Monday, 11 November 2013

An Assessment Of The ISO 9001 For Small Businesses

By Sonya Riley


ISO 9000 generally relates to the family of quality management standards. These standards are put in place in order to that all the commercial production processes have attained a certain level of quality. Different processing and production entities have to implement the standards as this is seen as way of boosting reputation. The ISO 9001 for small businesses relates to standards that regulate the performance and production platforms in different industries.

The International Organization of Standardization is entrusted with the role of setting the platform. The standards are issued periodically by this organization. These standards relates to the quality of products that are to be produced. The platform highlights a number of principles on which the system is based. The companies under this umbrella are expected to implement all the standards.

Quality certifications for commercial enterprises are very important. This signals that the enterprises have met the threshold conditions needed for quality production systems. A third party assesses the internal production environment on behalf of certification organizations. Once the assessment has validated the quality levels of systems, the certifications are issued.

The international umbrella of producing companies has implemented a system of certification for various reasons. This is required for organizations that produce or are involved in the supply of production materials. As the level of quality management of systems improves, the products produced from such systems tend to be reliable. Audit fees are relatively lower for the certified organizations since their systems are already assessed. This reduces the overall administration costs.

There is a certain level of superior financial performance associated with the ISO 9001 certification for small businesses. Customers have a tendency of trusting products form companies within a higher level of certification. This is driven by the fact that the higher the level of certification, the more the quality of products. This stimulates the sales on an assortment of goods. As the sales increase, the costs of operations reduce optimizing the profits on various production lines.

There are very critical processes that ought to be audited form time to time. These are mainly those dealing with the human resources and the infrastructural management. Customer relations processes also ought to be carefully analyzed. System specifications are defined before the audit processes. This ensures that the internal operating environment is carefully analyzed.

The top level of management is responsible for making the strategic decisions. These are decisions that define the type of business that a company will venture into. The process and operating environment is also defined at this level. The direction to be taken by an organization is defined once the strategic decisions have been made. Relations with various classes of stakeholders are also defined by the decisions made here. The middle level managers implement the decisions made at the top level of administration.

The ISO 9001 for small businesses focuses on improving the business integrity. It ensures that there is a quality policy that relates production and marketing. The quality policy has to be linked with various needs of the customers. These policies have to be regularly audited for continuous improvement of system effectiveness.




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