliance audit is generally conducted on the site.

4. Is a consultant must for implementing ISO 9000?

The manuals of standards and certification are written in such a way that most of us can hardly understand what they are saying. Only an experienced consultant can help you understand and effectively administer new and existing quality systems.

5. How much does it cost to become ISO 9000 certified?

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this question. The cost depends on a lot of factors such as complexity of operations, number of locations of plants, willingness of owners, and type of standards to be implemented.

6. How long does it take to attain ISO 9000 certification?

Depending upon the commitment of the owner and/or managers, the time taken could be 3 months to a whole year. ISO certification is granted initially for a period of three years.

ISO 9000 provides detailed information on ISO 9000, ISO 9000 Standards, ISO 9000 Software, ISO 9000 Consulting and more. ISO 9000 is affiliated with Home Inspections.

ISO 9000 – Management Systems for Business Success

ISO 9000 is a management system produced by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The purpose of the ISO 9000 is the improvement of the efficiency and productivity of organizations. Businesses use ISO 9000 to make sure they consistently satisfy customers, and comply with their industry’s regulations.

Systems are often the last things on the minds of small business owners. Instead of organized processes, most small businesses rely on the expertise of staff and owners and their ability to communicate that expertise to each other. Unfortunately, individual skills and relationships don’t scale – as businesses grow, those that don’t have a management system become inconsistent, chaotic and inefficient.

Developing management systems is something all successful businesses have to do. Unfortunately, most organizations come up with systems in isolation from everybody else. Not only is this “re-inventing the wheel” but it also means that they can’t take advantage of management best practices.

ISO 9000 is an international, generic management system that can be applied to service and product oriented businesses, as well as public administrations and government departments. It allows organizations to take advantage of the latest models for setting up and running a management system.

ISO 9000 improves:

Customer Satisfaction – by focusing on improving what the organization does to provide value for customers, ISO 9000 promotes consistent high-level quality.

Efficiency – by concentrating on how processes provide quality to customers instead of simply the final product, ISO 9000 improves organizations’ efficiency.

Marketing – because ISO 9000 is an internationally recognized standard, using it communicates quality and reliability to customers and partners.

Employee Motivation – by establishing a consistent, comprehensive set of rules and procedures, ISO 9000 ensures that employees know exactly what their responsibilities are and how to fulfill them.

International Trade – because ISO 9000 is an internationally developed management system, adopting it significantly simplifies their relationship with organizations in other countries.

The ISO itself does not provide ISO 9000 certification. Instead, organizations can obtain certification from third party auditors. Certification is not required, and even businesses that choose not to go to the expense of having a formal audit can benefit significantly from implementing ISO 9000.

For more information see the International Organization for Standardization website or the Industry Canada ISO 9000 checklist.

Nigel Fogden is an English teacher and writer with 24 by 5 Tech Comm, a technical writing company that specializes in fast, high-quality writing and editing. For more articles on writing, technology and business, sign up for the 24 by 5 Tech Comm Newsletter at http://www.24by5.com and stop by our blog at http://www.24by5.com/wordpress/

 

How to Meet Quality Standards with ISO 9001

In today’s hectic business environment, it is vital that we are all on the same page, right? But how do we know if we meet those standards? Business owners and executives can avoid the uncertainty, and that’s where ISO 9001 certification comes in.

Standardizing Quality Systems

The ISO, or International Organization for Standardization, was established in 1947 to develop international standards for everything from electronics to management systems. Having over 13,000 standards currently in place, ISO has created the auditing and certification process known as ISO 9001. This began the drive toward quality standards.

Improving Customer Satisfaction

Companies choose to implement ISO 9001 and get certified because many customers and industries require it. By keeping customers happy, they can increase sales and profitability for their business. And if an area of the company’s program appears to be too bureaucratic and non-value-adding, then it might also be an area for continuous improvement efforts.

Enhancing Company Policy and Performance

Both customers and industries alike use ISO certification as a way to evaluate and audit their suppliers and products. Through an independent verification process, customers can gain assurance of their suppliers’ products. And as a supplier becomes certified, the testing requirement is waved, which saves the company both time and money.

Developing a Best Practices Process

Employed as a “Best Practices” model, ISO 9001 utilizes the philosophy of the “Plan-Do-Check-Act” continuous improvement cycle to achieve requirements. This process approach centers around eight quality management principles used by management as a guide toward improving performance and identifying the main elements needed in a good quality system:

1. Customer Focus

2. Leadership

3. Involvement of People

4. Process Approach

5. Systems Approach to Management

6. Continuous improvement

7. Factual Approach to Decision-Making

8. Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationship

Building Stable Processes

ISO 9001 policies, procedures and forms can provide employers, managers and employees with a systematic and consistent approach to implementing policies, plans, procedures and work routines. Instead of building their own policies and procedures from scratch, some companies prefer to hire professional writers that have already prepared a set of written policies and procedures to help on the way to certification.

Auditing a Company System

In the certification process, an independent registrar will perform an on-site audit of a company’s operations to verify that it complies with the ISO standard. If the business complies, then that company will be registered as ISO 9001 compliant.

Effective Policies and Procedures

On the way to certification, a business can meet its ISO needs by:

• Using well-defined processes and procedures to build stable processes

• Training in the audit and certification process

• Continuously improving with ISO 9001 standards

Quality Management System

With complete procedures manuals for ISO 9001 Quality Management System, required HR procedures, and an ISO training class, a template like an ISO 9001 Quality Manager Procedures Manual Series can help a business on its way to ISO 9001 certification. Sometimes the effort can be very great, but companies typically notice a remarkable difference in efficiency and effectiveness after the first year.

Chris Anderson is currently the managing director of Bizmanualz, Inc. and co-author of policies and procedures manuals, producing the layout, process design and implementation to increase performance. To learn how to increase your business performance, visit: Bizmanualz, Inc.