ISO 9001, an excellent guide to smarter organizing

ISO 9001 as a business management tool

ISO 9001 certification still conjures up a negative image among many managers of “having to work according to work instructions and tedious inspections (audits). Consequently, it is preferably put in the shoes of a quality manager or quality coordinator. Unknown makes unloved.

However, the ISO 9001 standard has evolved to the point where it can be used as a full-fledged business management tool at all levels in organizations. So you won’t be surprised that we ourselves have used the ISO 9001 standard to set up our business management system and use it in day-to-day operations.

ISO 9001: Practical translation of business processes

In terms of content, the ISO 9001 standard is not at all exciting. Context of the organization, leadership, planning and support are all topics that you, as an entrepreneur, deal with anyway when setting up and designing the organization. Every healthy organization knows where its opportunities lie in the market, but also what risks lurk. The hard part for the entrepreneur is translating this into practical work processes that every employee understands. SIPOC process descriptions that focus on the result are an excellent tool for this. Especially if you can also powerfully describe the result and clarify what you need to achieve the result. Think about officers, work instructions and, of course, smart digital forms to capture information from the processes.

ISO 9001: Using results, output is input

In an ISO 9001 quality management system, being able to demonstrate results and decisions in business processes is important. One then shows that one is in control of business operations, or in other words, compliant with ISO 9001. This works easiest if one digitizes results and decisions and makes them work in a business process. For example, an operator registers a deviation and it is automatically sent to the responsible employee for follow-up. This way, it is actually part of the work but also meets the ISO 9001 compliance standard. But you can also apply this to logistics processes, purchasing, sales and maintenance. Let the output do the work.

Simple and Effective: PDCA for Deviation Management

Making simple things complicated is something many organizations do (unconsciously). After all, what is the difference between a customer complaint and a deviation within the business process? And when do we apply CAPA or do we start using 8D from Lean management? Basically, they are all different types of unexpected deviations that one wants to prevent. The PDCA cycle is an excellent vehicle to record, investigate and eliminate all such deficiencies in the same way with corrective actions. You can very easily combine this in 1 smart digital form so that you always have a real time overview within your organization.

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