ISO Certification

What are ISO Standards and "Management Systems"?

The International Standard's Organisation (International Organisation for Standardisation) is an independent organisation which was formed in the 1940's with the aim of developing international standards which organisations and companies could work to.

 The aim of the organisation remains the same today. ISO is developing new standards and revising/updating existing standards to ensure their relevance in todays modern world.

 "Management System" is a set of policies, processes and procedures used by an organization to ensure that it can fulfil the tasks required to achieve its goals.

Why become Certified?

Having your management systems audited and certified to ISO standards provides many benefits including - 

• Identifies you as a leading provider of your services/products.
• Increases your ability to gain new quality customers who value ISO Certification within their supply chain.
• Increase efficiency and reduce waste.
• Reduce risk to help increase the number and value of new opportunities.
• Get better every year by focussing on continual improvement.

Becoming Certified

We work with organisations and companies to implement, maintain, audit and certify their management systems to the following standards - 

• ISO 9001 Quality Management System
• ISO 14001 Environmental Management System
• ISO 45001 Health & Safety Management System

Gaining certification is achieved by a Progress Compliance qualified Lead Auditor (CQI/IRCA) auditing the systems, processes and procedures of your company. Once the audit is completed you will be provided with a detailed audit report which explains what level of compliance your organisation operates against the chosen standards that you want to be certified to. The audit will also have an element of focus on continual improvement where the auditor will identify any areas which could be made more efficient without major investment or time. We want to ensure that the companies we work with benefit from the experience of the auditor not just in the compliance to the ISO standards being audited, but also increase efficiency and profitability for our customers where we can along the way.

Most organisations who want to explore ISO certification find that they cover a good amount of the standards requirements already, but typically a Gap Analysis meeting with an auditor is the first step in gaining certification. Much less formal than the ISO certification audit itself, these Gap Analysis meetings are held at your premises normally over the course of one day. They are a chance for the auditor and client representatives to identify how close the company is to being "certification audit ready", and for the auditor to provide a list of any areas which need to be addressed before the Certification Audit is undertaken. 

It can also be the case that companies do not have the resources necessary to design, develop and test the effectiveness of a new management system, but do have a requirement to gain one or all of the ISO standards mentioned above. In these situations Progress Compliance can provide the required resources for the policies, processes and procedures to be implemented into your organisation, followed up with a certification audit. 

What to do next?

If you have any questions about the standards, the processes for gaining certification or costs please get in touch using the details below.