Iso 9001

G

gerbear

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Has anyone achieved ISO 9001 without employing a consultant? I work in a small business that is starting to take off we are looking to implement this with minimum expense.

I think if I knew where to get my hands on a 'how to conform to ISO 9001' then I'd be reasonably confident I could put one together for our small company. It seems, though, to be an elusive piece of information which you need to pay €X to download.

Ha anyone had any experience of putting an ISO together themselves and receive certification?
 
yes, but we let it lapse a year ago, the assessors tied up all our staff for a day asking questions about their role and what they did etc, no bother with that but they took offence when the staff walked off to answer customer questions etc. I dont think our customer base (SME's) really cared about our ISO we certainly havent suffered because we didnt renew it. Depends on your client base, to maintain the ISO cost us about 2500-3000 per annum to maintain, between staff costs and assessors fees
 
Our customers would not deal with us if we did not have it. For us it is the minimum level of accreditation that we need. Our customer base is made up of medical sector multinationals. If it is something that you really need then I would advise you to use a consultancy to check your manuals when you have them written. You should pay no more than €800 a day and it should need 3-5 days, 1-2 days at the start and a few days when you are ready to submit. You may be eligible for grant aid to up skill your business depending on what sector we are in. If you want more information PM me.
 
Purple said:
Our customers would not deal with us if we did not have it. For us it is the minimum level of accreditation that we need. Our customer base is made up of medical sector multinationals. If it is something that you really need then I would advise you to use a consultancy to check your manuals when you have them written. You should pay no more than €800 a day and it should need 3-5 days, 1-2 days at the start and a few days when you are ready to submit. You may be eligible for grant aid to up skill your business depending on what sector we are in. If you want more information PM me.
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Agreed . ISO for businesses, especially if you are dealing with Mulitnationals or exporting is the minimum. Its like the leaving cert in Education. I would second what Purple has said. Its good training for both managment and staff and in my own experience its a good base to build on for customer audits which are normally far more thorough and exacting.
 
What about contacting a local college that runs training courses for ISO, they maybe able to recommend a recent graduate that would do it on the cheap to give them a bit of experience??? Only a thought!!
 
Shmee said:
What about contacting a local college that runs training courses for ISO, they maybe able to recommend a recent graduate that would do it on the cheap to give them a bit of experience??? Only a thought!!
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If you value your time then use someone who knows what they are at.
Even if you are using a consultant make sure they have worked in your sector.
 
Purple said:
If you value your time then use someone who knows what they are at.
Even if you are using a consultant make sure they have worked in your sector.
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I'd also be very cautious of using a consultant that doesn't actually hold ISO9001 and is offering the service. It's very common and very unsettling (I work in this line of business - sadly not directly with ISO stuff so of no direct help to the OP)!
 
Satanta said:
I'd also be very cautious of using a consultant that doesn't actually hold ISO9001 and is offering the service. It's very common and very unsettling (I work in this line of business - sadly not directly with ISO stuff so of no direct help to the OP)!
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Find out where the consultant worked before becoming a consultant. If you manufacture and/or export contact Enterprise Ireland and/or the Industrial Research and Development Group [broken link removed]. There are many funding mechanisms for small companies to up-skill. ISO registration fits that bill.
Whatever you do unless you work in a very A to B industry I wouldn’t try to put it all in on your own. You will have to be the person who writes the manuals. If it’s not you it has to be someone in your company who it there for the long haul. If not you will not be able to administer the system or pass an audit.
 
Purple said:
If not you will not be able to administer the system or pass an audit.
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The audits are quite intensive and can be tough. If it's a small operation be sure that the time needed to impliment the manuals is worth the potential gains from gaining the ISO.

Take a quick look at how much resourcing will be needed to implement it in your office/environment (if you plan on tackling it yourself how many man days will it take up and what would the cost of this be to your business)? Once it's in place keeping on top of things and keeping an audit trail etc. will add to the ongoing resource needs of accrediation, what will be the ongoing costs to the business?

See if this balances against your hopes for gaining 9001. How much would your business increase? Will it attract new clients? Will it help retain current clients? Will the steps involved in gaining 9001 actually help improve on the current systems in place for the business, if so, what gains may be made from this?

These questions you'll mostly have to make guesses towards, but worth doing a quick risk/reward or value for money analysis before giving too much time into it. It can be a very rewarding scheme for a business, but depending on your clients it could prove to be a wasted effort.
 
This is great. Thanks to all for such kind help.

We're an IT provider and I think the expense would justify the internal effeciencies and client satisfaction that would be borne out from the exercise. We're 'heavy' into good service (doesn't everyone strive to!)..

The ISO cerfication might be a good selling point too/USP..

Thanks again
'Bear..
 
gerbear said:
We're an IT provider and I think the expense would justify the internal effeciencies and client satisfaction that would be borne out from the exercise. We're 'heavy' into good service (doesn't everyone strive to!)..

The ISO cerfication might be a good selling point too/USP..
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Depending on the internal view of the systems it can be a huge benefit.

If viewied as a box ticking exercise for nothing more than gaining the accrediation, that is all it will be (especially if this is the view taken by management as it will filter through the whole company). It will cost the company time and the gains will be minimal on the side of improved performance.
If, however (as seems to be the case), it is viewied as a chance to review procedures and introduce new, more efficient systems it can really improve performance and lead to huge gains. The systems are there to help find the most effective procedures etc., it won't do it all on it's own, but it will provide the means and the motivation for you and your teams to look for the best solutions. It's always possible to introduce further steps above and beyond the ones layed out in ISO9001 if it will lead to further improvements.

If the certification is shown in the correct light it will no doubt be of benefit as a selling point for the company. Again, it really comes down on how the management take it to the core of the company and how they can/will express it to clients.

Best of luck with it. Sorry can't provide some of the soft/hard copy info you were looking for, but if anything changes will let you know.
 
Good advice from Satanta.
If you actually run the systems that you put in place (and do remember that they will be your systems) then the audits shouldn't be too much trouble. A day to prepare and a day for the audit should do. It will add to your cost base though so as advised above make sure you are positioned in the right place within your market.
 
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