ISO 9001

[workmanmark]

Our company is considering ISO 9001 certification, for future tendering purposes. My question is - can anyone recommend a straightforward route/company to certification. It seems to be that there are countless middle men wanting to charge ridiculous open ended fees.....with no real direct, clear route in sight.

I emailed a company asking for a quote, *prior* to me making the decision on who to go with. They emailed me back a form, saying it was just so that they had our info....but at the bottom, they want us to sign that we confirm we'll pay any fees related to them even looking over the form and giving us a quote.. Not happening.

Advice anyone? Would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

M

 

[Encompass Consultancy]

Hi Mark,

you are right to be looking into ISO 9001 certification as it will certainly help you when it comes to tenders.

If you're just looking for an accreditation service, I would recommend ISOQAR

If you're looking for someone to help you implement processes prior to accreditation, then we can help you. If you'd like some more information please don't hesitate to ask!

thanks
Chris

 

[workmanmark]

Hi Chris, thanks for that info.

Quick question, do you know why the training course (ISO 9001) with ISOQAR (approx £200 + vat) be substantially less than with say... BSI (approx £900 +vat)... Because we're such a small company, what we're after is the quickest/cheapest route (isn't everybody, I suppose...lol....) so I'm looking for some sort of uniformity among what's being offered out there...and not really finding it at the mo..

Another quick question... How realistic a proposition is it for me to downloading the manual for £100 from BSI, call the accreditation company in, get their initial advice on their first visit of what needs tweaking (because I'd assume on first visit we wouldn't gain certification), tweak as per their advice, gain certification after their second visit.... Does that sound like wishful thinking on my part, I wonder....given that quality management is something we only consider in practical terms of what we offer our clients *in total*, and not something we consider on a day to day basis in terms of very specific administrative systems - although, to do the former, the latter certainly need to be in place.....it's the lack of strict formality of those systems where we would fail right now perhaps.. I'm thinking that we could remedy this ourselves though, with reference to the manual..

Please feel free to say that my DIY ISO 9001 idea is perhaps over ambitious.

Cheers,

M

Hi Mark,

you are right to be looking into ISO 9001 certification as it will certainly help you when it comes to tenders.

If you're just looking for an accreditation service, I would recommend ISOQAR

If you're looking for someone to help you implement processes prior to accreditation, then we can help you. If you'd like some more information please don't hesitate to ask!

thanks
Chris

 

[Encompass Consultancy]

I'm afraid I'm not personally familiar with any of the training courses on offer, but the price disparity could be due to any number of reasons - you're unlikely to find uniformity of product in such a market, makes it easier to charge more if people can't easily compare! If you're thinking about a training course I would recommend speaking to any contacts you have that might have done something similar, or perhaps speak to your chamber of commerce to see if they can advise.

As far as DIY implementation goes it's certainly possible - we did it and have helped a few of our clients implement theirs, but it depends entirely on your situation. While you of course have your own quality management in place, how this compares to the requirements of ISO9001 is impossible to tell from here. Your main problem will be the time needed to design and implement your QMS while running your business - certainly not impossible, but very time consuming.

If seriously considering the DIY route, the manual is the way to go - at £100 if you decide to get external help it's not a huge loss and will still be helpful.

Sorry I can't really give more firm answers!

 

[Moneyman]

I wouldn't try to do it yourself. the paperwork is horrendous and it just uses up all your time. having a third party doing some of the stuff makes it all look more professional.

 

[Rich Moth]

I used ISOQAR who are the cheapest for audits - my advice us to cover as many ISO standards at the same time ie 9001, 14001, 18001 as the systems overlap.
If you have multiple branches, each should have the standard BUT from a tendering point of view if the smallest or just head office goes through the process then it would be reasonable to say that the business does work under the standard.

ISO are standards for processes and each business has different processes but to try and do it yourself is incredibly time consuming - spend £1000 and get your system documented and implemented.

 

[Claire Dymond]

I've got a friend who's now retired who is a part time ISO9001 auditor, he has no qualifications or business experience and what he basically does is to check paperwork, he receives low pay and the company he works for charges him out for about 10x what they pay him.

We do sub contract work for a company who are ISO9001, although they didn't obtain their ISO for the part of the company we work for but apparently it's covered.
The Emperor's New Clothes come to mind.

 

[workmanmark]

I really appreciate the replies everyone has made to my thread. I've downloaded the manual and am gonna see where I can take it from here, minimising the 1. time involved and 2. cost involved...where I can.

Cheers,

M

 

[farmerswife]

We had it, now dropped it, it didnt help with tenders, it gave us a few extra points but we are usually within the scope. You will seriously struggle - you need to attend a workshop to understand and you could get stumped in interview/tender questions. Its a great system but too costly and when your not wining tenders (due to cost not quality) its a big expense to carry. My guy was coming over for reviews every 3 months at £250 per visit, yearly audit £800?? plus my QM guy in attendance £250. If you are going to do it you need to embrace the system for what it is. You could be audited by a supplier then you would be in a right mess. Running a QMS system does involve time and for this reason we decided that that time was better looking for work/chasing payment than getting paperwork sorted.

 

[Encompass Consultancy]

Farmerswife, that sounds extraordinarily expensive - you should only have your initial certification visit, then (assuming you pass) a 6 month one, a 12 month one, and annually audits after that.