ISO 9001 For Small Medium Enterprise (SME)

What is ISO 9001 for SME?

ISO 9001 requirements are generic and developed to apply to any organization, regardless of its type or size, or the products and services it provides. It should not be confused with product and service standards.  Quality management system standards (ISO 9001) specify requirements for good management practices in order to achieve quality, but without referencing any particular type of product or service. It is meant to improve your customers’ satisfaction and the competitiveness of your organization. So, It should not result in excessive bureaucracy, paperwork, or lack of flexibility.

ISO 9001 is a quality management system that is the way your company directs and controls those activities that are related to achieving its intended goals. It consists of your company’s structure together with the planning, processes, resources, and documented information that you use to achieve your quality objectives to meet your customers’ requirements, to improve your quality management system, or to improve your products and services.

Why SME should have ISO 9001?

The adoption of ISO 9001 is a strategic decision that helps an organization to improve its overall performance and to provide a basic system for its sustainable development initiatives.
Many organizations want assurance that the products and services they are looking to purchase or obtain will meet their requirements for quality. Those customers are looking for the confidence that can be provided by an organization offering products and services produced under an effective quality management system.

ISO 9001 will not necessarily lead to an improvement of work processes or to improvements of your products and services. It may not solve all your problems. It is a means for you to take a more systematic approach to fulfill your organization’s objectives, which in turn should achieve such improvements cost-effectively.

If your organization new to ISO 9001, you will need to analyze which requirement is applicable to you by going through the ISO 9001 standard. If you are in the older version of ISO 9001, you may need to align and modify your current process to transition ISO 9001:2015 edition.