Cost Benefits of ISO 9001 Certification

Somebody posted the following discussion question on a LinkedIn group that I am following:

Hi I am collecting all the reasons for obtaining ISO 9001 accreditation. I am especially interested in the cost benefits of having the accreditation. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Firstly, as an aside, accreditation goes to an auditor, a quality system gets certified or a certification.

Here is my response to the question.

If I may go beyond cost benefits to include all financial benefits then: 

1. The certification on its own will have some limited financial benefits, mainly for marketing and sales: 

   a. Your company brand is enhanced. 

   b. Some companies will not source from suppliers who do not have ISO certification. 

   c. Many potential customers will prefer an ISO certified company over one that is not certified. 

2. The real benefit to your company is not in the certification itself but, if done rightly and for the right motivation, in the improvement to the quality of your company processes, resulting in the improvement to the quality of your final product or service and enhanced customer satisfaction. Here is the real cost benefit: a reduction in your cost of failure. It is generally accepted that the later a failure or defect is detected, the more expensive it is to correct. A good, effectively implemented quality management system (QMS) will help reduce your cost of failure by reducing the occurrence of defective work and helping you find any defective work before it gets to the client. A QMS built on ISO 9001 principles has a built in feed-back mechanism for continuous improvement; you should see your cost of failure reduce over time. 

3. This, however, comes at a cost: the cost of prevention (implementing and executing on your QMS) and the cost of appraisal (quality records and audits). It may well be that these costs initially exceed the offset from the reduced cost of failure, but you should definitely get a return on investment over time if you ensure that you put in a good, effective QMS and do not merely go for ISO certification for its own sake.

Elizabeth (Aunty Bessie) Sessler 1916-4-27 - 2013-6-30 R.I.P.

Aunty Bessie passed away in the early hours of Sunday morning, June 30, 2013. She died of pneumonia in her own bed , in her own room at Summerfield Park, exactly as she had hoped and prayed for, and our close, mutual friend, Pat Prinsloo, was with her at the end. She was 97 years old. According to Pat she spent all her waking time of the last few hours in prayer, aware that this was probably the end.

Although she was practically blind, only able to discern light and dark shapes, and even then only when the light was good, and although she was starting to become hard of hearing, nevertheless, her mind was sharp as a tack and you had better tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth or she would catch you out if you just tried to fob her off.

She spent much of her waking time in intercession, praying not only for people in need that she knew but also nationally and internationally for people who were victims of floods, earthquakes, fires and civil wars. She listened to the news and was up on national and international affairs although she was fed up with politicians of all stripes, particularly where there was corruption and public waste. However, she never got used to calling it Zimbabwe - it was always Rhodesia for her.

Her reputation as an intercessor got to be quite awesome and people sought her out to pray for them and their needs. Once you got on to her intercession list the only way you came off was if she moved you to her thanksgiving list. She would follow up and ask how it was going with such-and-such. If you told her that the issue had resolved itself some time back she would become indignant and ask why you had never told her. What must God think of her, she would say, asking him for things that he had already answered instead of thanking him? How could she thank God if you did not tell her that her prayers had been answered?

The three sisters: Marjorie, Ethel, Bessie

Bessie the 'Gal - Durban Bay

Aunty Bessie lived a long and varied life with many ups and downs, a lot of enjoyment, fun and celebration but also a lot of hardship and pain woven throughout. Right to the end Aunty Bessie always had something to get up for in the morning. She was a real human being and daughter of Eve who came to know the loving mercy of God and the joy of sharing that with others. I still ask her to intercede for me.