Thinking of going for ISO 9001 Quality Management System. Is it beneficial to busines

We are considering trying to obtain ISO 9001 standards, is there anyone who could advise if they found it to be benificial to there business has it will be a large cost to outlay with no gaurantee of any additional business.

Talk to your current and potential future customers (and perhaps suppliers). Do they have ISO 9000 or other QMS? Do they think it would be of benefit to you? What do your competitors do? What is the norm in the industry and related industry? Is your business large or small? How many employees to yuo have? Is your business export orientated?

I agree with Ajapale. If you are export orientated and/or selling into a regulated sector then yes, get it. If not then think long and hard about it.

The NSAI (National Standards Association of Ireland) have a book called ISO 9001: 2008 - Handbook for Small Businesses: What to do - advice from ISO/TC 176.
It costs around €65 and you can buy it online from www.standards.ie

Note; you don’t have to use the NSAI to get your certification, you can use any approved body. Just google “ISO 9001 certification Ireland”.

If you do get it don’t just treat it as a burdensome layer of paperwork; it is a “quality management system”, not a “quality system” so it is designed to improve the quality of your management systems, part of which is the management of product/service quality. If you aren’t going to buy into the whole thing then don’t bother with any of it.

I really don't want to be cynical about this, but preparing for and achieving the standard is all about your market/customers. It's a total hassle, maintaining records for an annual inspection from someone with a record-keeping mentality. If it's important for your business, go for it and include the necessary activities/record keeping in your business processes. If you're trying to sell to the Public Sector (anywhere), the regulated industries (Food, Pharmaceutical, etc.) you'll have to maintain those type of standards in any event - keeping the records has to be easy with electronic capture of information. You will need to add the time/cost of achieving/maintaining the standard to your basic cost of product/service - don't shrug it off as a by-product of your business activity and then pay someone to work really hard updating the records before an inspection.

It adds more complexity to things but is probably worth it if that's what your market demands .

I worked in a drawing office once where there was ISO9002. It made a lot of extra paperwork.

On a tour of another factory with ISO 9002 they were using steel templates instead of drawings which I thought was a great idea for conveying the same data with less complexity .

You have to think a bit latterly to reduce the paperwork burden and write procedures that simplify processes as much as is possible.

I've managed ISO systems in the past, the old versions of the standard were more specific in directing the things a company would need to do to have a robust quality system (20 sections covering everything from sales order management to purchasing to calibration of test equipment etc.) it was instrumental in moving bad companies forward to a standardized view of world class operation.

The current version of the standard is completely open to interpretation and now gets installed by what I like to call "SHALL MONKEYS" quality managers that get away with an implementation by only following the "shall" requirements of the standard. As a result I've seen ISO registrations that would make your toes curl.

I'm completely against the implementation of ISO9000 in any organization now. It rapidly stifles innovation and becomes the first excuse by lazy managers to not change.

No customer is paying you to have ISO. ISO does not guarantee you are making any description of a quality product or service.

You better off implementing Theory of Constraints, and maximizing your throughput, adding more value to your product and making more money!

You don't need to do what your competitors are doing or what is the norm, that just makes you a sheep.

Be a wolf and get fed.

Strange post sustanon. I’ve been involved with ISO 9000 (2001/2008) for 20 years. Other than a greater emphasis on managing vendors I haven’t seen any major structural change in how the system is structured or implemented during that time.
TOC is a useful tool but it's not the same thing as a management system.

Thanks everyone for advice we are a services business trying to tender for business in Northern Ireland most potential customers expect there suppliers to have the ISO9001 standard however having this standard is no gauruntee of securing business.Since posting I have received great help from our local county enterprise board.

@ Stan the Man - we too are a services consultant faced with the scenario that you were in regards NI tendering requesting ISO 9001.
Would you mind letting me know if you proceeded with ISO 9001 accredation or a similar and approved route?
Was it beneficial contacting a local enterprise board?

@ Steve R we are in the process of obtaining ISO9001 however our business and potenial business is decreasing rapidly both sides of the border so I cant be sure if it will be of benefit it is an awful lot of work and that is with us having alot of systems in place already due to our business being regulated the Enterprise board provided us with a mentor for 9 hours at a low rate which is a help after that cost wise you are on your own. Good luck with your business