The Benefits of ISO 9001 Certification
ISO 9001 may be a business standard that's employed by over 1,000,000 organizations worldwide. It helps businesses achieve optimum operational efficiency by handling the basics of quality management systems.
The requirements for ISO 9001 certification is often found during a 30 page document, when the organization has implemented these requirements they're deemed fit be issued with the certificate.
An ISO certificate is beneficial to businesses of any size. A recent survey conducted by QMS found that the majority of the respondents were from smaller companies of 1 - 49 employees, but they also found significant numbers within the medium category (50 - 499 employees) which larger companies of over 500 employees had ISO 9001 certification. ISO Certificates also benefit both B2B and B2C organizations, an equivalent survey found they were both 46% of respondents were B2B organizations, 45% were B2B and B2C, the remaining 9% were B2C.
Globally, the numbers of ISO 9001 is seeing a gentle yearly increase as more and more companies receive the certification. In 2010 the highest three countries that held the foremost certificates were China with almost 300,000, Italy with 139,000 and Russia with 62,000 certificates. This increase in popularity is because it offers the subsequent advantages:
- Gain new customers and more business
- Increased customer satisfaction and simpler customer communication
- Improved quality management processes
- Simpler management reviews
- Improved supplier performance and increased profits
- Reduced waste and increased productivity
In addition to those benefits, companies also seek ISO 9001 certification to realize a competitive advantage and to assist enhance operations internally. Clients also are increasingly expecting their suppliers to possess the certification, so organizations often seek the ISO 9001 to satisfy client demand and tender requirement.
The survey also found that when companies invested in an ISO 9001 they have a tendency to renew the certificate. This demonstrates that companies value the certificate and willing to regularly reinvest. The results found that quite half the organizations had held their certificates for over five years and an enormous fifth of respondents held the ISO 9001 for over 10 years and more.
Most organizations hold their ISO 9001 certification in very high regard, this is often reinforced by the very fact that over 75% of the businesses questioned within the survey believe that the certificate should be officially recommended by their trade or industry.