What Is Management Systems ISO 19011?
Every management system—be it general or from a specific department of your company—needs to go through an audit to determine the degree of conformance with the implemented standards. This is one of the tasks and needs that takes people and owners a lot of time since conducting or planning an audit takes a lot of time. And most companies don’t know how to carry them out properly.
However, audits are mandatory, and whenever you implement a new ISO standard in your company you will have to undergo one in order to get your certification. Now, what if you are the company in charge of conducting them? Do you know what it takes to carry them out properly? Before answering these questions, you must know there are ISOs for any area, department, aspect, element, and system in your company.
This means you will have to implement several standards that are mandatory and others that are not regulatory but bring many benefits to your company. What does this have to do with the previous questions? Well, these standards allow you to have guidelines, requirements you need to meet, and a lot of information that is more than just useful. In the case of being an organization, company, or person that carries out an audit, you can find an ISO that goes well with this duty or task. This is where ISO 19011 comes to the picture and we will let you know why you need to be well-informed with it.
Is this standard relevant to your objectives?
It is not only relevant but also necessary and mandatory. Before continuing with this topic, let’s answer the main question. ISO 19011 is a standard that provides guidelines about carrying out audits in several companies or organizations that request and require them.
The instructions and parameters in the document let you know how an audit needs to be carried out and how do you determine the degree of conformance between the company and its standards. This normative is complete and provides all the information a particular auditor or company that provides audit programs, must know in order to deliver the best. Keeping this in mind, have you ever wondered how auditors know if a business doesn’t have non-conformities or how you can tell it yourself?
Well, ISO 19011 includes the principles of auditing, guidance to manage audit programs, and how you can evaluate the auditors or people in charge of managing the program itself. Basically, it shows and teaches you how to conduct, plan, and manage an entire audit without problems in any company or business. In this way, you should be able to provide reliable services that will help you with two types of options:
- Internal audits.
- External audits.
The guidelines in the standard include all the information for both options. After all, companies can carry out an audit by themselves with the assistance of competent and experienced auditors they have hired to cover this area and need in every business. However, you might be more familiar with the businesses or companies that provide audits for other organizations, which are the ones you will notice that implement this standard the most.
Something important to mention is that most people misunderstand the ISO and think it is only to learn how to perform this process. But the truth is that the main objective lies in something the current version of the standard, ISO 19011:2018, focuses on: improving the audit program and handle the risks in the process. Remember that audit is also a department of a company and the growth will be affected unless you aim for improvement in this area as well.
If you haven’t read ISO 19011 before and this is literally your first time researching and understanding what it is, you will feel overwhelmed with all the guidelines and requirements. But it isn’t something you won’t get used to after a short period of time. Besides, the more you educate and inform yourself about it, the more trained and prepared you will be to handle the process and take advantage of the guidance in the document.
That being said, don’t underestimate how crucial this standard is for conducting and planning audits—internal or externals—, and to manage an entire program.
What happens after you finish implementing it?
Let us tell you a secret about ISOs like this: you never end. This isn’t something bad since you won’t have eternal expenses from its implementation or the ISO itself. The reason why they never end is that just think about it, the main goal is to improve your audit program and help you with the continuous growth.
Therefore, you can implement or follow the parameters and guidelines as much as you want or need to achieve the goals and objectives of your company. However, if you are asking something more specific as what happens when you have reached this point and you are in the last version and part of the edition, it is simple: you get certified. All ISO standards—once you are done implementing them—allow you to apply for a certification or get certified right away.
After all, you can get support and assistance from the validated company that will help you to follow the guidelines and provide you with customized ones. This makes the process easier and you will get your certification as soon as an assessment or evaluation is carried out for the same company.
At ISO Pros, we provide both services: support and certification. You can contact us if you want or need more information about ISO 19011 or if you have questions about our previous explanation. We are receiving calls, emails, and messages via our contact form.
You can find more information about this standard in other sections and pages of our website as well. What we can tell you for now is that it is worth to implement if you are a company in need of carrying out an audit, or you directly provide audit programs.