As the world is advancing, so are the working and quality standards. With that, customers’ expectations and requirements have also increased. To keep up with the client’s requirements, companies try to meet the needs of ISO management System Standards.
Although not compulsory, the implementation of ISO management Standards can help organizations meet their objectives, increase client satisfaction, improve overall business performance, and keep the business process streamline. Moreover, an ISO certificate, adds so much value to an organization as they are highly socially desirable.
Samaritan Technologies provide many ISO Standards, three are the most prevalent i.e. ISO 9001: 2015 (Quality Management System), ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Management Systems), and ISO 45001:2018 (OHS Management System).
Quality Management Systems
A quality management system, also called ISO 9001:2015 is the standard of ISO which provides a set of rules defining the business processes and documentation mainly concerned with increasing customer satisfaction and ensuring meeting customer needs.
What is it Used for?
As the name suggests, quality management systems or ISO 9001:2015 mainly deals with providing a fundamental framework for establishing quality standards via quality management policies and processes. In this way, ISO 9001:2015 assists an organization to meet its goals.
The ISO 9001 standards are designed in a structured way to effectively make an organization’s processes efficient leading to steady improvement in the quality of the organization’s products and services.
Why Quality Management System?
Although complying with the ISO 9001 standards is not a compulsion, there are still many benefits of sticking to them providing a solid foundation on why an organization should implement them.
- Enhances an organization’s capability to respond appropriately to statutory and regulatory issues.
- Reducing the production cost including the rework cost, and machinery and equipment cost.
- Combat the disruptions through its structured approach thus leading to efficient project management.
- Enhance customer satisfaction through improved product quality and timely service delivery.
- Increases overall profit through effective asset management and the improved overall process.
- International recognition because the organization sticks to international quality standards.
Environmental Management System
The environmental management system also called ISO 14001:2015 provides a set of rules and standards to protect the environment such as flora, fauna, humans, land, resources, etc, and respond appropriately to the changing environment.
What is it Used for?
ISO 14001 assists organizations meet their aims and objectives and provide a basic framework to implement environmental policies and processes in the organization.
The ISO 14001 standards are designed in a structured way to effectively make an organization’s processes efficient leading to steady improvement in the environmental performance of an organization.
Why Environmental Management System?
Following are the benefits indicating why a company should go for the ISO 14001 standards:
- Enhances an organization’s capability to respond appropriately to the regulatory issues.
- Reduce the pollution in the environment.
- Reducing the disruption cost by maintaining a continuous workflow.
- Saves the company from panelties that may be charged as a result of environmental offense.
- Sustains the environment.
- International recognition because the organization sticks to international environmental standards.
OHS Management System
OH&S management system also known as ISO 45001:2018 is mainly concerned with providing the basic set of rules and standards for the process of controlling the conditions that can influence the employee’s health and safety.
What is it used for?
ISO 45001 assists organizations meet their aims and objectives and provide a basic framework to implement health and safety policies and processes in the organization.
The ISO 45001 standards are designed in a structured way to effectively make an organization’s processes efficient leading to steady improvement in the health and safety performance of an organization.
Why ISO 45001?
Here is why an organization should stick to the ISO 45001 standards:
- Enhance the organization’s capability to appropriately respond to the regulatory issues
- Hepls to decrease the cost that may be incured as a result of injuries
- Decreases the disruption cost by maintaining a steady workflow
- Saves the insuranvce costs
- Helps improving the employee’s health resulting in less absentees
- International recognition because the organization sticks to international health and safety standards.
How to Implement ISO Standards?
Implementing the ISO standards smoothly in an organization can be challenging, resulting in the frustration.
Following are the four essential steps in order to implement ISO Standards:
Step#1: Understand the ISO Standards
- It is important for the managerial staff to understand the ISO standards first.
- Mind that, not evey employee needs to be an expert in understanding ISO standards and requirements in order to implement them.
- Its always helpful to invest in one copy of the ISO standards and study the key concepts for better understanding.
- If the magenerial team is still unsure about the ISO requirements, training can be a good option.
Step#2: Educate Others
- Once the key management have gotten a hold of ISO requirements, its now time to take the other team members in the loop too as ISO standards implementation process needs the involvement of whole team.
- Every member of the team should be updated about what is going to be implemented, why is it going to be implemented, how the implemented policies will benefit the organization.
- The key management can set up the procedures to be implemented on the display boards in order to communicate effectievly.
Step#3: Establish an Implementation Team
- Once the procedure is effectively communicated to the team, its time to specify the people who would be implementing the ISO standards. The implementation process would be much smoother if the right people are handling the job.
- The team should ensure that all the “shall” standards are being strictly followed.
- Conduct periodic internal audits to track the performance and ensure the ISO implementation.
Step#4: Adopt Risk-Based Approach
- No matter what system you implement, risk is a must! So its always wise to consider the risk while implementing the ISO standards.
- A risk-based approach will help the organization identify the risks at the right time during the process of ISO standards implementation.
Conclusion
There are three most commonly used ISO Standards i.e. ISO 9001: 2015 (Quality Management System), ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Management Systems), and ISO 45001:2018 (OHS Management System). Along with their own individual benefits, sticking to the ISO standards bring international recognitions with them.
The implementation process requires the effort of whole team not just one individual.
FAQs
What is an ISO management System?
The ISO management system provides a set of policies and procedures to be implemented in an organization to ensure the quality, consistency and improvement.
What are 3 ISO management systems?
The 3 ISO management systems are quality management system, Environmental management system, and OSH management system.
What is ISO stands for?
ISO stands for international Organization for Standardization.