- Home
- Companies
- Quality Management International, Inc. ...
- Services
- System Standards vs. Management Systems
System Standards vs. Management Systems
System standards are not management systems!ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 are management system standards. They do, however, provide a model that an organization can choose to use to develop their own management system.Management system standards reflect accepted and agreed good management practices for determining, fulfilling and delivering upon particular stakeholder requirements. System standards are often agreed by large groups of people, often from varying backgrounds. Consequently, system standards will trail the technology curve by 10 to 15 years – but, this does not mean system standards lack great value!There are many reasons an organization may choose to ensure their system conforms to national or international management system standards. These include:
- Benefit from lessons learned regarding good management practices shared across countries and industries
- Better communication across systems (Organization to Customers and Suppliers); individuals may communicate well, but organizations also need a common “language” to drive action
- Better internal communication across the parts of the system
- Legal protection: ignoring the requirements of national and international standards is hard to explain in court!
- System certification
When we talk about a company becoming “ISO 9000” certified, it means that an independent organization has assessed their management system and determined that it conforms to ISO 9001, the standard defining the requirements for quality management systems. These independent companies are called registrars. A registrar issues a certificate to the company so they may promote their conformity. The independent organization is usually accredited by another independent organization (in the United States it is the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board or ANAB) giving additional credibility to the assessment and certificate issued.
System certification has only three purposes: to open new markets, allow the organization to compete in existing markets or to reduce customer audits.
In theory, a company deciding to purchase goods and services from a company running a certified system has assurance that their prospective supplier at least meets the requirements of the system standards to which they are certified. Sometimes this frees them from verifying conformity on their own (no supplier audit needed); it also means they have some formal system in place for doing business and can communicate in the language of “systems”.
Some companies develop management systems and ensure they conform to system standards and never choose to certify their systems. Certification and the costs and benefits associated with it is strictly a marketing decision - will you be able to sell to more companies because you are certified? As you can see, “Getting certified” and “Developing a Management System” are not the same.