Guide to Maintain Compliance with the ISO 9001 Requirements
Summary:
This article will explain the key steps that organisations must take to maintain their compliance with the requirements of the international standard, ISO 9001.
Achieving the ISO 9001 certification which is the most recognised certification for Quality Management System (QMS) is the wisest decision for businesses. It helps them to strengthen their quality management practices and makes employees responsible for ensuring the quality of the output. However, organisations that have achieved the certification must think about retaining it in the long run. Any ISO certification is valid for only 3 years. They need to have definite strategies to maintain compliance with the ISO 9001 requirements consistently so that they can remain certified for a lifetime.
Maintaining compliance is necessary to ensure that your organisation gets recertified every 3 years without any trouble. In this article, we have presented the most crucial tips that will help you to maintain certification compliance.
5 Tips to Maintain Compliance of Your Organisation with the ISO 9001 Requirements
Repeat the Implementation Success Strategy
To maintain the certification, you need to take care of the QMS that is implemented in your organisation. You should closely monitor the QMS, collect certain parameters related to its performance and analyse them. This will help you to know how well the QMS is performing and whether its processes are effective.
Initially, to achieve the certification, you must have deployed measures to amend the QMS and make it perform efficiently. You need to repeat the measures to keep improving the QMS and make it suitable for your organisation’s goals and objectives.
Update the Documents
Documentation is an imperative requirement of the ISO 9001 standard. You must have prepared vital documents and records related to your QMS for achieving the certification. Those will be well maintained and retained by you. If any processes undergo changes or new compliance requirements emerge, you should update the documentation accordingly.
The auditors during the certification audit thoroughly assess the documents to ensure conformity of your organisation to ISO 9001. They will also do the same during recertification audit and so you need to update and maintain the documents.
Have Regular Training Sessions
If your organisation has achieved a quality certification, make sure the employees know about it and put effort into maintaining it. You need to hold training sessions at periodic intervals till the time of recertification. During that time gap, new requirements may be added to the standard, or new customer needs may emerge. Therefore, it is necessary that your employees adapt to these changes. Having a continuous training cycle for your employees during the certification maintenance time is essential for assuring recertification.
Strengthen the Management Role
You need to also involve the top management members of your organisation and strengthen their role in maintaining the certification. It is difficult to focus on quality in every process of the business without getting the managers or heads of the processes involved. Thus, it is extremely crucial for maintaining certification compliance to get their support. When management are involved, it is easy to generate an unwavering commitment to improving the QMS and its processes. Eventually, it will help you in maintaining the certification.
Do Internal Audits
Lastly and most important, perform internal audits regularly. An internal audit is a critical improvement tool for businesses. It helps you to uncover the areas in the QMS that are weak and require improvements. It will also make you aware of any non-conformances against ISO 9001. Therefore, performing internal audits frequently will help you to rectify minor to major issues in the QMS with suitable corrective actions.
As an owner or leader in a business, you need to make sure that all efforts and investments you made for achieving the ISO 9001 certification initially do not go in vain. Hence, these are the tips that will help maintain your organisation’s compliance with the ISO 9001 requirements and successfully carry your certification in the long run.
Author Bio:
Damon Anderson is the managing director of an accredited ISO consultancy in Australia that guides organisations in their respective ISO certification journeys by providing consulting and auditing services. He is a specialised ISO 9001 consultant who assisted many businesses in getting certified. He is a writer too and likes to talk about ISO 9001 requirements, certification process, compliance maintenance, and so on, through his write-ups.
Contact Details:
Business Name: Compliancehelp
Email Id: sales@compliancehelp.com.au
Phone No: 1800 503 401
