ISO 9001 Certification: The Key to Many Internal Benefits in Business

May 12
18:44

2021

Alex Afford

Alex Afford

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

This article explains the compelling internal benefits that ISO 9001 certification provides to businesses helping to drive their efficiency and productivity.

mediaimage

The key purpose for businesses to achieve the ISO 9001 certification is that it ensures higher customer satisfaction and secures a consistent sales flow for them. The certification helps them establish a quality management system (QMS) that takes care of all processes and inputs/supplies to make sure that end products or services are delivered with quality. ISO 9001 is a quality management standard that has the potential to impact a business’s bottom line. It is considered a critical improvement tool for organizations to improve their quality potential,ISO 9001 Certification: The Key to Many Internal Benefits in Business Articles customer satisfaction, sales, and profitability.

While these are direct possible benefits of having the certification, there are many indirect internal benefits of the same that appear more gradually in the long run.

Here is a detailed account of the internal benefits that ISO 9001 certification can offer an organization.

Record-Keeping or Documentation

To achieve ISO 9001 compliance, you need to meticulously document your QMS. Everything about your QMS including procedures, quality parameters, functions, and employee responsibilities should be documented. It is not just a necessary condition of the standard but is also essential to keep employees aware of their roles in the operation of the QMS. Documentation helps in a big way because it maintains the consistency of the QMS over time. Any discrepancy with the documented procedures can be quickly identified and the ones responsible for that can easily correct their mistake.

Improvement in Internal Communication

Most organizations achieving ISO 9001 certification notice a great positive change in their management and that is improved internal communications. The implementation of a QMS in the organization requires the active participation of the employees, from all departments or processes.  They need to cooperate with each other on a daily basis and share responsibility for the effective operations of the QMS. Also, employees need to communicate with the top management, submit reports regularly, and seek further ideas on improving the QMS procedures. In short, the certification necessitates the implementation of a uniform management system that promotes two-way communication.

Increased Awareness of Quality Assurance Responsibilities

With a formal QMS in place, everyone from top-level personnel to sublevel and lower-level staff realize the importance of quality assurance practices. As the documented QMS mentions how employees should execute their roles and how they should interact with different functions of the QMS, there is greater accountability in the employees. Internal audits are also indispensable for ISO certification. They make employees more vested in the QMS and help to improve it consistently to show full compliance to the auditors.

Operational Efficiency

Organizations with their QMS compliant with ISO 9001 can see a prominent increase in operational efficiency in the subsequent period.  When you need to continually enhance the quality of your products or services, your employees (especially quality assurance personnel) should monitor and evaluate the processes that the QMS controls to impact the quality. They also should be measuring the key quality metrics or success parameters to see whether they are improved over time.  In other words, there is a continuous mechanism for checking the processes across your organization which ensures greater efficiency and helps to overcome any operational difficulties that may emerge at any time.

 

Demonstration of your quality assurance efforts with your ISO 9001 QMS helps to sustain your market position, increase your business opportunities, and make your products or services more reliable for your customers. As a result, your sales performance and customer loyalty are apt to increase. However, there are a lot of internal benefits that are subsequently realized by your business with the implementation of a QMS. All these internal benefits of ISO 9001 certification indicate two potential outcomes - overall performance improvement and costs savings for a business. These not only help in making you more competitive but also assure consistent growth with quality output.