For as long as we’ve been helping manufacturers grow profitably, Enterprise Minnesota has encouraged clients to pursue ISO certification; 10 years ago, we decided to go through the process ourselves. Like a baseball coach who’s played the game himself, we thought going through ISO would give us insights that we could only develop as a “player.”
We started the certification process just as ISO was evolving from ISO 9001:2008 to the 2015 standard, shifting from a product-based quality control system to a management system. The changes have made the stamp of approval more relevant, both to us as a service organization and to our manufacturing clients.
Thomas Paserba, our ISO auditor for the last 10 years, recently sat down with me to discuss ISO and Enterprise Minnesota’s journey through certification. He emphasized the crucial changes in the updated standards, noting that the quality control emphasis of the previous standard focused on the product, while ISO 9001:2015 embraces quality assurance, a top-down holistic system for the whole business.
That shift makes ISO a natural fit for our organization because it allows us to include every employee in the management system. Involving everyone means those closest to the areas where we need improvement can identify and drive changes.
The added flexibility in the 2015 standard lets us select and drive the documentation aspects of the process rather than requiring us to follow a predetermined set of standards. Many companies let concerns about ISO’s documentation requirements deter them; Paserba encourages them to avoid overthinking that aspect of the process. We’ve been able to prevent unnecessary documentation by focusing on just four categories of key stakeholders, and that’s worked well for us.
We’ve also learned that internal auditing across our organization maximizes effectiveness by boosting the knowledge, understanding, and support of the ISO system among our team. Having employees from one area audit those in another gives fresh perspective and opens eyes about how interconnected we all are.
It’s still relatively rare to find a service company with ISO certification, but it’s been a great fit for us. With its updated focus on the entire organization, the level of engagement it encourages from employees, and the flexibility it offers us to determine our own areas of focus, it is an outstanding management system.
I encourage you to read the full Q&A with Paserba and consider if this might be the right time for your company to consider ISO certification.
