What is ISO Compliance?
An ISO-compliant business is one that conforms to the rules, regulations, and requirements set forth by the International Standards Organization (ISO). The ISO sets forth a series of standards that apply to the reliability, safety, environmental friendliness, and product quality of a firm. A company that is ISO compliant can apply to become certified by a third-party organization. If you’re interested in getting professional guidance on ISO certification, contact us today.
Who Is the ISO?
The International Standards Organization consists of over 164 sovereign states. The organization regularly revamps its standards process, and the most recent changes occurred in 2015. The updates require the consultation of each of the members. The updated standards only come into effect when a majority of members agree to the changes.
The standards outlined in the ISO compliance documents focus on ensuring that enterprises have a quality management system instituted within their business. The quality management system for a company consists of processes, policies, and documentation that help the firm better serve consumers.
Why Does ISO Compliance Exist?
At its heart, the ISO’s regulations are about ensuring that a company conforms to internationally accepted standards. These standards exist across a wide range of industries.
At present, ISO compliance is particularly applicable in a handful of industries, including:
- Construction
- Healthcare
- Engineering
- Technology
- Manufacturing
Businesses don’t need to have a minimum size to qualify for certification. Even small companies can conform to ISO standards and qualify for certification.
When Can a Company Seek ISO Compliance?
A business can assign a compliance officer at any point in time. Ideally, the compliance officer will guide their internal processes so that they will conform to the requirements set forward in the ISO regulations.
Where is ISO Certification and ISO Compliance Different?
The difference between compliance and certification exists with how they interact with each other. A business that is compliant with the requirements of the ISO can go on to become certified. The same process by which a firm starts the process of certification can help the company become compliant. However, compliance without certification doesn’t benefit a business. If you would like to turn your compliance into accreditation, we can help with that.
How Does a Business Become Compliant?
ISO Compliant businesses should follow the same processes by which a company gains certification. ISO certification aims to have a well-documented quality management system in place. A company can achieve this in several ways. However, while a business might follow guidelines as to how to implement their management system, each one is unique to a particular firm, industry, or product. A company seeking to attain compliance may do so by following a few noteworthy steps, namely:
- Prepare for Compliance: Preparation comes with the consideration of whether the business will apply for certification or not. Certification carries with it the burden of regular audits and eventual recertification. It also offers significant benefits over compliance. If your company is interested in certification, we’d be glad to lend our expertise.
- Outlining the Quality Management System: This step enables the business to have a general guideline of its quality management process. Within this step, the company needs to document every procedure that it intends to put in place to make for more straightforward implementation at the next step.
- Making the Management System a Reality: At this step, the business seeks to bring its quality management system into its business procedures. Employees introduce the outlined elements into their daily processes.
- Internal Auditing: Ideally, if a business intends to undergo certification, then they would have personnel assigned as their ISO compliance officer. This officer has the task of ensuring the business’s activities conform to the ISO standards through internal audits.
Companies that intend to garner certification eventually can rely on their compliance officer for internal audits. However, external audits need to occur. This requirement falls to a third-party ISO registrar, chosen by the company.