ISO 9001 and Survival of Businesses during COVID-19 ISO 9001 and Survival of Businesses during COVID-19 covid-19 and security, COVID-19 had a huge impact on lives, economies, and industries. But those who were prepared to face crises, played safe. But most companies actually weren’t prepared for a pandemic. In fact, adopting regulations and standards helps in every crisis. It’s been 74 years that The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has been providing many universally accepted standards. But during COVID-19 it turns out that ISO 9001 is the best standard for quality management systems (QMS), which has proved amazingly helpful in adapting to the pandemic covid-19 and security. ISO 9001 and Survival of Businesses during COVID-19 Companies that adopted ISO 9001 were better prepared for COVID-19 There are many ways that ISO 9001 would have prepared a company for the COVID-19 pandemic. The most common aspect of ISO standards is structure and discipline. If your organization already falls in that category that adopts these standards, you should not fear the change. It applies to any type of change or disaster. It’s not just about pandemics. Adopting means your organization has standard operating procedures in place to help you with change management ISO 9001 and Survival of Businesses during COVID-19. ISO 9001 and Survival of Businesses during COVID-19 Honestly saying, Quality Management is even more important in a COVID-19 world. The purpose of implementing the ISO 9001 Standard is, whether your products or services consistently meet regulatory requirements or not. No doubt, there are a lot of details that go into that. Concerning a crisis like this pandemic, effective change control is crucial and it is even better if the change is rapid. Risk-based thinking is another aspect of ISO 9001 which helps to deal with COVID-19. If you are an ISO-compliant, that means your business possesses preventive controls that help you to deal with risk. It’s just not about risk factors to your products or services, but the risk to your human resource as well covid-19 and security. The companies that are part of the ISO 9001 standard, are providing the proper environment for employees. Providing a safe physical work environment to the human resource is a component of section 7.1 in the standard. It’s just not including masks and hand sanitizer in your facilities, but that’s what a safe work environment means during COVID-19 ISO 9001 and Survival of Businesses during COVID-19. Sections of ISO 9001 that are most beneficial during a crisis Section 5, which is on leadership, holds a huge benefit. As far as the pandemic is concerned, it is something that is going to affect your business on the organisational level, and quality should also be an organisational concept that is important across departments. So, it is really important to make it a priority for management and getting them directly involved in it. As an example, when everyone started working from home during a crisis, a quality manager needs to give staff members remote access to the quality management system (QMS). Making it happened, especially considering the security involved, is a faster process when management is involved and recognizes the importance covid-19 and security. Some parts of ISO 9001 relate to customers that are important during a crisis. Section 8.2.1 is all about customer communication. Whether you are informing your customers about the unavailability of certain products or services for the time being or might be delays in shipping etc., and sending them emails. Customer communication is especially important in such a situation because keeping a customer satisfied is a big part of the Quality System ISO 9001 and Survival of Businesses during COVID-19. Section 7.2 relating to staff’s competency is much important. No doubt, during a pandemic a lot of people may get sick so you have to deal with a minimal workforce. And many businesses implement layoffs because of the economic downturn. In any case, make sure that no role is left unattended in relation to your quality system. Staff members that are taking on responsibilities they didn’t have before need to get trained and it is needed to maintain training documentation to be shown that it was done ISO 9001 and Survival of Businesses during COVID-19.
Topics
