Why ISO 9001 QMS
still more implemented
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Why ISO 9001 QMS
still more implemented in organizations in comparison to other standards? A
question is generally asked by many people.
International
standards are mostly developed by International Organization for
Standardization (ISO). ISO 9001 is ISO's most popular standard. ISO 9001 is the
world’s best-known quality management standard for organizations of any size
and any type.
ISO 9001standard
sets out the criteria for a quality management system and is the only standard
in the ISO 9000 family that can be certified to (although this is not a
requirement of this standard). It can be used by any organization, large or
small, regardless of its field of activity. In fact, there are over one million
organizations in over 170 countries certified to ISO 9001.
International
Organizations for Standardization (ISO) has developed more than 24500
International Standards covering almost all aspects of technology, management
and manufacturing. ISO has 167 members representing ISO in their country. There
is only one member per country. It has constituted 809 Technical committees and
subcommittees to take care of standards development. Among more than 24500
International standards, ISO 9001 QMS is the standard that is more implemented
in organizations in comparison to other standards. Why? I enquired the reasons
by asking a question to members of a group and I received their fantastic
replies with their varied opinion. And those are reproduced for information.
Mutaz Almardi
(Sudan) provides his opinion in support of ISO 9000 by stating, “Customer seeks
for best Quality and best price... any actions aim those two issues will be
implemented by organization.”
Hozyfa Ahmed
(Sudan) puts the reason for implementing ISO 9001, “Due to approach adopted
that makes it easy to understand and application.” Similar to this opinion, Kenneth
Remy (Bangalore, India) says, “ISO 9001 has a systematic approach utilizing the
best practices in the industry which are time tested to suit the requirements
of the customer.”
Ako Samuel
Stinger Ojonuba (EHS advisor) opines, “Because ISO 9001 is customers focused
which is what most organizations are after. This leads to more satisfaction,
more sales and more demand for plant/equipment/raw materials availability which
ensures production is running.”
Nehal Mehta
(Rajkot, India) pinpoints four reasons for ISO 9001 popularity that are (1)
easy to understand, (2) easy to implement, (3) covering all the necessary
points including risk-based thinking, and (4) affordable certification cost.
Eswaran
Thangavel (Tiruchchirapalli, India) puts his opinion, “ISO 9001 standard is
naturally covering the business process of almost any kind of business in the
world.”
Ashish Garg
(India) states clearly, ISO 9001 helps any business to demonstrate the ability
to consistently supply products and services that meet customer and applicable
statutory and regulatory requirements.
Jennifer Sto
Domingo Alinsunurin says, “ISO 9001 is like a generic standard and basically
applies to almost all types of organization .... its high-level structure is
aligned to a number of standards. If an organization wishes to let’s say apply
for any ISO standard's certification, I can say that it is better that the
organization should go first with ISO 9001 QMS.”
Ivo Brauns
(Germany) states, “ISO 9001 is the mother of all QMS standards. It is based on
fulfillment of customer needs and on improvement of those efforts, and it
regards management risks of the organization. So good quality correlates with
customer's satisfaction. Other QMS standards are driven by the requirements of
certain industries, like pharma, medical devices, automotive, aviation. The QMS
in automotive industry is driven by the needs to control the
sun-sub-sub-suppliers. ISO 13485 is the QMS in medical device industry. It is
based on the legal requirements on product safety. So, it is expected that good
quality correlates with meeting all legal requirements.”
David Couldrey
has a different opinion. He says, "I work in the food industry and
companies tend to go with BRC standard instead." However, Enrique Sierra
(Miami, Florida) states that every organization should implement ISO 9001 QMS.
Ramraj Sudukattan
(Chennai, India) says, “ISO 9001 has a systematic approach utilizing the best
practices in the industry which are time tested to suit the requirements of the
customer.”
Ma Han Lay
opines, “Because of, more consideration and prevention by using risk-based
thinking approach.”
Alexio Maseka (Quality
Practitioner, Zimbabwe) states, “ISO 9001 is the harmonized standard upon which
all other management systems standards’ elements (requirements) sit.”
Binh Truong
(Nhuan, Vietnam) is surprised by saying, “In project management field, I still
wonder why not much people/companies use ISO 19650 instead.”
Quality is a
concept associated with the expectation of every individual. In other words,
quality means meeting customer needs. ISO 9001 is the standard that includes
customer perception
Quality is a
concept associated with the expectation of every individual. In other words,
quality means meeting customer needs. ISO 9001 is the standard that includes
customer perception. To me, there are many more reasons for the popularity
of ISO 9001, some of those are -
- The customer
comes first and the standard asks the organization to become customer focused to
fulfill the needs and expectations of its customers.
- Leaders
establish unity of purpose and leadership is the central theme of the standard.
- People at all
levels are essence of an organization. Quality happens through people and the
standard emphasize the importance of peoples' engagement.
- All work is
part of process and the standard promotes the adoption of process approach.
- Improvement
never ends and is necessary for consistent growth. The standard mentions
continual improvement as a requirement.
- Analysis of
data provides effective decision and the standard supports evidence-based
decision making.
- Relationship
creates value and the standard is based on relationship management.
- The standard's
requirements are generic and applicable to any organization regardless of its
type, size and product / service.
- Implementation
of the standard is based on PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle.
Hope information
provided in this article are useful.
Thanks to all
participants.
Regards,
Keshav Ram Singhal
