Why is ISO Certification important?

There are many reasons why ISO Certification is important, and even though there are many benefits of ISO 9001 certification, it all boils down to one thing, as we will see below.

At the outset, I’d like to make it clear that I do not believe that a mere quality certification improves the quality of your product. Therefore, Why is ISO Certification important?

Focus on improvement

First of all, as you are going through the process to get ISO Certified you will be looking at your business in a different way than usual. You won’t be handling day to day operations, but rather, looking at the big picture and identifying ways to improve your business. By hiring an ISO consultant (depending on who you hire), you will be getting a deeper understanding of the way processes to interact with one another, and you will get an outsider’s perspective on how you can improve, based on best-in-class techniques for your industry.

Also, through the process of ISO Certification, you will be identifying key processes within your business (sales, operations, purchasing and design and development procedure) with the aim of finding areas for improvement. Moreover, by knowing the key activities your key and supporting processes, you will be in a much better position to create job descriptions for each job title within the company, that helps you articulate the specific roles and responsibilities for each person within your company. The idea of storing all organizational knowledge in a centralised location will also help you to make sure that any lessons learnt from anyone within the organization, is made accessible to any other person who might need that information.

Moreover, during the ISO Certification process, you will be exploring the internal and external issues, that will give you an opportunity to stress-test your business for possible future hindrances, and to help you capitalize on any positive changes that are identified.

Finally, it will also be an opportunity to explore the needs and requirements of all interested parties for your business – to make sure that you are focusing on what really matters.

Drive improvement

During the process for certification, and for all subsequent years, your business will be focusing on identifying customer satisfaction – the best measure of the performance of your business. By taking the feedback you receive from the most honest customers with a pinch of salt, and truly trying to understand their issues (and positives) with your business, you will be able to focus on what is important.

This focus on following the best strategy for your business is reflected in the quality policy. The document that states the mission, and vision of your company – what makes you unique, and how do you plan on further enhancing your unique selling position? A strategy without objectives is just a dream. The quality objectives will help you put SMART objectives to achieve the guidelines set by your quality policy.

Why is ISO Certification important? It gives focus.

There are various options which Choosing which ISO Certification is best for your business – however, they all point to one thing – ownership by the leadership team to drive the company towards improvement. If the management team is not committed to quality, no certification will help them to improve their business. If on the other hand, business leaders are committed to improving, then positive results will invariable follow.