Integrated Management Systems Standards

  • What do we mean by integrated management systems standards?

    Whether your organisation has one or more ISO management system standards (e.g. ISO 9001, ISO 14001), we mean the processes and resource involved in implementing the standard so that it is appropriately integrated within your organisation, as well as applying for and maintaining certification. This includes planning, scheduling and preparing for both internal and external audits, developing actions to address non-conformities and areas for improvement and, especially where more than one standard or multi-site operations are involved, co-ordinating all this to avoid unnecessary duplication of resource and effort and to maximise the benefits each standard can bring to the overall performance of your organisation.

  • However, many companies find that implementing ISO standards and applying for (and maintaining) certification is time consuming and does not make best use of resources which are better spent on delivering their own products and services. In small to medium sized organisations spare resource is hard to find. In large organisations, particularly those with multi-site operations, just managing the audit schedule and ensuring the organisation is ready for the various external audits can be a complex process.This can lead to duplication of effort, fire-fighting, last minute fixes and even external audit failures. This is exactly where we can help. We have a strong track record in helping organisations to develop and implement effective, integrated management system standards that reap all of the intended benefits and meet the requirements for certification purposes.

  • What are the benefits of this?

    • helps the organisation maximise the positive impact on performance from each individual standard implemented
    • co-ordinates effort and resource to avoid duplication and waste
    • helps avoid audit failures
    • helps co-ordinate qualitative & quantitative data from multiple audits etc. in order to systematically prioritise and implement improvements
    • facilitates the introduction of new standards or changes to existing standards
  • How we can help you do this more effectively

    • develop management systems and implement standards that are effectively integrated, with auditing co-ordinated to avoid unnecessary cross-over and duplication
    • train managers and employees in internal auditing against the appropriate standards and developing & prioritising improvements in order to avoid non-conformities & audit failures
    • support management teams through the certification process – we only work with certification bodies approved by UKAS  or other appropriate bodies or, outside of the UK, members of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF)
    • conduct readiness reviews/gap analysis in preparation for certification audits