Our ISO 9001 Journey: Documentation is Essential

Documenting all of the procedures required in order to comply with ISO 9001 requirements is an essential part of the process. The quality management system (QMS) documentation is at the core of any ISO 9001 certification, and is the first phase of the work required to gain compliance.

There are two main criteria regarding the ISO 9001 documentation:

1) We had to document our entire ISO 9001 QMS (the ISO 9001 standard contains precise requirements for the various documents)

2) We were only to include procedures we actually perform within our company.

It is necessary to develop the ISO 9001 documents; but we also had to keep in mind that everything contained in the documents was actually how we would conduct our business after achieving compliance. Another important factor was keeping the documentation as simple and efficient as possible. We did not want to over complicate our procedures or increase bureaucracy within the company!

The actual documentation created was:

• Quality Policy
• Quality Manual
• Quality Procedures
• Quality Forms
• QMS training presentation

Here’s a quote that sums up the reason for having documentation for quality management:

“Two men cut wood all day long. One worked straight through, without stopping to rest. At the end of the day he had a sizable pile of logs. The other would chop for 50 minutes and then take a ten-minute break. At the end of the day he had a much larger pile. ‘How could you chop more?’ asked the man who’d worked continuously. His friend replied, ‘When I stopped for rest, I also sharpened my ax.’” – Unknown

HDS went through the ISO 9001 process so that everyone in our company knows how to work efficiently and effectively – all of the time. We will always be “sharpening the ax” while we’re resting!