Benefits of ISO 9001 Certification

There are many benefits of ISO 9001 Certification. ISO 9001 is an international standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system (QMS). Organizations become certified to demonstrate their ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements. When you choose to become certified or are forced to become certified, ISO 9001 provides support for your staff and customer satisfaction. 

Changes in your business operations will always create some additional load on your business, however, the results of implementing the ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System (QMS) are well worth the effort as you move forward.

Blueprints are one of the many things that are being made obsolete by technology and electronic files. Implementing a QMS (like ISO 9001) is a similar situation – a little work up front, but after a short time, the benefits of ISO in your organization will be clearly seen.

Despite your certification, we highly recommend you follow the Seven Quality Management Principles (QMPs) in order to maximize the benefits of ISO 9001.

10 Benefits of ISO 9001

The 10 benefits of ISO 9001:2015 quality management system:

1. Increased Efficiency: The companies have done extensive research on the processes they are following, and how to maximize quality and efficiency before going through the ISO 9000 series Quality Management Standards certification process. Once they achieve certification, the processes are established. There are guidelines that can be easily followed by anyone, making it easy to provide training, transitions, and even troubleshooting purposes. 
2. Increased Revenue: It has been observed that ISO QMS-certified companies have shown improvements in the field of productivity and financial performance as compared to the uncertified ones.
3. Employee Morale: The staff is more satisfied and motivated once there are defined roles and responsibilities, accountability of management, established training procedures, and a well-defined picture of how the roles of the employees affect quality and overall success of the company.
4. International Recognition: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is recognized worldwide as the authority on quality management.
5. Factual Approach to Decision Making: The ISO9000 QMS standard sets out clear instructions regarding audits and process reviews. This helps in information gathering and decision-making based on data.
6. Supplier Relationships: ISO certification has been found beneficial regarding supplier relationships. The documentation and testing procedures help to ensure the quality of the raw materials used for production purposes. This also helps in properly evaluating a new supplier before changing suppliers. There is a procedure to check consistency with respect to how and where orders are placed.
7. Documentation: Since the ISO QMS standard requires proper documentation of all processes, changes made, errors, or discrepancies, it helps mitigate problems, and provides stability. The staff is also more accountable. Documentation also guarantees that traceable records are available in case of non-compliant products or raw materials.
8. Consistency: Since all processes are documented, there is a minimum scope of errors. Processes starting right from research and development, covering production and shipping are well documented. Even any small change in the process has to be documented, ensuring that the changes are well planned and implemented in the best possible way to ensure maximum efficiency.
9. Customer Satisfaction: Companies can gain the confidence of clients easily because the ISO is a universally accepted standard. ISO9001 QMS certification ensures efficiency, consistency, and dedicated quality service by the companies thereby ensuring the satisfaction of the customers.
10. Improvement Processes: The ISO 9000 QMS emphasizes audit processes, management review, and improved processes based on collected data. Based on facts and using a system of documentation and analysis, improvements are carefully planned and implemented. This ensures that the best decisions are made for your company.

Want to learn more about the Benefits of ISO 9001?

• Learn about ISO 10014 Quality Management Guidelines for realizing financial and economic benefits of ISO 9001.

What is the ROI of ISO 9001?

The ROI for ISO 9001:2015 can be seen in many different areas of your organization, from an increase in customers to a decrease in waste. ROI is going to be different depending on what industry you are in. In general, companies are seeing an increase in revenue, a reduction in costs, and an increase in profit. Below is data to show you the benefits of ISO 9001:

• 72% of corporations with ISO 9001 report a major competitive advantage. Meaning, that they are acquiring more business since implementing the QMS.
• 33% of corporations that are certified to ISO 9001 reported an improvement in customer demand.
• 69% of organizations that DO NOT have ISO 9001 say they have lost a customer bid or proposal to a competitor that is an ISO 9001:2015 certified customer.
• 35-40% of corporations stated that their competitors are ISO 9001:2015 certified or are in the process of becoming certified. As ISO 9001 continues to grow, so will your competition, making you increasingly fall behind.

ISO 9001 for Top Management and Employees

Company involvement is another great benefit of ISO 9001 certification. When you decide to implement the ISO 9001 Standard into your organization, the requirements require an increased involvement of top management, and your overall Quality Management System will improve.

• This starts with the setting of the Quality Policy and Quality Goals and Objectives.
• It continues with Management Review looking at data from the QMS and taking actions to make sure that Quality Goals are met.
• New Goals are set, and continual improvement is achieved.

With the QMS in place and working for you, the organization is focused on Quality Goals.

• Management is provided with data on a continual basis and able to see progress or lack of progress towards goals and take appropriate action.
• The organized, scheduled process of conducting Management Reviews ensures that this evaluation takes place.
• It provides the mechanism for reviewing goals and performance against goals on a scheduled basis, and for taking action based on the evaluation.
• Increased productivity results from the initial evaluation and improvement of processes that occur during the implementation process and from improved training and qualifications of employees.
• Better documentation or control of processes (for instance, having and following a formal quality manual) leads to consistency in performance, and less scrap and rework.
• Managers experience fewer late-night troubleshooting calls; employees have more information for troubleshooting problems on their own.

ISO 9001 for Customer Satisfaction

Another great benefit of ISO 9001 is customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction increases are seen as Goals and Objectives taking the customer needs into account.

• Customer needs are better understood as customer feedback is sought, received, and analyzed.
• Goals and objectives are adjusted based on the information and the organization becomes more customer driven.
• As goals focus on the customer, the organization spends less time focusing on individual goals of departments and more time working together to meet customer needs. 

All of this leads to financial rewards. Studies have shown that spending money on prevention is a lot less expensive than fixing an issue once a product or service hits a customer. Models have demonstrated that the costs are tenfold when you move from prevention to external failure costs. Meaning that it will cost your organization approximately 10 times as much to deal with an issue once it reaches a customer than if it was dealt with in-house, and it would be a tenth to prevent the issue, to begin with.

In a study conducted by researchers from UCLA, results showed that “U.S. publicly held companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange that receives ISO 9001 certification shows significant improvement in financial performance compared to those companies that have not pursued the standard.” By embracing the family of standards like 9001, ISO becomes a critical tool for overall profitability. Therefore, the benefits of ISO 9000 certification are undeniable.