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ISO certification
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When Might A Business Need Quality Management Certification?

Companies of all shapes, sizes and scales have expressed an interest in receiving ISO certification, even though it is not a strict business need per se to do so.

There are a lot of benefits to organising your business and running under ISO 9001:2015 quality management standards and practices, but whilst being certified by an accredited company brings with it a wide range of benefits, there is no regulatory or legal requirement to do so.

However, there might be some occasions where an ISO 9001 certificate becomes an effective necessity due to business requirements, rather than a system that allows a company to opt-in to more long-term benefits.

A Prerequisite To Close A Deal

One of the main reasons why companies are interested in ISO 9001, particularly if they want to get certified quickly, is because they need it to meet the prerequisite of a company or government tender.

Many larger businesses who work with a network of smaller suppliers have prerequisites before they allow a business to work with them, and whilst this will naturally vary by market sector and particular need, one of the most common requirements is ISO 9001 certification.

Many government agencies have replaced bespoke standards with one based on ISO 9001 because it allows for a more streamlined approach to tenders and enables these companies to focus on the more specific aspects of a tender application.

Getting certified, therefore, becomes a requirement for many businesses that work closely with government agencies.

This may be the catalyst for getting certified, but it is also an opportunity to make sustained, effective and long-term changes to the business that provides far more than an immediate gain.

Open For International Business

When working with international clients, there is a need for a universal language mutually understood by both parties, which in many cases involves the use of mutually understood and referenced standards.

One of the biggest benefits of ISO standards in general, but particularly ISO 9001, is that they are universal; to date, 167 countries have national ISO members, which means that the standard is understood and recognised practically anywhere you might do business.

This makes an ISO 9001 certificate an effective requirement when doing business overseas, as it means that a company knows that your business is focused on quality management in a way that is universally understood and can therefore focus on what your company brings to the table.

Get The Best Employees

Typically, when businesses talk about ISO 9001 as a requirement, they are generally referring to the needs of customers. However, it can also be an important tool for improving recruitment, with the right candidates knowing how the quality management standard can help them personally and professionally.

One of the key requirements of ISO 9001 concerns employee management and job expectations.

Having a clear set of quality objectives, procedures, instructions and process metrics allows for a culture of constant feedback and improvement, with an emphasis on constantly learning and developing.

Many employees who would be perfect for your corporate culture will see the standard as one that prioritises them and how they can contribute to the goals of the organisation.

ISO certification
Article

What Was the First ISO Standard?

When most businesses think of ISO certification, they are generally thinking of just a handful of circa 25,000 standards that are covered by the International Organisation for Standardisation, (or ISO), by far the most common of which is ISO 9001.

The primary reason for this is that ISO 9001 (which was itself developed from the original British Standard; BS 5750) is a quality management standard that is recognised around the world, and is both a tool to help continually improve performance, and serve as a signpost to potential customers that the aim of the business is to do it right first time (i.e. efficiency is built-in). 

However, there are a lot more standards besides this and to understand the priorities of ISO 9001 and how it has become the global arbiter for standardisation itself, it is worth exploring the very first standard recognised and certified by ISO.

Global Standardisation

The first challenge for the International Organisation for Standardisation is standardising itself for all countries.

In every country, the short form of the organisation’s name is ISO, even though none of the organisation’s three official languages have an acronym that fits.

In English, it is IOS as seen above, in French, it is OIN (Organisation International de Normalisation) and in Russian, it is MOS (Mezhdunarodnaya Organizatsiya po Standartizatsii).

Officially, the organisation explains the name as a derivation of the word “isos” which in Greek means “equal”, although there are no contemporary accounts of this being the inspiration during the organisation’s founding meetings in October 1946.

Regardless, ISO was the collective name chosen and has remained the same ever since.

The first published standard would arise five years later.

The First ISO Standard

The very first standard established was ISO 1, although due to the fact that ISO described their standards as “Recommendations” at the time, it was issued first as ISO/R 1.

Compared to ISO 9001:2015, which includes numerous pages and many different requirements, ISO 1 consists of a single measurement: 20 degrees Celsius.

This temperature, which equals 68 degrees Fahrenheit and 293.15 Kelvin, is used as a standard reference temperature when making dimensional measurements.

Despite being so simple, this is an important point when it comes to standardisation of the precise dimensions of products, parts and components, because of the effects of thermal expansion.

Most materials change size and shape depending on their heat and the ambient temperature around them, so comparing the measurements of different components that are supposedly compatible but are made in different environments means that they may not be entirely compatible.

This concept was already known, and before 1951 three temperature points (zero degrees Celsius/32 degrees Fahrenheit, 16.6667 degrees Celsius/62 degrees Fahrenheit and 25 degrees Celsius/77 degrees Fahrenheit) were all used, but none of them were ideal standards that were easy or comfortable to work in.

By contrast, ISO 1 was an easy round number, it was close to room temperature in many countries, it was a whole number in both Celsius and Fahrenheit and it was easy to attain or work in, allowing for more workshops to use it.

Whilst a relatively simple ISO standard now, ISO 1 highlights the principles at the core of the standardisation process and helps foster a greater understanding of why ISO 9001 is the way it is.

Help and More Information

For more information on this and to find out how ISO-Cert Online can help you achieve your business standardisation goals, please contact us on 0333 014 7720 or email info@isocertonline.net

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