There are many companies seeking ISO certification these days, to maintain and increase business, drive down costs and be recognised as a supplier of quality. Anyone having gone through the measure will know how complex it can be; but it is likely they would have also discovered the need for validation too.
Having processes and systems certified to meet ISO management standards varies from organisation to organisation. This is so, whether company A and company B are working in the same industry and, on face value in any case, to the same business model.However, how and what company A produces will likely have different characteristics to that produced by company B. But to achieve a certified standard, they need to deliver much the same end result to the customer.
It is here were accurate validity is necessary. For example, both products may have different shelf lives when stored at the same temperature. Or in software development, tool B may work exactly as planned, but not deliver to the customer what they received from tool A. Having validated, necessary steps could have been taken to eradicate or minimize the differences however.
Including such a fundamental check is critical for attaining a mark of quality and, possibly more significantly, maintaining it. Naturally, it will never remove the possibility of unexpected consequences; such is the way of life. That the processes are in place to validate though, will show a commitment to ongoing development and improvement; a key component of certification.
With so many complexities to attaining certification, it is important to select a partner that understands what is involved. At DNV, we have this expertise and are an accredited certifier which allows us to be on the journey with a company from the drawing up of the mission plan until the attainment of the standard.
ISO certification
ISO management standards
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