ISO 9001 Certification for SME Businesses

9 Apr, 2013

Fact or Fiction? ISO Certification is just for larger businesses?

Fiction: ISO Certification, whilst championed by larger organisations, is NOT just for them. The ISO 9001 is a completely flexible quality assurance system, which has a direct benefit for any business who wants to prove it’s commitment to the quality of its service to their customers. By obtaining ISO certification it tells your customers that you are a credible company, that takes an interest in their requirements as well as caring about their staff and empowering them to be the best they can be.

SME companies can utilise the systems to generate more business as the systems are proven to give business owners / managers more confidence to tender for larger private or public sector contracts. Super Systems UK Ltd did exactly that:

‘Our company has grown from a one–man band in 2003, so we had lots of messy “legacy” procedures. While we felt we were generally working hard to give a good quality service to our customers, we were real novices when it came to ISO9001:2008 management processes. I felt that ISO QS LTD excelled in explaining the value of these new processes, and the best way to implement them in practical terms.

We’re still developing our processes, but the ones we’ve already been using  have contributed to our 64% increase in sales in 2010. As well as being a marketing benefit with our corporate clients like Rolls Royce and Goodrich Aerospace, it’s given me the confidence to push the business into more complex areas like complete vacuum furnace control panels. We have to tread carefully with these panels, and knowing that the design, specification and modification stages are carefully controlled and documented has been essential to our success last year.’ Matthew Cross (Managing Director)

A SME businesses doesn’t have the luxury of spare resource in the form of personnel or time. In most cases we see, everyone is working to full capacity and there is very little room for errors. By implementing the ISO 9001, it allows you to have a systematic approach to management and improvement and it tells your customers that if something does go wrong you have the processes in place to put it right. Overall it encourages a business to adopt a right first time approach. The systems allow your staff to get on and do their job, whilst feeling motivated and empowered.

If you are a SME business considering ISO 9001 Certification, contact our New Business Department to discuss further how this system can save you time and money and generate new business opportunities.