The last few months have been fairly big for the new International Standard, ISO18404:2015, with the imminent announcement of the pilot sector scheme looming and widespread interest being reported it’s fair to say it’s also been busy!
In today’s ISO18404 blog, I will be discussing the method in which an organisation implementing a management system for the first time can attain certification against the new International Standard.
1. Attend one of our ISO18404 FREE Briefing Events
In order to put ISO18404 into effect within your organisation, you’ll first have to have a basic understanding of the new International Standard. Our monthly free briefing events will provide you with the best option to get just that. - We are currently offering free 20 minute telephone consultations, get in touch to book yours!
2. Attain the required talent
As the new International Standard was written for the use with the Lean and/or Six Sigma methodologies, it’s a requirement to have that talent on board. This could be achieved by either training your current staff or hiring new staff. The standard does also allow for you to use external resources where necessary.
This International Standard is the first of its kind, the qualified practitioners who are working with this will also have the chance to attain certification; therefore, it’s important they document their projects too!
To comply with the standard, your practitioners should be appropriately qualified as Six Sigma Green, Black or Master Black Belts and/or Lean Practitioners, Leaders, and Experts.
3. Purchase the standard and begin working toward the required competencies
As the standard is focused around results, you’ll have to begin working on projects immediately. As a bare minimum, an organisation must provide evidence of a minimum period of a few months before they’ll be considered for certification against the standard.
If you’d like a steadier foot in applying ISO18404 in your workplace, consider coming along to our next “Applying ISO18404:2015, and Preparing Your Organisation for Certification” course on 16th– 17th June. Please contact the Services Limited Offices if this interests you.
4. Undergo a stocktake
Once you are sure you have gathered the required knowledge, you should look to undergo a gap analysis to measure how far you actually are away from attaining certification against the International Standard.
If you’d like Services Limited to help with this, please contact the Services Limited offices and we’d be happy to assist you with this.
5. Continue working
ISO18404:2015 is considered to be a pro-active International Standard, meaning you’ll have to adhere to regular checks by external certification bodies in order to maintain and keep your certification.
The same should be said for your practitioners working in accordance to the standard, as they’ll have to adhere to either/and yearly in-house checks and three-yearly checks by an external certification body. This is evidence based.
Check back next Thursday for more information on ISO18404:2015. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact the Services Limited office on nic.mason@servicesltd.co.uk or call +44 (0)115 9669460; we’d be happy to get your question answered!