ISO 9001:2008 Certification (Quality Management Systems)
The ISO 9001 certification aims at providing a global standard that spells out quality and trust. It is a quality management system standard and is applicable to all type of organizations.
An ISO 9000 certificate indicates the organization's adherence to quality management practices with customer focus.
The standard is designed to look at all the important processes affecting customer satisfaction, from the initial review of requirements related to the product, to the packaging and delivery of the finished product. The intent of standard is to provide the universal and uniform baseline for quality management, which can be used by organizations around the world. The success of this idea is evident from the fact that ISO 9000 series has become the most widely used quality management system in the world
A well designed and implemented quality management system; based on ISO 9001can provide organizations with the following benefits:
- Objective based approach to the management system
- Better process control, flow and productivity
- Reduction of cost, reduction of product scrap & rejections, Improvement in product reliability
- Better documentation of the processes and greater quality awareness among employees
- Framework for continual improvement of each process
- Leadership with customer focus
- Structure of result oriented operations
- Demonstrate the organization's commitment to quality standards to the outside
world
ISO 14001:2004 (Environment Management Systems)
The ISO14000 standards are designed to provide an internationally recognized framework for environmental management, measurement, evaluation and auditing. A system compliant to ISO14001 is a management system dedicated to manage the environmental issues of an organization.
A Certified Environmental Management System proves that the business is taking active steps to fulfill social & environmental responsibilities. Environmentally credible companies have a competitive edge in national and international markets. An Environmental Management System helps the organization to be in control of and successfully manage the most significant environmental aspects, e.g. emissions, waste-handling, utilize natural resources and energy-efficiency together with compliance to environmental regulations.
Some of the benefits of the ISO14001 certification are in the following areas:
- Improved corporate image
- Strategic investment
- Significant demonstration of management responsibilities & commitment to environmental concerns towards employees, stakeholders & society
- Competitive advantage over international trade barriers
- Compliance with concerned statutory & regulatory requirements
- Tremendous increase in process yields
- Help in converting by products and other waste into commercially valuable forms
- Significantly reduced energy consumption, hazards and accidents
- Effectively manage the significant environmental aspects
OHSAS 18001( Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems)
OHSAS 18001 has been developed to be compatible with the ISO 9001 (Quality) and ISO 14001 (Environmental) management systems standards, in order to facilitate the integration of quality, environmental and occupational health and safety management systems by organizations, should they wish to do so.
The (OHSAS) specification gives requirements for an occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system, to enable an organisation to control its OH&S risks and improve its performance. It does not state specific OH&S performance criteria, nor does it give detailed specifications for the design of a management system.
APPLICATION AND BENEFITS
The OHSAS specification is applicable to any organisation that wishes to:
- Establish an OH&S management system to eliminate or minimise risk to employees and other interested parties who may be exposed to OH&S risks associated with its activities
- Implement, maintain and continually improve an OH&S management system
- Assure itself of its conformance with its stated OH&S policy
- Demonstrate such conformance to others
- Seek certification/registration of its OH&S management system by an external organisation
- Make a self-determination and declaration of conformance with this OHSAS specification.
ISO 22000:2005 ( Food Safety Management Systems)
ISO 22000:2005 specifies requirements for a food safety management system where an organization in the food chain needs to demonstrate its ability to control food safety hazards in order to ensure that food is safe at the time of human consumption. It is applicable to all organizations, regardless of size, which are involved in any aspect of the food chain and want to implement systems that consistently provide safe products. The means of meeting any requirements of ISO 22000:2005 can be accomplished through the use of internal and/or external resources. .
ISO 22000:2005 specifies requirements to enable an organization
- To plan, implement, operate, maintain and update a food safety management system aimed at providing products that, according to their intended use, are safe for the consumer.
- To demonstrate compliance with applicable statutory and regulatory food safety requirements.
- To evaluate and assess customer requirements and demonstrate conformity with those mutually agreed customer requirements that relate to food safety, in order to enhance customer satisfaction.
- To effectively communicate food safety issues to their suppliers, customers and relevant interested parties in the food chain.
British retail Consortium (BRC Ver 5.0)
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has developed a technical standard for those companies supplying retailer branded food products.
The standard has been developed to assist retailers in their fulfilment of legal obligations and protection of the consumer, by providing a common basis for the inspection of companies supplying retailer branded food products.
It has encompassed the fundamental principles of the retailers' current standards and is intended to be incorporated into standards used by third party inspection bodies. It is not intended to replace the requirement of any legislation, where this legislation requires a higher standard for a specific industry sector.
The standard will be reviewed on a regular basis by the BRC membership and revised, where considered appropriate.
The standard requires:
- The adoption of HACCP
- A documented quality management system
- Control of factory environment standard, product, process and personnel