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ISO Compliance was developed to give customers confidence in the products they are buying, knowing that they are safe, reliable and of good quality. It offered a standard that a manufacturer could use a guide to build a quality product. After all, in a highly competitive business climate, a company needs to prove that they have a superior product if they want to stay competitive.
“Today, ISO compliance is the cover charge for doing business with large corporate accounts,” said Andrew Dobbins, productions manager for Caster Concepts. “That’s why every team member is trained in quality procedures, and our senior management is engaged and involved in making sure every employee has this quality mindset.”
But over the years the quality bar has been raised, and Caster Concepts, like many companies dedicated to high standards of quality, know that compliance is not enough.
Why? An organization can claim to be compliant, but there are no mandatory requirements to ensure that they are. That’s why many companies are now demanding that their suppliers are also certified to ISO standards, which takes an independent auditor to declare that an organization seeking certification is in conformance with ISO 9001.
Every three years ISO requires re-certification to stay valid. And with each new certification comes a revised standard that reflects the challenges businesses now face. With more manufacturing complexity comes more expectations from customers. This changing landscape brings new directives and puts more prominence on existing ones. One example with the current certification is the heightened focus on risk-based thinking.
Risk-based thinking helps companies think ahead by addressing organizational risks (as well as opportunities) in a structured manner. In this process company leaders identify the risks their company faces, develop a standard for measuring these risks, and then come up with a solution that addresses these concerns that everyone can follow.
The upsides of this type of thinking is that it helps a company control its own destiny to a degree, because a company becomes more proactive than reactive. And this type of mindset helps prevent or at least reduce undesired outcomes while promoting continual improvement. Organizations strive to be better and customers see a company that follows a standard that generates better results. If you have questions about the certification process, or the benefits of becoming certified for businesses, please visit https://www.iso.org/home.html.
