The ISO 9001 standard covers every part of your business management systems. It is therefore vital to appoint an assessor who has the experience to implement ISO 9001 certification across all areas of your organisation.

The assessor can be appointed internally from senior management with the relevant authority and expertise, or externally from an accredited certification body. The reality is usually a combination of both.

This will give you the most effective quality management system that will work for your business. It will provide a system that can be constantly monitored and improved upon by your internal team. In addition, an external assessor will bring in expertise and best practice from a wider industry perspective. This will help to ensure that when the audit is done, your management systems comply with the requirements of ISO9001.

ACS Registrars have UKAS certification, so before you start contact us to find out more.

Other things you will need to consider:

Gain support from employees throughout the organisation

• Allow 3 to 6 months to achieve certification
• Gather information on current systems
• Compare and improve current systems in line with ISO 9001 requirements
• Develop and review your quality manual and ensure it meets the requirements of ISO 9001
• Identify non compliance areas
• Set up a monitoring schedule
• Review any training requirements for employees
• Do a company management review and internal audits
• Set a date for your first audit

ISO 9001 Regular Auditing Procedure

Once you have successfully negotiated your first audit, it is important to continue to monitor the process and improve your systems.

Annual surveillance visits need to be arranged; this will help to ensure that the re-certification audit carried out every 3 years is a formality rather than a major process overhaul.

During the audit you will be assessed on:

• Documentation control
• Records being kept
• Staff and management conformance to the system
• How the system is working in each area of the organisation
• Staff training necessary to meet the requirements

The audit can be undertaken by a number of certification bodies. However it is important to note that not all auditing organisations are UKAS accredited. If you do not use a UKAS accredited auditor your certification could end up being worthless.

Please check out the British Government Department BIS for clarification:
http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/innovation/standardisation/non-accredited-certification