ISO 9001 Certification: A Benchmark for Quality Management System

1. ISO 9001 Certification: A Benchmark for Quality Management System If you are someone who is involved in the range of suppliers and, mainly, someone who is responsible for making purchasing plans, you must have seen or used products that are sponsored using reference to ISO 9001. What does that mean? How can this aid us? How can you be so sure that your suppliers recognize or value what you exactly need from them, and are they able of constantly providing you with products and services that meet up your requirements and wants? This article gives some answers to these queries and will guide you about how you can achieve most by using ISO 9001 as a supply chain systems means. ISO 9001 Certification is a global benchmark and emblem that gives necessities for an association’s quality management system (QMS). It is defined as the section of a family of standards edited by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and often touted to be collectively as the “ISO 9000 series” or “ISO 9000 family unit”. For this cause, you may sometimes take notice of your suppliers refer to being “ ISO 9000 certified”, This will usually mean that they are claiming to have a QMS that meets all the necessities of ISO 9001, the only standard in the ISO 9000 family that can be used for the point of conformity assessment. Without a doubt, it is very is inevitable to understand, still, that ISO is the body that promotes and publishes the norms – ISO does not “certify” organizations. The chief agenda and target of ISO 9001 is to give a set of requirements that, if properly imposed, will give you faith that your supplier can firmly provide products and services that:

2. • Meet your needs and expectations • Comply with applicable regulations How does ISO 9001 aid you choose a supplier? ISO 9001 provides some necessities for the purchasing process that include you as the client. These requirements discuss the following topics: • Requirements regarding the purchasing information that you must provide so that suppliers clearly understand your needs. You may need to negotiate with technical staff in this process. If you are not doing this, you might find that you will receive a product or a service that meets all your stated requirements and the applicable regulatory requirements, but which is absolutely unethical for your intended application. So, first of all, you should deeply focus on specifying your needs related to the intended use of the product or service. For further aid in this task, you may consider the following: • What is the exact product or service you are buying? • What are the risks to your business if you experience hurdles with this service? How can you have faith that your supplier meets ISO 9001 standard? A declaration by your supplier itself affirming that its QMS meets ISO 9001 requirements, usually supported by legally binding documents and affidavits. This statement can be based on your suppliers internal review system, or on second-party or third-party audits. • Second-party assessment: Your supplier has been governed by its customer (say for instance by you, or by another buyer whose status you respect) to check if its QMS meets ISO 9001 needs and your own benchmarks and norms – sometimes used in formal “business-to business” transactions.