ISO Certification Maintenance is is vital to keeping yup to date. This is seal of official approval received by the third body, which means that the company runs to one of the internationally recognized ISO management systems. ISO (International Organization of Standardization) which was founded on February 23, 1947, in London is a non-national standard regulation body that consists of representatives from much national standard organization whose headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland.
Don’t Let Your ISO Certification Lapse!
Once certified does NOT mean being certified for the whole lifetime. One needs to maintain the ISO certification by sustaining its management system. Imagine how losing an ISO certificate will look like! Risk of business losing, reputation spoilage, losing your customers, and overall limiting your horizon to win new opportunities of business.
Hence the stakes are high when it comes to losing your ISO certificate, especially when your marketplace competitors have it.
When to Renew your ISO Certificate?
The validity time for ISO certification is up to three years. Plus there will be expiry date written on your ISO certificate that will tell you when you have to go for renewal. In case, you are unable to track down your ISO certificate, do contact your certifier as soon as possible.
You need to start six months before the certification date as renewal process might take time depending on the type of organization that you are running.
However, make sure that your business experts review and monitor process control SOP on monthly or mutually agreed upon a periodic basis so that at the time of ISO certificate renewal there will make no hassle and chaos.
What If I don’t bother to Renew ISO Certificate?
The worst case scenario of not getting an ISO certificate to renew on time is that your organization would be no longer be ISO certified, whereas your competitors will be.
There will be a legal requirement of recalling all your products that have been placed on your market shelves as you cannot market your product claiming ISO certified when they are not.
You will lose business credibility in no time losing all your customers and door for new upcoming opportunities will be closed on your face.
You need to immediately remove all ISO logos printed on the packaging of your product, from your website, your social media pages, your running advertisements; otherwise, court action will be taken against you.
Already Lost ISO Certificate Renewal Date! What to Do Now?
With ISO Certification Maintenance, you have to go through the same process what was done when you were initially opting for ISO certification. Your business will be re-audited by an external auditor who will get complete access of your documented Quality Management System (QMS) and will review it to make any relevant suggestions to address non-conformities (Major or Minor).
A lead external auditor will review previous reports of internal auditing, all previous documentation related to the management system and overall business performance and its evaluation. An audit report will have to be submitted by the auditor within a time limit of next couple of days, and you need to make amendments within the next 15 days and get it approved within the same timeline.
Is there any Easier Way to Renew ISO Certificate?
Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts for success, but to make the renewal process smoother, one must start planning the things out well before the time. Periodic internal audit routine must be followed religiously so that such inconveniences can be avoided. In case of any non-conformities being highlighted during and after an internal audit, you need to fix them as soon as possible. You need to review your systems more regularly so that ISO re-certification process can be done before renewal date and time.
How to Craft an ISO Certification Maintenance Plan?
ISO Certification Maintenance: Let us help you out in designing the ISO certificate maintenance plan every month. You need to designate a cross-functional team to execute monthly maintenance activity for ISO certification renewal process.
Following will be the tasks that will be assigned to ISO certification maintenance team:
- Review and update all procedures documentation within the organization with an agreement so that processes can be more streamlined on different stages of action.
- Monitor document control and change management process within the organization.
- Controlling all records to justify working procedures, design, and development.
- Evaluate Client Satisfaction level
- Evaluating Suppliers’ Performance Levels.
- Periodic conduction of internal audits
- Run Clients’ Satisfaction audits
- Addressing all non-conformities (major or minor)
- Make sure to document all corrective and preventive actions (if taken)
- Monitor regularization of management review meetings
- Carry the continuous improvement cycle by implementing its tools, techniques, and methodologies
- Seek room for improvement in terms of new technologies and standards to be adopted in your value chain.
Outsourcing Benefits of ISO Certification Maintenance
Sustained undivided focus and determination are what many organizations tend to lose when it comes to renewing your ISO certificate. Or they could not keep up the momentum to execute such activity with clear vision. Here is one of the few advantages listed for outsourcing ISO certification maintenance.
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Time and Cost Reduction
No time and money needed to invest in training internal auditors. Instead of hiring an expert team to do the rest of the task for your organization.
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Positive Outcomes
Tasks performed by the internal team might result in fruitless efforts because they will be responsible for other essential functions of your business, leading to high disruption in operation and internal resources.
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Experts can do the Best!
Expert advice, high objectivity, and independence with high success rate experience can only guarantee you well managed and completed registrar’s Surveillance audit and will lead you to the path of non-stop improvement of your business management system. Elimination of stress, anxiety, and hassles can be avoided having an external team to take care of the re-certification process managing everything from the start.
