ISO 9001 Certification versus ISO 9001 Conformity

All organizations can benefit from making sure their organizational management system conforms to ISO 9001.

Certification provides marketing benefits to organizations whose customers value the independent certificate and the registrar that issues it.  Certain new customers may provide a new supplier with a certified management system with an opportunity to prove they can fulfill their requirements.  Certification reduces the risk for a new customer trying out new suppliers.

Existing customers often are not impressed with certification because they already know how well your organization, as a system, performs.

For organizations that work in markets with customers who have no interest in certification it is better to quietly make sure your management system conforms to the standard.  This provides confidence that requirements will be fulfilled and are being fulfilled.  It also enables continual improvement of products, processes and the management system to prosper and grow.

Certification has initial cost and then recurring cost when the registrar comes in at least every 6 months. The benefit of conformance is the system is always ready and when marketing demands require you can go ahead with certification.

To learn more about the benefits you can email me at info@qmii.com