ISO 9001 CERTIFICATION: BEING OFFICIALLY CONFERRED IT IS MUCH BETTER (DEMO)
It’s not uncommon to see and learn of companies who recently earned ISO 9001 certification. Once in a while, however, some company will step in and claim that they have a self-conferred certification of sort—claiming that they themselves have assessed their inner capabilities and “officially” deemed their business compliant with the ISO 9001 certification.
These self-certifying companies, however, don’t really have an idea of how things should go. While they’re technically reaping several benefits associated with an effective management system without the stiff fees of registration and company audits, the flip side is that they’re paying a price for it—all they can do is make a point that their quality management system (QMS) is on-par with traditionally certified competitors. They can’t prove that somebody else with the conventional authority to confer such certification did it for them, and can vouch for it.
All in all, such companies are talking about mere compliance at the end of the day. Also known as ISO 9001 compliance, this is an alternative option to the completion of a formal 9001 ISO certification process, wherein the company’s QMS may meet customer expectations of a standard QMS based on the official ISO standard. A company vying for mere compliance can still implement a full ISO 9001 QMS but choose not to take the final step of hiring a third-party registrar to conduct a certification audit.
In real life, companies are really free to self-certificate. They can implement a wide variety of policies to do so, such as a corrective and preventive action program (aimed to solve problems once, prevent them and leave them behind); document control (intended to prevent the occurrence of technical mishaps in documentation); and supplier review & approval (meant to keep tabs on supplier performance)—all of which can only help with mere compliance. While official certification is not a requirement of the standard, however, proving the competence of a QMS is much easier with hardware to show forth.
Getting official certification from third-party firms like the International Standards Authority, Inc. has its own perks, some of which are as follows: improved relationships between subordinates and company top brass (third party audits and certification can help prove the adequacy of a QMS); aid with judging supplier qualification, and assistance in complying with regulatory requirements.
Certain circumstances may lead other companies to self-certify, but the best way is still to have someone to vouch for that certification. Anyone can claim they’re compliant to standards, when they really aren’t. Stand out from the crowd with ISO certification bodies like the ISA.
(Source: Self-Certification Is Not A Real Thing, QualityDigest.com, February 12, 2014
Other Sources:
Reap Benefits Of ISO 9001-2008 Without Any Cost, QualityManualChat.com
ISO Compliance vs. Certification, TheCoresolution.com
ISO 9001: 2008 And Reasons To Obtain Third-Party Certification