ISO refers to the International Organization for Standardization. ISO certification helps to boost your business quality, furthermore the overall effectiveness of the business. Having your company or product certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) indicates to clients that the service you’re providing is safe, efficient, and consistent. The certifying body will determine whether your company’s policies and procedures certify to ISO’s standards. If you successfully pass the audit, you will receive a certificate from ISO affirming that you’ve fulfilled the conditions for certification.
How to get ISO Certification in Nigeria?
Getting an ISO certification involves a step-by-step activity to take:
- Develop Management System
- Appoint a project supervisor: the person that oversees the duty of generating core business or product processes. The most experienced employees with ample knowledge of the business or product should be considered for the job.
- Document your company’s unique practices. This phase involves outlining every characteristic of your business or product in writing. The analysis might include details like your company’s mission statement, information on specific policies and procedures, and a list of state and federal standards you operate.
- Implement the System
- Implement the Management System based on the laid-out Business processes: In particular, they should be looking to see that your processes satisfy both industry regulations and company standards. If you hope to get ISO certification, it’s important that every aspect of production or service is being performed the way it’s described.
- Trained employees: train employees properly for the task they are performing, and it conforms to the specified standards.
- Verify the System Effectiveness
- Perform an internal audit: Assign a qualified employee to compare the information laid out on your core business process analysis against the company’s day-to-day operations.
- Make any necessary improvements in your practices. If your internal audit turns up some feature that is not up to standards, your topmost priority will be to correct it before submitting to a formal audit.
- Requirements to ISO Certification Process
- Type of ISO Certification Standards: Select which management system to certify.
- Choosing an ISO Certification Body: Select the appropriate auditing body for the exercise. Only consider certification bodies that use the Committee on Conformity Assessment (CASCO) standard.
- Find a qualified registrar to review your operations: Seek out a licensed registrar to bring in for an external audit. Search for organizations in your region representing the specific sector your business falls under.
- Draft up an ISO application contract: Once you’ve secured the services of a registrar, draft a contract, and discuss the provisions of the audit process. They will go over the various legal rights and obligations of both parties and inform you about the organization’s liability confidentiality policies.
- ISO Certification Process.
- Submit your Management System documentation for pre-assessment: Pre-assessment is not a required step in the certification process. However, a preliminary review will give the certification body a chance to pinpoint any obvious errors or omissions in your documentation. Clearing up these issues before the formal audit will help you focus your management system and improve your chances of successfully meeting ISO certification standards.
- External audit. The external registrars will turn their attention to inspecting your company’s operations and making sure they adhere to the standards detailed in your management system. Be prepared to offer your assistance any way you can.
- Review your full audit report. Following the audit, the certifying body will send out a detailed audit report. The report will summarize the registrar’s findings throughout the audit and bring to your attention any areas where your company’s practices don’t match the standards listed in your Management System.
- Submit a plan of corrective action for resolving non-conformities. This is a brief document explaining the nature of the issue and detailing the solutions needed to correct it. Its main purpose is to validate to the certifying body that you recognize how an oversight fails to live up to ISO standards.
- Await your ISO certification. If the registrar is satisfied with the outcomes, they will report back to the certifying body with approval that your business be awarded certification.
- ISO Certification Cost
The cost of getting ISO certification is not fixed and fluctuates from business to business and depends on the following:
- The size of a business
- Number of employees
- Number of Procedures
- Level of threat
- The quantity of work
- Maintaining Compliance
A continuous audit is conducted from time to time, essentially to maintain the compliance level of the ISO standard by the organization.
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