Organizations are constantly improving their performance across a wide range of areas and sectors.
Most companies need Certifications in more than one ISO Standards depending on their industrial requirements.
The Integrated Management Standards benefit organizations in many ways. It helps to ensure the systems and processes are in line with their business goals.
Keeping overhead cost low and streamlining operations is a must-have for organizations to survive in the long run. Also, integrating your Management Systems helps to reduce duplication and improve efficiency.
Combining ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 Certifications
It turns out to be more efficient to combine the Quality Management Standard with Environment Management Standard to consolidate the common procedures and guidelines. ISO 9001:2015 & ISO 14001:2015 can be implemented simultaneously.
If an organization has ISO 9001:2015 Certification already, then an EMS can be easily integrated with a QMS.
Integrated Management System (IMS)
An Integrated Management System (IMS) combines all related components of a business into One System for easier management and operations.
The following Management Systems are often combined and managed as an Integrated Management System.
- Quality Management Systems (QMS)
- Environmental Management System (EMS)
- Occupational Health & Safety System
- Energy Management System
The Integrated Management System will eliminate the need for duplication of similar processes and the business operations can be seamlessly managed and executed.
The resources (people, facilities, equipment) and processes (quality manuals) would be shared by the IMS System.
Advantages of an Integrated Management Systems
- Consistent objectives, planning, and document management
- Lower cost of Implementation and System Operation
- Simplified internal audits
Integrated Management Standards are different from Combined Standards. Combining Standard means you are Certified in Multiple Standards using the same type of Management System.
Whereas in the case of Integrated Systems it includes the integration of different Management Systems.
The demand for new Management Standards have risen as the business world is getting more complex and dynamic.
So, Integrated Management System provides a framework to eliminate redundancies and reduce duplication in terms of process improvement practices.
Benefits of an Integrated Management System
1. Improving Performance
Organizations can effectively improve business processes and operations through Integrated Management Standards.
The Integrated Management Standard aims at focusing on improving quality, risk, and productivity.
2. Eliminating Redundancies
The integration enables the organization to eliminate redundancies in process improvement guidelines. It enables organizations to align the standards to a common management system parameter.
It helps in unifying the policies, objectives, and processes and save cost and duplication efforts in the organization.
3. Improving Accountability
The integration of strategic business operations under the ISO Standard will result in improved accountability.
4. Establishing Consistency
The Management Systems governed by ISO Certification standard will help organizations in maintaining a level of consistency.
5. Enhanced Team Communication
The organization can align various teams into a common point through the ISO Certifications.
Quality Management Systems helps organizations to take a systematic approach in managing their team and promote the principles of product quality and service delivery.
Embracing the Integrated Management System will lead to more team collaborations and transparent communications across the organization.
6. Cost Reduction
Organizations can save costs involved in ISO Audits and Assessments, also reduce business productivity costs by integrating the Management Standards.
7. Optimize Processes and Resources
The Quality Management System and other ISO Certifications provide guidelines to optimize processes and organizational resources to achieve business excellence.
8. Reducing Operational Maintenance
ISO Certification guidelines provide best practices and aim at continuous improvement. Maintenance of the existing system is a very crucial aspect of the ISO Standard framework.
Integrating the Management System Standards allows organizations to focus on improvements collectively rather than maintaining multiple systems separately.
9. Integrated Audits
Organizations requiring multiple ISO Standards could opt for the Integrated Management System. It will benefit the organization in many ways.
Integrated Management Standard requires conducting a single audit every year as part of the surveillance audit. The Audits will ensure whether the system is running as per the framework of ISO Standards and practices of continuous improvements are implemented constantly.
10. Facilitating Decision Making
The integrated approach allows the organization to analyze functional and cross-functional barriers. It helps in improving communications across the teams and enhanced decision making by the top management.
Mostly commonly ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, ISO 45001:2018 and also ISO 27001:2018 IT security standard, ISO 50001:2018 Energy Management Certification are integrated into a single combination.
Also, depending on the specific requirements those ISO Standards based on the Quality Management System and follow the Plan-Do-Check-Act framework could be easily integrated with ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System Standard.
To know more about Integrated Management Systems, talk to our expert ISO Consultants right away!
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