The International Organization for Standardization – better known as ISO – provides organizations with guidelines to consistently achieve universally recognized standards.
Developed through the consensus of global subject matter experts and stakeholders, ISO standards define specifications and requirements for products, processes, services and systems. ISO is an avenue for serving customers better, by guaranteeing quality, safety and efficiency. ISO creates a sense of order without stifling an organization. Though structured, its management framework is flexible enough to enable the enhancement of an enterprise’s unique qualities.
Since its founding in 1947, ISO has published almost 20,000 international standards. They cover nearly every sector, from manufacturing and construction to energy and healthcare. Common to all is a general process for reaching compliance – a route to gaining a stamp of certification. TCIE can help with each step:
- Conducting a gap assessment to determine shortfalls when measured against the preferred standard
- Training company subject matter experts to perform internal audits as the “first line of defense” in identifying non-conformances
- Employing an external facilitator to perform a subcontracted internal audit orsecond-party audit
ISO facilitators are continuous improvement change agents equipped to find not only deficiencies requiring corrective action, but other opportunities for process improvements. And they can assist in building a system, implementing it and continually improving it. Final scrutiny comes from a third-party quality system registrar, which has the power to deem whether an organization is worthy of being issued ISO certification.
