The International Organization for Standardization(ISO) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies) that produces standards.
The International Organization for Standardization was established in 1946 by 25 national organizations. In fact, its work began in 1947. The USSR was one of the founders of the organization, the permanent member of the governing bodies, the State Organization for Standardization's delegate was elected ISO chairman twice. Russia became a member of ISO as the legal successor of the USSR. On September 23, 2005, Russia entered the ISO Council.
The scope of ISO activity concerns standardization in all fields, except the electrical engineering and electronics, which fall within the competence of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Some types of work are carried out by joint efforts of these organizations. In addition to standardization, ISO deals with certification issues.
ISO defines its objectives as follows: promoting the development of standardization and related activities in the world with the aim of ensuring international exchange of goods and services, as well as promoting cooperation in the intellectual, scientific, technical and economic fields.
Consulting and ISO standards based systems’ development
Practical activities of "BelProjectConsulting" are based on the scientific and theoretical approach, which is a universal methodology in the management schemes construction. The ISO 9000 family of standards are in the basis of our work on consulting in the of management systems’ development.
ISO 9000 series of quality standarts are developed on the typical customer requirements for suppliers and relieve the consumer from traveling around the enterprises with inspection of their production. As well as the suppliers are spared of need to meet such delegations every time. ISO 9000 series certificates are issued by independent, competent organizations that provide certification services for various management systems.
The popularization of management systems conforming to ISO standards and their widespread introduction created a paradoxical phenomenon: on the one hand, more and more companies are seeking for certification, but many unscrupulous managers receive a certificate for the sake of the certificate, mistakenly believing that it will solve all their problems. In fact, the presence of an ISO 9000 certificate only shortens the time of transaction’s conclusion and simplifies the choice of a supplier among thousands of offers. There are also several types of certification for the ISO 9000 series quality standarts: 9001, 9002, 9003, 9004, as well as industry-specific certification systems based on basic requirements (for example, QS 9000).
Unfortunately, the many company heads do not understand the real advantages from the introduction of a detailed, well-functioning quality management system which meets the requirements of ISO 9001. At the best case scenario, such heads act in a stereotyped manner, do not understand the meaning of the implemented system. At worst, the certificate is simply bought. At the same time, thanks to the functioning quality management system, it is possible not only to confirm the quality of products or services, but also to improve the whole production process: the system is able to change the production technology, the product quality control system, indicate the direction of enterprise modernization, etc.
The common manufacturers’ problem: they believe that to obtain a certificate it is enough just to prepare detailing the activities of the company documentation. However, you also need to follow it in your work! But even for the proper preparation of this documentation the special knowledge, skills and practical experience are necessary. Not to mention the ability to engage in reengineering, the introduction of new technologies and principles of work. As practice shows, it is possible to cope with such task only with the qualified consultant’s support.
QMS development and implementation
Development and implementation of QMS at the company is a complicated and rather laborious process. After all, it is important to correctly identify the primary tasks, set goals and develop a detailed plan for its achievement. For this reason this process occurs according to the following stages:
1. Definition of QMS tasks and development of the most acceptable model for their solution;
2. Comparison of the tasks of the company and tasks that can be solved by this or that QMS model;
3. If the production processes do not correspond to the assigned tasks, the manufactured restructuring is implemented at this stage;
4. Displaying factors that say that the company’s activities tasks fully correspond to the implemented model of the QMS in the documentation;
5. QMS certification. This stage is aimed at increasing the production processes’ efficiency;
6. Improving the production processes according to the chosen model and improving the company's activities entirely.
Summing up, we can say that the QMS tasks are based on the needs for an integrated management system and are only a small part of the company's activities entirely. It is also worth noting that no matter how effective one process of the management system is, but it is impossible to judge of effectiveness of the implementation of the QMS.
Taking into account all the above, only competent management of all the processes in the complex will help to achieve effective implementation of the QMS and fulfill all its tasks and, accordingly, improve product quality.
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