How Managers Need to Prepare for the ISO 9001 Certification Audit

Summary

This article tries to elaborate on the key steps that managers of organisations need to take to make their team or employees ready for the ISO 9001 certification audit.

Today, competition in every industry is rampant and businesses are trying hard to sustain their position in whatever ways they can. In such a circumstance, keeping your business customer-centric i.e., delivering quality products or services that meet the requirements or expectations of customers is going to get it to the top in the market.

Achieving the ISO 9001 certification will help you ascertain this as it requires the implementation of a coherent and effective QMS (Quality Management System). The QMS will enable you to reduce risks or errors, make processes efficient, collect data on the customers, and provide products/services that satisfy them.

ISO 9001 is not just a formal declaration that organisations will get once they have implemented a QMS. You need to earn the ISO 9001 certification from an accredited certification body by passing through a prescribed procedure, called certification audit. Now, how you are going to prepare your organisation for the audit is what we are going to discuss in this article in brief steps. Take a look.

5 Steps You Need to Follow for Preparing Your Organisation for the ISO 9001 Audit

Get the Employees on Board

Employees from each of the departments or processes are going to work with the QMS. It is because the system is aligned with all processes of the organisation from the start to ensure the quality of the end product/service. Therefore, you should first prepare your employees for the ISO 9001 certification audit and inform them about its scope. First, make them acquainted with the audit procedure and train them on how to interact and cooperate with the auditors. Make them learn about the quality policy and objectives of the QMS. Ensure that every employee knows what documents of the procedures, compliance obligations, etc. your organisation holds. In every way possible, help your employees to be confident about their roles and the information they have regarding the QMS so that they can respond well during the interviews with the auditors.

Double Check the Documentation

As the time for the audit approaches, review your prepared line of documents and make sure they are all up to date. Also, make sure that every department or management executives have copies of the same and communicated well about the content of the documents. Any unnecessary documents which are irrelevant at present must be removed. Also, check that all records are in place and are being used appropriately for decision-making.

Review the Performance of Processes

Next, you need to evaluate whether the processes are executed efficiently and are achieving the intended outcomes. The critical processes which are related to the quality of output must be well reviewed and confirmed that they are working appropriately in the way it is stated in the documentation.

Check the Corrective Actions Implementation

Your organisation must have conducted periodic internal audits and management reviews to find out the weaknesses, faults, or nonconformities in the processes. Every issue must have been recorded and addressed with appropriate corrective actions. Thus, when the time for a certification audit comes up, you need to review whether all those corrective actions were properly implemented, and the issues were actually resolved.

Sort and Manage Your Workplace

As the day for the certification audit arrives, you need to organise your workplace well. A cluttered, unprofessional, and unclean workplace can leave a negative first impression on the auditors. Therefore, keep everything sorted, starting from office rooms, desks and floors to computers, IT devices, machinery and warehouse. Also, make sure that all the files or records are arranged orderly so that it is easy for the auditors to go through.

You have just read through the mandatory steps that managers of the organisation need to follow to ensure their business processes are full-fledged and ready for the ISO 9001 certification audit. However, apart from all these necessary steps, there is one more thing that you need. It is important to foster a positive and professional atmosphere in the organisation. It is necessary to make sure the employees are alert and ready to interact with the auditors, paying them the utmost respect. In no way, should the employees worry the auditors are going to find out the nonconformities and question their skills or capabilities. It is a formal part of the ISO certification procedure that every business goes through and so your employees should not be uptight about it.

Author Bio:

Damon Anderson is the head consultant and senior partner at a reputed ISO consultancy firm in Australia that offers certification assurance services to businesses of all types or sizes and assists them to prepare for the certifications. He is a specialist in the ISO 9001 consultation and likes to write articles in his free time to spread knowledge and important tips on the certification procedure to others.

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