ISO 9000: for whom, why and how?

 

WHAT IS ISO?

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 

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.

The consultant’s work boils down to help in the creation and implementation of the quality system, as well as in the preparation and maintenance of the management system during certification. The professional consulting company specialist will do everything possible to increase the customer's business efficiency; therefore, its activities include the provision of services to after receiving the certificate of compliance.
 
Attempts of self-preparation for certification often lead to failures: the requirements have been misinterpreted, the quality system documentation has been compiled, but there was no one who would undertake to implement it, everything was done as it should, but no quality improvement occurred at the output.
 
There are few more mistakes: excessive attention to the workflow system and attempts to describe and standardize everything without exception; solving all issues in a hurry. There are many other problem situations, which can be foreseen only by the skilled consultant.
 

QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The quality management system (QMS) is introduced and developed by the company to fulfill the set tasks related to product quality. Like any other, this system is defined by the purposes, structure, elements, and links. Thus, we can say that the QMS is nothing but methods, processes, resources, merge into one and aimed to fulfilling the assigned tasks related to planning, management and quality assurance. The latter one is the main objective and the main direction of the quality management system.
 QMS tasks
Considering the tasks of the QMS, we should immediately note that its totality must necessarily cover such types of company activities as economic and administrative, and production. Here it should be noted that, as a rule, at any companies these types of activities are closely interrelated.
The view that the effective management tasks performance is entrusted only to the shoulders of the employees of specific department is erroneous. Only the involvement of the whole team in fulfilling all the requirements relating to the quality of the products that are produced at the company, and the overall responsibility of the company managers for it - is the key to its successful functioning.
For example, the administrative management of the company is to competently deliver production process control, the main indicator of which is the actual indicators. As for the objective, it is the administrative influence should directly provide continuous, permanent work aimed at improving the quality of products. It is necessary to emphasize that it is possible to determine the effectiveness of the measures taken and carry out the analysis only with the help of certain criteria.

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.

 

WHY THE BELPROJEKTCONSULTING? 

  • We work only with recognized and most authoritative national and international certification bodies, and this fact guarantees the exclusion of the possibility to get to the scammers, "to pay money and get not what you need";
  • Due to the main principles of our company, all developed quality management systems are developed individually, exclusively for specific technological production systems, with the necessary routine immersion in the development process and strictly in accordance with the requirements. We guarantee companies the receiving of an active, and not a "paper" QMS, which will pass the conformity assessment in any international and national certification body;
  • We helped to develop and implement QMS according to ISO 9001 basing on the principles of non-standard approach taking into account the difficulties of the entire technical routine of creating such management systems to more than three hundred companies. This helped us to create a solid information and methodical base for a variety of production areas, taking into account the specifics of the industry's hazards and risks, due to this we were able to significantly reduce the cost of work, and to provide substantial (up to 40-50%) discounts to regular customers!!!