The benefit of ISO 9001 accrediation

May 13, 2011 - PRLog -- Every organisation needs to have a Quality Policy in place that defines its goals and objectives to ensure a continual drive towards improvement throughout all operational activities. The Quality Policy needs to provide a framework for establishing, communicating and monitoring performance against agreed quality objectives.

It therefore comes as no surprise that pearcemayfield is the first company in the country to be accredited with the ISO 9001 Accreditation by global examination institute, APMG-International. The Accreditation acknowledges that the Quality Management System used by the company is of an internationally accepted quality standard.

ISO 9001 is a set of topics or areas of a business which any organisation should make more effective and efficient so that they can run their operations more effectively - areas such as sales, procurement, resourcing and control of records and documents.

Awarding ISO 9001 is also a first for APMG, now enabling the organisation to offer the accreditation to all its existing and future accredited organisations.

The journey over the last few months leading up to accreditation has been an interesting one for pearcemayfield, as Chairman Patrick Mayfield explains: “We didn’t go for ISO9001 just to get the accreditation badge; we looked at the overall value and discipline it might bring the company.

“My concern was that the process did not become self-serving but actually did add value.
Andrew Rock is our Quality Manager and he did a superb job. Unlike me, Andrew is a completer-finisher, and is strong on consistency. I am more unstructured in valuing innovation, ideas and agility. Andrew urged me first to grapple with a thing called Quality Policy, which he said needed to be owned by senior management.

“As I studied what was meant by Quality Policy I began to appreciate that this was where we could set out our stall as to how we, as a company would apply ISO. We could not, as many other organisations have done, take a passive approach to applying the international standard; we hear that many that have done this have found, as a consequence, that ISO then took them places they did not want to go. In some cases, writing it became like boiling the ocean and observing it became excessively bureaucratic.

“So, I set out our stance, which I would also offer as advice to any organisation contemplating this accreditation:

•   Values-based. Our values would continue to be paramount and non-negotiable. We've learned what our customers like about us has actually emerged out of our being consistent in living our values.
•   Simplicity. 'Keep things as simple as possible, but no simpler' (Einstein). This became our design approach.
•   Outcomes-oriented. Process always needs to serve the outcomes it intends to achieve.
•   Value-adding. Only change where there is clear added value in doing so.
•   Document on exception. Evidence is not required where the system is being followed, only where deviances have been found. We cannot become a paper-factory documenting the 'normal' to the nth degree.
•   Always use best judgement. I borrowed this from the US department store giant Nordstrom. We live in an emergent business reality. We need to be humble enough to realise that what we codify today as our practice may be ill-suited for the demands of tomorrow. So if we encounter a novel challenge or opportunity, and the procedures are inadequate, guess what? We permit ourselves to decide as best we know how.”

As pearcemayfield already had a quality management system, audited by APM Group, they didn’t have to start from scratch. They had some process and procedure in place.

However, one thing the accreditation process did was to highlight three specific areas for improvement. One area where they thought they had procedure and process in place, but found they were a little lacking. A second area where they had the procedure but it was in people’s heads, not documented and therefore it wasn’t possible for others to follow. In a third area, where they did have process and procedure, it was documented and well understood but the critical aspect was to get the gap analysis right.  

The company was keen not to be driven by the standard, it wanted to express the standard the pearcemayfield way.

Reaping the benefits

Already pearcemayfield is beginning to see a reduction in waste, less hesitancy and confusion. Their confidence has grown, which is already resulting in a smoother operation. For instance, when the company sends out an associate trainer or licensee out into the field, they can now be confident that they have the correct configuration of material.
Patrick Mayfield concludes: “I was always keen to see an early benefit and realisation and that is exactly what has happened.”

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