Challenger Group are proud to announce that we have achieved the ISO 9001 certification and accreditation in February 2016. Achieving this award has positive implications in terms of our working practice and reassures customers that they will receive an extremely high standard of service. ISO 9001 is an internationally recognised quality management system that audits a company's quality of; facilities, people, training, services and equipment.In order to achieve the ISO 9001 Certification, a company has to spend between three to six months completing the ISO 9001 Quality Manual. Once the company is satisfied that they have fulfilled all of the requirements they will apply for Stage 1 Audit. In order for a company to be ready to be audited they will have had to complete a series of documents that require extremely detailed information about how your company functions. Here is a brief outline from www.iso9001.comshowing the requirements. A Documented Quality Management System is required, together with the policies and procedures required by ISO 9001.The documentation will define:
Organisation structure
Who should record information and what information is recorded
Responsibilities of employees
Lines of communication throughout the company
What actions are required
How continuity will be maintained as staff change
System definitionDefining your Quality Management System will require input from all of the departments in the organisation. You will need to:
Define who your customers are for each department, for example:
- For the sales and marketing department it will be the end users.
- For the IT department it will be internal departments.
Document the activities in each area.
Review the ISO 9001 Standard to ensure the requirements have been met.
Identify any problem areas and rectify them
Auditing is conducted on a regular basis so standards can be maintained and companies participating in the system can always be confident that their policies and procedures are up to date.Customers undoubtedly benefit from the tight management structure and production in the following ways; improved quality and service, prompt delivery, right first time attitude, less returns and complaints and regular audits show commitment to quality. An ISO 9001 certification is a positive testimony to any business.At Challenger Group we intend to continue providing our present high quality service with increased dedication to improve our standards within the ISO: 9001 management structure.