ISO 9001 Standards Certification

When an organization chooses not to pursue ISO 9001 certification or not to
retain the ISO 9001 certificate, it should make no difference to the way the
organization is managed. Its similar to the man who chooses not to take the
course examination. He still has the knowledge he has acquired whether or not he takes the exam and gets a certificate. What he cannot do is demonstrate to others that he has reached a certain level of education without having to prove it every time. People who know him dont care that he didnt take the exam. It is only those who dont know him that he will have difficulty convincing.

Many organizations were driven to seek ISO 9001 certification by pressure
from customers rather than as an incentive to improve business performance
and therefore sought the quickest route to certification. The critics called this
coercion and like most command and control strategies, believed it resulted in
managers cheating just to get the badge. What was out of character was that
suppliers that were well known to customers were made to jump through this
hoop in order to get a tick in a box in a list of approved suppliers. It became a
necessary evil to do business. Certainly when perceived as a means to get a
badge, the standard was no more than a marketing tool. It could have been
used as a framework for improvement but the way it was imposed on
organizations generated fear brought about by ignorant customers who
mistakenly believed that imposing ISO 9001 would improve quality. To achieve
anything in our society we inevitably have to impose rules and regulations
what the critics regard as command and control but unfortunately, any progress we make masks the disadvantages of this strategy and because we only do what we are required to do, few people learn. When people make errors more rules are imposed until we are put in a straightjacket and productivity plummets. There is a need for regulations to keep sharks out of the bathing area, but if the regulations prevent bathing we defeat the objective, as did many of the customers that imposed ISO 9001.

How To Prepare ISO 9001 Standards Audit Check List

How To Prepare ISO 9001 Standards Audit Check List

There are a few steps to prepare ISO 9001 Standards Check List, namely:

1. Apply the concept of Plan Do Check Act (PDCA). This PDCA concept is applied at the Quality Management System and the process levels.

2. Convert the question to requirement raised by QMR or the QMS Committee which derived from the ISO 9001 standards. In this case, several questions can lead to one single requirement.

3. To edit those questions to suit the process that is to be audited. For example, you are going to audit the Purchasing/Procurement Department and you’re sitting down with the Audit Team trying to come up with relevant questions.

The main objective in auditing any process is to extract adequate information and evidence in order to verify that the process is conformant to the ISO 9001 requirements and that, it is effective in achieving its objectives. As an auditor, you need to be able to investigate, assess and verify the conformity and effectiveness of a given process, in terms of its planning, implementation, monitoring & measurement and improvement. As a Lead Auditor, preparing your Audit Team for the actual audit is crucial in ensuring success of the audit excercise. There is no better way to do that than by developing the audit questions with them.