Obtaining ISO Certification has become very common in India as the ISO certification is two-decade-old but still well accepted by the customer to demonstrate the organization’s qualification in delivering Quality Products and Services. There are several standards that customers ask for and some of the most popular standards are listed below.
Schemes and Standards
There are several ISO Certifications as per the organization’s needs. This certification is provided by certifying agencies who are in turn accredited by the relevant country government. There are several ISO Certification Schemes and some of the popular ISO standards are
ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System,
ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System,
ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and Safety Management System
ISO 22000:2018 Food Safety Management System
ISO 27001:2013 Information Security Management System
ISO 13485 Medical Device Quality Management Systems
ISO 17025 Laboratory Management Systems
ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management Systems
etc., which can be availed by the organizations in accordance to their needs and demands.
How does it Work
The certification scheme is awarded after assessing the scope of management by meeting up with certain set criteria that must be met before the certificate can be awarded. There are various categories and choices that can be availed by organizations, which helps them meet their needs in terms of meeting the requirements for certification. In short, there is a lot of flexibility in choosing the right ISO Certification Scheme as per the organization’s needs.
Once an organization chooses and implements its requirements and practices it to the extent of varying internally once through its own staff or through its consultant the organization can apply to Certification Bodies(CB’s) who will visit, conduct audits and ensure that your ISO system is as per the International Standard Requirement, which will lead to certification.
In the process, the organization has to go stage by stage to successfully complete the ISO certification process.
So what is ISO Certification? It is a quality seal or mark that indicates that an organization has met up with certain set criteria before being eligible for using this mark or seal, which is awarded by certifying agencies accredited by the government of the concerned country. ISO Certification helps organizations to gain trust and provides them with an edge in the market, enabling them to grow their organization’s reputation at a global level.
1) Implementing ISO standards in your Organization:
The implementation of ISO standards is a continuous process, which helps to evaluate the performance of the organization. And also it helps in shaping the organizational policy and procedures according to new changes that are made from time to time.
Steps involved in the Implementation of ISO in the organization:
ISO implementation is a process, which helps to evaluate an organization’s performance on various parameters by implementing best management practices, Thus becoming eligible for ISO certification. Following are the steps involved in getting ISO certified:
- i) Sharing of Information: Provide clear information about your business goals, risk levels, and strategies that are required to be implemented in order to achieve the organizational objectives.
- ii) Conduct Assessment: It is an important step that helps in evaluating your current management practices and present state of affairs in order to evaluate your level of compliance.
iii) Analysis: Based on the gap, now carry out a thorough analysis of all aspects of operations will help you in formulating a better ISO implementation strategy. It helps to determine appropriate strategies for the ISO implementation process and also helps in setting up a schedule for its execution.
- iv) Identification: The identification process helps as it will serve with a lot of insights in the form of data, which will help in identifying or building a stronger management system.
- v) Documentation: Any ISO Standard should be documented on the way the organization has derived the system in line with the standard, with Authorities and responsibilities.
- vi) Implementation: Proper execution of strategies is required in order to achieve ISO certification fast. As per the plan and Documentation, the organization should practice the system on day to day basis and educate, train employees to about the system, updating the records of the business activity.
vii)Evaluation: The final step involves evaluation of the entire implementation process so as to evaluate your success rate and thus decide on the next set of strategies that you need to implement in order to achieve better results. This is also popularly known as Internal Audit.
- ix) Review by Top Management: Review should be conducted by the top management to understand the effectiveness of implementation and to identify its strengths & weaknesses where it can improvise on its strength or take steps for improvement. The monitoring of activities will help an organization to get a clear picture of the present situation so that they can take the necessary steps for improvement in their management system.
- xi) Improvement: Improvement is essential, as it helps in improvising on various aspects of business operations by inculcating best practices that are followed by industry leaders.
2) ISO Certification process
Steps in Certification
- i) Sourcing the CB:- Organization has to identify a suitable and competent Certifying body like EAS. CB has to be decided based on the Accreditation, cost, the time agreed to complete the audit, competence, and reliability of the agency.
- ii) Application: Submit a formal application with all the organization details and Management System Information to the certification body.
iii) Preliminary Audit: A preliminary audit is conducted on the management system based on the input of information from the company’s application for certification, and an assessment by an auditor.
- iv) Certification Audit: A certification audit is conducted to check the effectiveness of your system implementation. The audit is conducted by correlating the ISO documents, records and interviewing the auditee about practicing the procedures. Throughout this process, EAS assessors will monitor the organization’s effort to conform to ISO standards. The purpose of accreditation is to demonstrate that a certified organization has established a sound management system.
- v) Audit Outcome and ISO Certification:
Completing the audits is only a major step. Further, the organization has to follow up with the certification body to close the Non-conformities (deviations/failures) identified during the audit and declared in the closing meeting.
If during the period of implementation, a certified organization cannot achieve the standards that it has committed to and in line with the certifying agency’s requirements, then an assessment/audit is conducted once again. After this audit, if it is found out that there are non-conformities that are not being addressed; the organization may apply for a pre-certification audit.
If after conducting the initial certification audit and non-conformities are identified an organization can be awarded a certificate if it resolves all its issues related to Non-conformities (deviation/failures)at the Certification bodies timeline.
Organizations can also choose to undertake additional audits for improving their management system, which is known as Continuous Improvement. Further, they need to maintain the standard and so with every three years; organizations are required to renew their ISO certification.
Once all standards and requirements are met, the certificate is awarded by the certifying agency to ensure that it meets the organization’s requirements.
- vi) Validity of ISO Certification
Once certified, ISO Certificate is generally valid for three years from the date it is awarded by the Certifying Body. If the certificate is not renewed on time, a renewal audit will be conducted in order to check whether all the requirements of the Management System are being met or not.
After three years of certification due to non-renewal, a new application for certification is required to be submitted.
ISO Certificate will bear the marks of Certifying agency, Accreditation body (the body which approved the CB), and IAF (International Accreditation Forum)
How to check the ISO Certificate
You can check the validity of the certificate in two ways:
- i) Check the certification body website:
If you have the certificate number and details, see if your ISO Certification is still valid or not. The validity of the certificates can be checked online on their website or else call them up to verify.
- ii) Check the accreditation body website:
The same certificate number and details, check the accreditation body website and see if your certification body is still accredited by the accreditation body or not.
A certified organization’s certification can be revoked at any point in time if the management systems do not conform to ISO standards. On the other hand, an organization whose system is in line with international standard but have yet to get the certificate can apply for registration.
Why get ISO Certification?
ISO certification may be required by government regulations, particularly for public sector organizations such as hospitals and schools. It can also be used to demonstrate that products or services from an organization are compliant with the requirements of clients. For example, a company that supplies food to restaurants can be ISO certified. In this way, ISO Certification of the company allows customers such as restaurants to demonstrate how they meet their quality requirements and provides a means to set clear goals for continual improvement in product or service development.
For more information about How to get ISO Certification do contact us
E-Mail: enquiry@eascertification.com Ph: +91 99527 90571
