ISO 9001 and quality management

In the world of ISO standards, many of the standards focus on quality management. The most important and most widely used standard in the world is ISO 9001. Since 1987, ISO 9001 has been the standard for quality management most frequently certified by organisations. The result? ISO 9001 is the most certified ISO standard worldwide.

Focus on continuous improvement

The purpose of the quality management system according to ISO 9001 is to have the organisation focus on continuous improvement in order to increase customer satisfaction. The standard is set up in such a way that it pays attention to the entire process of translating customer requirements (input) to the delivered product or service. The entire work process of the organisation is addressed, together with some secondary processes. These secondary processes support the organisation towards continuous improvement.

The demands of customers, health insurers and governments

In the past, mainly large organisations paid attention to quality management by implementing the requirements of ISO 9001. A few years ago, the trend started for small companies to pay more and more attention to this. This is also due in large part to the requirements of customers, health insurers and governments. In more and more tendering requirements or requirements for the delivery of products or services, having a quality management system, often demonstrable by an ISO 9001 certificate, is made obligatory.

How to interpret the standard?

For small organisations, an ISO 9001 implementation is not very complex, however the standard is written in such general terms that many organisations find it difficult to interpret. An important part of setting up an ISO 9001 management system is interpreting the standard. The standard describes each paragraph very briefly, in a few key sentences. Especially for employees who are not yet familiar with the standard, interpreting it can be quite a task. For this reason, a consultant is often asked to provide support. For small organizations this can be a (too) large investment.

Wouldn't it be great if you could get certified all by yourself?

Good news: now you can! It is possible to do this yourself, with the help of the My ISO Genius software tool. This tool takes you by the hand, step by step, through the standard and ensures that the organisation itself can set up a quality management system according to ISO 9001. With the examples and formats provided, setting up an ISO 9001 management system independently becomes very easy.