ISO certification

The ISO 9001 certificate is currently in increasing demand by various business entities wishing to take their company's development to a qualitatively new level. Although it is not mandatory, obtaining an ISO 9001 quality certificate is now actively sought after even by small companies. ISO is an acronym for International Organization for Standardization, which means "International Organization for Standardization", whose main goal is to improve standardization and certification to improve the quality of international trade. The organization currently includes more than 190 countries.

ISO 9000 standards were developed by the Technical Committee TC 176 of the International Organization and are based on the idea of total quality management. Naturally, this standard is not an unbreakable stigma; its criteria are periodically revised. The first version was published in 1987, and in 2008 the ISO 9001:2008 standard was released, which was adopted by Ukraine a year later.

When developing the first version of ISO 9001, the standard BS 5750, developed by the BSI - the British Standards Institute, which, in turn, was based on industry standards of the military-industrial complex, was used. ISO itself, being a non-profit organization, does not conduct certification - this is done by special certification bodies accredited by national or international accreditation societies.

The range of ISO standards is incredibly wide: from the standardization of character transliteration (ISO 1-999) to the quality management system (ISO 9001). The ISO 9000 group includes the following certificates: ISO 9000, ISO 9001, ISO 9004, ISO 19011, but the most popular among enterprises and companies is the ISO 9001 quality certificate.

 ISO 9001 is not mandatory, this certification is voluntary and is advisory in nature. A characteristic feature of ISO 9000 standards is their versatility - they can be applied to any enterprise and organization, regardless of their size, form of ownership and field of activity. If the standard is adopted by national authorities, the ISO 9001 standard receives a double name - international and national. For Ukraine, it is ISO 9001:2008 and DSTU ISO 9001:2009 "Quality Management System". Initially, ISO 9000 was developed as a standard by which a company certifies suppliers, but in the 90s, ISO 9001 became a standard by which you can assess the quality of any actions and methods of working with your customers.

 The regulatory framework for obtaining the certificate is the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 1001 of 21.07.2006 "On Approval of the State Strategy for Regional Development for the Period up to 2015": "The main priority of industrial development is to increase the competitiveness of products, strengthening innovation through the introduction of quality management systems. Quality management systems (ISO 9000 series) and environmental management systems (ISO 14000 series) are the best globally recognized safeguards that ensure product quality at all stages of its production (life) cycle and help to improve the performance of enterprises."

Since certification is carried out both for the territory of Ukraine, where the DSTU ISO 9001:2009 certificate is quite sufficient, and on an international scale, you need to decide which certificate you need right away. The international certificate is much more popular, which is required for exporting products, when concluding contracts - the ISO 9001 certificate is a standard business practice worldwide when concluding contracts and agreements, and the prestige of products will automatically increase if you have the legal opportunity to put CE marking on them.

What documents are required for certification?

In addition to the standard package of constituent documents for the company, you must provide documents confirming the development and implementation of procedures and regulations for business processes that significantly affect quality. These documents vary depending on:

• the chosen certification system (international or national); the size of the organization, organizational structure, specifics of the activity
• number of production sites (branches, offices, representative offices, workshops, warehouses, etc.)
• the scope of certification, type of products (services/works); the period of obtaining the certificate.

These factors determine the cost of certification.

Contact the experts of our company to obtain the Certificate and make sure that cooperation with us is profitable.

The procedure for obtaining the Certificate

An application and quality system documentation are sent to the certification body. The certification body examines the submitted documentation, after which the expert group conducts a certification audit of the company's activities, i.e. checks whether everything stated in the documents is actually being done. Based on the results of the certification audit, a report on the audit of the Quality Management System (QMS) is drawn up, on the basis of which a decision is made to issue a certificate for the QMS according to ISO 9001. If any nonconformities are identified during the audit, the auditors draw up nonconformity reports. Minor non-compliances are usually not an obstacle to obtaining a certificate, but it is simply checked whether they have been eliminated.

The certificate is issued for a period of 3 to 5 years. A 5-year certificate is issued only upon registration in the UkrSEPRO State Register, which is usually required only for those companies whose products are subject to mandatory certification in Ukraine. During the validity period of the ISO 9001 certificate, the certification body is obliged to conduct an annual inspection (supervisory) audit of the certified organization.

As a result of our actions, you receive all the necessary documentation on the QMS, not just the certificate itself.

What will the Certificate give you?

In addition to the obvious increase in the credibility of your company in the eyes of consumers, customers, investors, you will be able to use the Certificate as a mark of conformity for advertising purposes (labeling products with the ISO or CE mark). We should not forget that the Certificate is a mandatory condition for obtaining certain licenses, for example, according to the licensing rules for enterprises - licensees of the Ministry of Emergencies (see clause 5.4 of the "Procedure for monitoring compliance with license conditions when performing firefighting works and services" of the Order of the Ministry of Emergencies No. 1038 dated 29.09.2011). The inexorable practice shows that when ISO 9001 is used as a marketing tool, the prices for goods and services of companies certified in accordance with ISO 9001 are justifiably higher than those of competitors (up to 50%).

 

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