Barely three months into 2022 and the world has seen the emergence of a number of standardisation trends that are bound to make an impact this year, says Muhammad Ali of World Wide Industrial and Systems Engineers (Wwise).
According to Ali, who is managing director and lead auditor of the training facility for ISO standards and implementation, there is strong demand for certain certifications.
“ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System (QMS) is the qualifier of standards to provide assurance to clients that they can deliver products and services to an international standard.
“With this standard, they will be confident in the knowledge that they will have processes in place and an independent assurance body checking on the quality of their work.”
He adds: “ISO 27001: 2013 is being revised to ISO 27001: 2022 to better reflect the challenges faced by organisations in terms of cyber security.
“Eleven new controls are being added and include threat intelligence, information security for the use of cloud services, ICT readiness for business continuity; physical security monitoring, configuration management, information deletion; data masking, data leakage prevention, monitoring activities, web filtering and secure coding.”
Ali says the beauty of adhering to International Standardisation Organisation practices is that it yields tangible results.
“It not only brings in lucrative income and increased turnover for clients, but improves business performance and an organisation’s reputation. In some cases, it can even completely change the state of a nation. For example, Singapore moved away from corruption to become one of the most well-governed places in the world.
“In South Africa, Unica Iron and Steel in Hammanskraal is probably one of the best examples of how they have improved after implementing ISO standards and being certified to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001.
“They have improved their housekeeping, production targets and client satisfaction, which resulted in them expanding and automating processes.”
The best time for an organisation to consider implementing standardisation is at the beginning of the year, Ali says.
“Prepare your budgets in January or February before the financial year ends so you can begin in March or April and work towards achieving certification by the end of the year."
Ali says it is important for clients to procure the services of a consultant who is registered as a lead auditor, not simply someone who has attended a course allowing them to implement strategies.
“You need someone who has experience in various industries and is a registered lead auditor with the South African Auditor & Training Certification Authority or CQI IRCA.
“This will give the client a level of confidence that the implementer has the knowledge of an auditor. You need someone who has experience in implementation before becoming an auditor, as an auditor who implements is someone who does not always know how to effectively implement and blend into the organisation’s culture.”
