ISO quality certifications represent a way of ensuring that public or private companies are able to provide a product, service or system in accordance with the requirements of regulatory agencies and customers.
The acronym ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization. This entity is focused on the standardization and regulation of systems to guarantee the quality of internal processes in different market segments.
In Brazil, the organization is linked to the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT), establishing a standard that not only increases the company’s competitiveness, but redefines procedures, making it a benchmark.
The aim of ISO is to develop precepts that can be adopted by countries around the world, with a view to encouraging trade in goods and services. In this sense, the Organization brings a series of standards for companies of different segments and sizes. There are standards from the ISO 9000 family focused on the quality management system, ISO 14001 focused on the Environmental sector, ISO 22000 related to food safety, among others.
Defining which ISO certifications to bet on depends a lot on the segment in which it operates. In addition, corporate goals influence this decision. Therefore, you need to think about what you want to achieve with the document.
To point out and identify companies that are in compliance with the standards, there is ISO Certification, a process where the company is evaluated to analyze whether it meets the requirements of the standards corresponding to its niche.
After being awarded this recognition, approved organizations need to renew their licenses. That is, the data is updated. If the company does not maintain the level, it will lose its authentication.
See what the phases are:
- Diagnosis: maps the company’s current scenario and compares it with the rules of the desired standard;
- Planning: creates a schedule of the necessary actions for the implementation of the system that will be in accordance with the rules;
- Implementation: putting the measures defined in the previous phase into practice;
- Audits: companies that want the certificate must choose an auditing company certified by ISO and ABNT. This certifying body, after detailed evaluations, will issue the document or not.
But there are still internal gains: generally, by adapting to the ISO model, a company increases its productivity, improving its processes and public satisfaction.