Why Quality Assurance Certification Is Crucial In A Business
Quality Assurance Certification is the issuing of a written certificate by an independent organisation after auditing a company’s management systems and determining it meets the requirements specified in the standard and set by the international community.
Adhering to an international standard allows you to improve and monitor all areas of your business and does not imply establishing a set of procedures that are complicated and make your company operations more difficult to manage. On the contrary, achieving a certain standard means that you will be provided with a workable management system that is suitable for your organisation and improves its functioning. This is because quality assurance is a holistic approach that does not refer just to product quality only, but brings benefits at all levels of an enterprise. Keep on reading to discover the benefits that Quality Assurance Certification has to offer to your organisation:
Controlling processes in a more efficient way
Quality assurance experts identify your organisation’s critical processes and compare them against business metrics to optimise them through the use of quantitative and qualitative indicators. The performance in comparison to quality objectives is defined by using key performance indicators which help managers understand better how the organisation works and also to communicate their findings to those concerned.
Achieving higher efficiency operation offers your business a competitive advantage and sets your company apart from the rest. It also enables you to detect problems in time, before they become serious, and you avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Helping to maintain consistent operations
Variation in products is unacceptable by the modern customer. This means that every single product should have the same characteristics every time (weight, dimensions, tolerances, etc.) By obtaining Quality Assurance Certification you will have metrics defined for each process and control will be part of every process execution to ensure operational consistency.
Reducing waste
When your manufacturing processes are not optimised, you will also obtain wrong or poor quality products that are actually waste and translate into money lost forever. Quality assurance reduces waste associated with production processes and thus eliminates money loss to a great extent.
Keeping your employees happy
There are multiple factors that contribute to the high motivation and retention rates of employees, with some of the most important being knowing exactly what they are supposed to do at their workplace, being empowered with the right tools, and having instruction, procedures, and techniques that support their activity. Your organisation’s working culture will improve and have positive effects on employee morale once you implement Quality Assurance best practices.
The higher engagement of employees will have positive consequences on the long term as this establishes continued training and developmental programs for staff to help them acquire the skills to deal with the customers’ changing needs. This allows the business to keep operating effectively when key people leave the organisation.
Providing continuity throughout your operations
If quality assurance had initially been developed to help organisations gain market access, in today’s business environment Quality Assurance Certification represents the link between policy, performance, objectives, and targets. Continuity is vital in the context of current financial turbulence and changing requirements and quality assurance is that tool enabling you to meet all kinds of requirements – customer, regulatory, and legal.
Strengthening leadership
Quality assurance systems should be used by senior managers to make the right adjustments to meet organisation needs and to ensure the framework needed to ensure actions plans are developed and corrective action is taken when business objectives are not met.
Improving company reputation
Running an efficient and effective business determined your existing customers to trust you more and opens the door for new customers as well. More business means more profits, which any business owner wants to achieve after all.
Quality Assurance Certification increases your credibility by the fact that you work in accordance with standards established by a third party and you prove you attach great importance to quality. Having quality assurance certification consultants checking on your business operations shows you allow an independent party to monitor your company processes regularly and in a transparent manner.
Creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs
Quality Assurance Certification is not beneficial just to businesses, but also to individuals who are involved in the process. Some of the benefits that entrepreneurs/managers have from quality assurance implementation are gaining recognition as a professional, increasing confidence in their job, introducing them to a community of professionals, increasing remuneration, improving promotion possibilities, and fostering career progression.
Improving customer service
Quality Assurance Certification helps identifying key areas that represent a priority to your customers. As a result, you can improve processes based on customer expectations and needs and you are able to offer more value to customers by reducing waste and production costs.
Your management system can be used to meet and exceed customer requirements by applying techniques that allow you to understand your customers’ needs and perceptions instead of reacting only when they have complaints. Because it enhances staff awareness, Quality Assurance Certification increases the quality of your services, including the way you cultivate customer loyalty and solve their problems.
- Becoming eligible for public sector work
Quality Assurance Certification is mandatory if you want to tender to public sector work. So, if you want to get involved in this area, quality assurance is a must for your business.
- Reducing business risk
Through Quality Assurance Certification, your management system starts including a variety of processes, like finance, environmental programs, legal compliance, and health and safety. Conducting internal and external system assessments allows you to highlight effects on business risk.
- Improving the return on audits
By implementing quality assurance practices in your company, you understand what the customers and process owners need, enabling you to ask the right questions right from the beginning. The audit results will thus include an evaluation of resources together with quantifiable improvements and recommendations.
An overwhelming majority of the businesses which have implemented ISO and other certifications says the Quality Assurance Certification was a good or very good investment, and these organisations feel they have had clear benefits from the certification, including operations, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement. Moreover, 60% of companies that adopted ISO increased their revenue, so certification is beneficial to the bottom line too. These excellent results usually happen in organisations that make a sustained effort to improve their operations and don’t work hard to ensure compliance only before the certification audit.
If you are thinking right now “My small business has just a handful of employees, Quality Assurance Certification is probably not for me,” let us tell you things are completely different. Certification is suitable and useful for businesses of all sizes, even those with a few employees, with small businesses considering certification because of supply chain requirements or simply because they want to adopt the best practices in their operations.
If you need Quality Assurance Certification or you already have it but want to transition to a new standard, Creative Quality Solutions can help! As part of our Audit service, we can determine how compliant your systems are and what’s missing, and we will advise you on how to set up a new Quality System in order to obtain certification for the first time. Call 1300 776 539 to connect with one of our quality experts now!