Reaping benefits from ISO 9001
The advantages of ISO 9001 cannot be overstated. Companies of all sizes have gained great value from using this standard by identifying cost and efficiency savings. In this article we highlight the six main benefits of an ISO 9001 quality management system and why they are important:
Because ISO 9001 is an internationally recognized standard, it has become the basis for creating a quality management system around the world. When a company is looking for a supplier, it is often a requirement to have a QMS based on ISO 9001 in place to be considered. This is particularly a priority if you are competing for public sector projects or a vendor number with a larger enterprise. Attaining ISO 9001 certification can give your business a competitive advantage over the competition in the market.
One of the quality management principles that is the foundation of the ISO 900 is to improve customer satisfaction by planning for and striving to meet customer requirements. By improving your customer satisfaction you will retain repeat customers, a happy and satisfied customer is the key to customer loyalty. Not only do satisfied customers bring in additional revenue, but also portray a positive image of your business, products and services that will result in additional potential referrals.
By looking at the overall process interactions through the process approach of ISO 9001, you will be able to easily identify improvements in efficiency and cost savings in both manufacturing and service orientated businesses. The main purpose behind the process approach is to assist your business in becoming more efficient and to optimally utilise your human capital and equipment in the most effective way. This operational management method focuses on how your business can improve its performance by successfully managing the workflow and optimising the processes by taking subsequent steps in improving efficiencies.
A fourth quality management benefit is the need to use evidence-based decision making. By driving your decisions based on the evidence collected, rather than on “intuition,” you can be more focused on applying resources to the areas that will improve business efficiencies and increase cost savings with less trial and error solutions. In addition, by monitoring the process you are improving, you will be able to see how much improvement has happened based on accurate trends analysis.
Continual improvement is a fifth quality management principle of ISO 9001. By adopting this culture to improve your business processes and organizational output, you will find efficiencies and cost savings, including the use of systematic processes when problems occur in order to reduce the impact of the problem and increase the speed of recovery. By ensuring this continual improvement process is maintained, your business and its customers can see ongoing improvements in product or service delivery.
Employees who are involved in the improvements of the processes they work with are happier and more engaged. Who better than the people working on the process to best identify the areas that need improvement, and to help to test and advance these improvements when they are implemented? Engaged employees are more productive and will help your business better improve and save, especially when they understand how the quality of the process depends on them.
The international nature of ISO 9001 has already been identified; and, in fact, ISO 9001 is such a basic and influential standard that it is used as the basis when industry groups want to add specific industry requirements, thus creating their own industry standard. These include AS9100 for the aerospace industry, ISO 13485 for the medical devices industry and ISO/TS 16949 for the automotive industry.
ISO 9001 is also a good foundation for implementing many other management standards, such as ISO 14001 for environmental management and ISO 45001 for health and safety management, which follow much of the same structure. ISO 9001 is the start of good things for your business efforts to gain better process control and improvement. By implementing the gains available through an ISO 9001 quality management system, you can build to even higher savings and improvements.
Should you require assistance in terms of the above or any other ISO related services, you are more than welcome to contact our experts at info@grclink.online or call us directly on 078 556 5480.
