ISO 9001:2015 Implementer Certification Training

This part introduces the seven quality management principles:

• Customer Focus
  The organization must demonstrate its commitment to quality by cultivating a strong customer focus, and by striving to meet and exceed customer needs.
• Leadership
  Endorse strong leadership that communicates the organization's vision and objectives.
• Engagement of People
  Engage and empower people at all levels of the organization. The organization should foster a culture of frank, open communication in which employees feel valued and are encouraged to thrive.
• Process Approach
  An ISO 9001 system consists of several different processes working together. Larger organizations might have dozens or even hundreds of different processes. Organizations need to make sure that designated people understand these processes and their expected outcomes.
• Improvement
  Continual improvement is a key tenet of ISO 9001 and a core objective of an organization's Quality Management System.
• Evidence-Based Decision Making
  Making decisions is not always easy, but decisions based on the analysis and evaluation of reliable data are more likely to produce desired outcomes.
• Relationship Management
  Develop mutually beneficial relationships with interested parties, including suppliers, partners, customers, and other stakeholders.

Next, the course discusses Annex SL, which is the new high-level structure for ISO management system standards. What this means, in a nutshell, is that a management system standard such as ISO 9001 can now be implemented fairly easily alongside other management system standards such as ISO 14001.

This part introduces the Process Approach and the Plan Do Act Cycle (PDCA). Topics include:

• The Process Approach
• The Elements of a Process
• Real-Life Examples of the Process Approach
• The PDCA Cycle
• How the PDCA Cycle Benefits Organizations

This part sheds light on all ISO 9001 requirements and their interpretation. The lessons look in detail at each and every requirement of ISO 9001 and explain them from the implementer's point of view. Numerous examples and practical tips show the learner how to apply the requirements to the specific circumstances of their individual company.

This part introduces a popular five-step implementation methodology that's been proven to work and is accessible even to complete beginners. These five steps are expanded upon in the next module. The part ends with useful tips for getting the most out of ISO 9001.

Next, the course takes a closer look at the five-step implementation methodology.

• Step 1: Preparation
  Careful preparation is essential. It impacts heavily on how the implementation project will unfold and the efficacy of the Quality Management System.
• Step 2: Documentation
  This can be a tricky step since it's not always easy to write documentation that accords with the ISO standard's strict technical requirements. On top of this is the fact that documentation can't be generic: it needs to be customized to the specific needs of your company.
• Step 3: Implementation
  This is another tricky step. Introducing your newly documented procedures to employees responsible for managing and operating them can spawn some initial confusion. To some extent, almost all employees will need to change the way they work.
• Step 4: Internal Audit
  Internal audits are an important component of ISO 9001. They're conducted in order to verify that your company's newly-implemented Quality Management System complies with ISO requirements.
• Step 5: Certification
  When your internal auditors are satisfied that your system meets ISO 9001 requirements, it's time to arrange a certification audit conducted by an independent, third-party auditor. Once you've ironed out any underlying issues (which are known as nonconformities or nonconformances), your company will be awarded the ISO 9001 certificate.

The final part discusses documents and records.

A point to note here is that documents are used for storing and sharing information, while records are essentially hard copies of results (such as from an audit) or evidence of activities that have been performed. And while documents get revised from to time and are generally kept up-to-date, records are static and never revised.

The implementation training concludes with the official implementer examination. It's a multiple-choice assessment with a passing score of 70% and includes free re-takes. It consists of 91 questions and takes about 1 - 2 hours to complete.