Your questions answered.
What is ISO?
ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization. It is an independent, non-governmental organization, the members of which are the standards organizations of the 162 member countries. It is the world's largest developer of voluntary international standards and facilitates world trade by providing common standards between nations. Over twenty thousand standards have been set covering everything from manufactured products and technology to food safety, agriculture and healthcare.
For companies in some industries, ISO certification may be required by local law or customer's requirement.
conforming to ISO standards has many benefits for businesses including:-
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saving time and money by identifying and solving recurring problems
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improving system and process efficiency
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being more competitive when tendering for contracts
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getting more value out of all resources
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boosting your credibility in the eyes of your customers
How long time it take to apply ISO certification?
Generally small businesses can achieve certification in 12 to 16 weeks. Larger organisations may need up to 9 months, or more. The time taken to achieve certification can vary from organisation to organisation and depending on time it taken to prepare system procedures, forms, checklists and implementation throughout the organisation.
How much costing to get ISO certified?
Firstly, you have to get ISO system for your organisation developed and implemented.
One option is to send internal staffs for training which could cost you from as low as SGD 600 to several thousands of dollars, depending on the ISO systems and courses attended. They also need to gain experience after the training is completed, so this could be a timely process. Trained staff could leave your organisation or would be a constant cost every month.
Alternative method is by engaging the services of an ISO consultant to provide this service, which could cost you between SGD 4,000 to SGD 20,000. The upside is that they would have the knowledge and experience to start getting you certification ready right away. The consultant will work with and train a person already employed by the company or someone from management, so no extra salary costs are applicable. Factors used to determine consulting cost would be Company size, amount of staff, complexity, distance travelled, etc. Consultancy cost ends when certification is achieved.
Secondly you would have to make use of a certification body's services. Cost and payment options differ from the certification body and the accreditation used, certification cost is between SGD 5,000 to SGD 10,000 for a three year certificate. In the 4th year, you will have to go for re-certification and the cost would roughly be the same as the first thee year rate. This means that to maintain your certificate would be a constant cost. Factors influencing the certification cost are number of staffs, location of business and/or branches, audit days required etc.
Why do organisation implement ISO management systems?
Most do it to meet the requirements of current or prospective customers. Others implement out of a desire to improve quality, environmental, and/or health & safety performance.
What are the types of organization that can implement ISO management systems?
ISO standards and specifications are intentionally generic. They can be applied by any organization providing any product or service anywhere in the world.
What are the main differences in content between the old and new version of ISO Standards?
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The adoption of the high level structure as set out in Annex SL of ISO Directives Part 1
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An explicit requirement for risk-based thinking to support and improve the understanding and
application of the process approach
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Fewer prescriptive requirements
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More flexibility regarding documentation
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Improved applicability for services
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A requirement to define the boundaries of the QMS / EMS / OHSMS
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Increased emphasis on organizational context
If we decided to implement both ISO 9001 and ISO 45001, do these have to be separate systems?
You can implement integrated management systems taking into account the requirements that are common among the standards. This integrated approach improves system efficiency and is more cost efficient in terms of implementation and certification.