ISO 9001 Certification


ISO 9001 certification is the world’s most trusted and widely used quality management system certification. Small companies use ISO certificates issued by third-party certification bodies to show their commitment to the high-quality products and services. Large organizations compulsorily request their supplier’s/vendor’s ISO certificate as part of the supplier evaluation.

ISO 9001 certification is the passport to participate in global tenders for small companies. An ISO certificate is an esteemed benchmark that proclaims the quality of your products and services.

iso 9001 certification

How to Get ISO 9001 Certification?

The ISO 9001 Quality system standard is developed to fit all types of organizations, small or large, and for any industry, manufacturing, or service. The first step of ISO 9001 certification is to develop a quality manual, quality system procedure, and SOP. Then you have to make sure you implemented it correctly; through an internal audit, you can verify the strengths and weaknesses of your quality system. For any significant non-conformities found in the internal audit, raise a CAPA and fix the non-conformities. If you are confident with your quality system implementation, you can contact a reputed certification body for an audit and certification.

ISO 9001 Certification Body Selection

When searching for a certification body after implementing the quality system, you can find many certification bodies, also known as registrars (IAF accredited and non-IAF accredited). ISO does not recommend any certification body, so you can choose any certification body that fits your budget. The reputation of the ISO certificate depends on the reputation of the certification body. Certification body expenses are one of the significant factors in the total cost of ISO certification; this is a recurring expense, so you need to consider different options before selecting the certification body.

ISO 9001 Surveillance Audit

ISO 9001 Certificates are issued for three years. However, there is a surveillance audit every year at the same time. The surveillance audits help to reconfirm that the quality system is operating functionally and fine-tune it. The ISO 9001 standard is developed with the principle of continual improvement, so these audits help to improve the quality system regularly.

If you need assistance with ISO 9001 Certification, LMG can provide complete assistance from drafting quality manual and procedure, implementation, ISO 9001 certification body selection, and audit. Our experienced ISO consultants can provide you with the proper guidance in ISO 9001 Certification.

ISO 9001 Certification Audit Type Year Validity
ISO 9001 Certification audit First-year Three years – must pass a surveillance audit every year.
ISO 9001 Certification 1st surveillance audit Second-year Two years – must pass the surveillance audit next year
ISO 9001 Certification 2nd surveillance audit Third-year One year
ISO 9001 Re-certification audit Fourth-year Three years – must pass a surveillance audit every year.

ISO 9001 Certification Process

iso 9001 certification process

ISO 9001 Certification – FAQ

Any organization that wishes to improve the quality of its product and service can implement the ISO 9001 standard and get ISO 9001 Certification.

Yes, Certification body selection is your choice; you can select any certification body that fits your requirements. Getting proposals from multiple certification bodies will help reduce the certification cost.

All the documents related to the quality of your product and service are required, which include quality manuals, quality system procedures, SOPs, manufacturing records, training records, maintenance records, calibration records, validation reports, vendor evaluation records, quality objectives, CAPAs, internal audits, MRM records, etc.

There is no specific list of ISO Certification bodies on the ISO site, but you can find ISO certification bodies by searching on the internet or the IAF website. Also, you can find a list on ISO 9001 Certification body list.

CAPA is not mandatory, but usually, there will be at least some CAPA in all organizations. A CAPA must be raised for any non-conformity which will affect the quality of your product, process, or service.

It depends on the contract with your certification body; please read all the closes on the agreement before signing it; if you select a certification body in your nearby areas, you can usually avoid the auditor traveling and lodging expenses.

Sure, you can have multiple ISO certificates for the same organization. Most companies have various ISO Certificates like ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 13495, etc. if you are planning for multiple ISO certifications, you better coordinate at the beginning of the certification process and select a certification body that provides all the desired certifications which will help you to avoid multiple audits.

Not necessarily; you can develop an integrated quality manual and set of procedures that will help to save time and reduce documentation.

It depends on multiple factors like scope of certification, organization size, number of products, etc. you can refer the below table or find the audit time checklist on IAF

Organization Size and ISO 9001 Audit Time

iso-9001-certification-audit-time

number of man-days required for ISO 9001 audit

It may vary with the certification body, but in most cases, you will get the certificate within two weeks.

iso 9001 certification cost