The international standard ISO 9001 gives requirements for setting up and maintaining a good quality management system (KMS) in which transparency and reliability are important. Quality embraces all parts of an organisation. By focusing on quality management, you ensure that your product or service meets the requirements and wishes of your customers and laws and regulations.
Advantages
Setting up a KMS based on ISO 9001 gives several advantages. We mention a number of things that ensure that you look at all aspects of your organisation and focus on quality within all these parts. Because by looking at your organisation as a whole, you know where your opportunities and risks lie and how you can achieve your objectives. And this is ultimately further important for the growth and development of your organisation. By setting up your organisation based on ISO 9001, you ensure continuous improvement. By paying continuous attention to improvement and making adjustments where necessary, you will be able to work effectively and efficiently and retain the flexibility to respond to new opportunities and innovations.
- Increasing customer satisfaction
First of all, ISO 9001 provides a basis for organisational development. It supports critical review of organisational objectives and processes. It also helps in meeting customer, legal and regulatory requirements. This allows you as an organisation to steer towards increasing customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is an important part of ISO 9001. By gaining insight into their wishes and expectations, you can respond to this and improve your customer relationship as well as your products or services. - More efficient business processes
Furthermore, with ISO 9001 you set up business processes more efficiently. This makes it a tool for steering the organisation and ensuring that, as an organisation, you do the things you actually need to do. By demonstrating that you control the primary process, you know what is needed to achieve the results of this process. The processes within organisations provide frameworks and direction for working. Using the PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act), you are continuously improving and ensuring that you are in control in all parts of your organisation. - Engaged employees and management
Commitment to quality and efficiency is also important for employees. By making business processes transparent and understandable to employees, there is less noise and it is clearer what they have to do. Employees thus notice that they too are an important part of the organisation and its goals. Research shows that companies with motivated employees are more successful.
An engaged management team is also important. Good leadership is an important part of ISO 9001, focusing on management involvement and responsibility and motivating employees. Furthermore, you clearly define the various roles and responsibilities within the organisation and how you communicate internally and externally. As a whole, this ensures continuous improvement. Because business processes are transparent, there is a certain degree of transparency. It is clear to employees what added value they have and customers can trust you to do what you promise. - Relationship with suppliers
Another point where ISO 9001 helps your business further is by setting up controls in the KMS for looking at the relationship with suppliers. Your suppliers influence the quality of products and services you provide. By knowing who your suppliers are and how they affect your organisation, you can make clear agreements and monitor their performance. This way, you can make adjustments where necessary.
Cons
As is often the case, there are also a few drawbacks. We will describe these below. However, in our opinion, the disadvantages to ISO 9001 outweigh the advantages.
- Changes
As mentioned, ISO 9001makes you look critically and in an integral way at the organisation and its set-up. This may mean that at a number of points the organisational structure or various processes would have to be modified to make gains and to set up the organisation more efficiently. While these will generally not be major changes, they may be perceived as inconvenient. However, it is important to remember that these changes will ensure a longer-term improvement. - It takes time
Keeping the management system properly maintained and up-to-date will take time. It takes time to delve into it and make sure that all employees understand its importance, know what needs to be done and what activities need to be undertaken. It takes time to get used to it. If this investment is not taken, then there is soon a danger that a developed KMS will become a paper tiger or a block. Investing (through knowledge, time and interest) is therefore important because, in the long run, it will actually save time and you can focus on developing your organisation.
More information?
Want to know more about ISO 9001 or what implementing this standard could mean for your organisation? Then get in touch with us. Our consultants will be happy to tell you more.
