ISO certification for the leather industry - a guide

The leather industry is a manufacturing sector that utilizes the raw material from food industry waste and transforms the waste product into workwear and protective equipment such as leather work gloves, apparel, etc. It is an extensive and intricate process. Thus, the manufacturers adopt batch production for the fulfillment of orders.

ISO Certification 9001

For the quality assurance of leather work products, there is an international quality management system called ISO certification. ISO is an International Organization for Standardization. It is an independent, global, non-governmental group, established in 1946 to create uniformity in industrial standards.

It sets the criteria for a customer-focused quality management system. The organization’s purpose is to develop standards to certify businesses. The ISO certification includes three components: ISO, 9001, and 2015.

These numbers appear after ISO classifies the standard. The standard within ISO 9000 family refers to the quality management system. This standard aid businesses to focus on strong customer satisfaction, ensuring that customers get consistent, good-quality products and services.

Leather organizations with ISO 9001 certification mean it has met the requirements under ISO 9001. It establishes procedures for monitoring and controlling the production or activities.

Implementing this standard will help the organization in fulfilling the quality management standards.

To be able to sell your products to certain industries, being ISO 9001 certified is required. ISO certification lays out the requirements to fulfill every order. These standards ensure quality, consistency, and safety while keeping the products and services relevant. In short, ISO certification shows this company is trustworthy.

What are ISO 9001 requirements?

To have ISO certification some documents are needed to be submitted by the organization that reports their internal processes, procedures, and standards. These documents determine the ability of a company, in ensuring quality products and services consistently.

ISO 9001 standard requires the organization to address the seven key areas which are known as clauses; to achieve continual improvement within your quality management system.

The seven principles of quality management that are the basis of ISO 9001:2015 and are appropriate for any organization are as follows:

Seven Key Principles of Quality

  1. Customer Satisfaction – meeting your customers’ expectations and requirements and ensuring quality products and services each time.
  2. Leadership – demonstrating the operations in a strategic direction.
  3. Engagement of people – is about providing sufficient training to the workers, equipping them with the right knowledge, and empowering them for quality work.
  4. Process approach – is the cycle of planning, doing, checking, and implementing the activities in the correct order.
  5. Continual improvement – To make sure the customer requirements are being fulfilled there needs to be continuous improvement and adaptation to meet the current demands.
  6. Evidence‐based decision-making – Thorough decision-making with the available evidence and data to assess the performance process and progress.
  7. Relationship management – It is about developing and maintaining a healthy relationship with the providers in the supply chain.

Training Timelines for ISO Standards

The training timeline depends on many factors, like understanding the requirements, the preparedness of an organization, and the size and complexity of the organization. The expected duration to receive the certification is three to six months.

Remember that only businesses can become ISO certified and not individuals. And the certification is not provided by ISO, instead, the certification is made possible through third-party organizations.

Maintaining ISO 9001 Certification

The ISO certificate is valid for three years. It is stated in ISO 9001 requirements that the responsibility for a quality management system lies with the top management. The top management performs regular internal audits for the proper documentation to ensure quality checks and in addition to that, an outside third party performs an audit every three years to confirm that all quality standards comply.

The employees are responsible for the delivery of quality to their aspects of work. It is the job of the top management to ensure quality checks. They often delegate the task of analyzing quality management system data and performance evaluation to a quality manager.

What does ISO 9001 certification mean for customers?

An ISO 9001-certified leather industry means that one can expect a consistently high-quality standard for the products they purchase. Some qualified customers may also request a copy of the company’s updated quality manual. They receive peace of mind knowing they can expect quality purchases each time.

Conclusion

ISO certification is an international standardization for quality assurance, helping you maintain, strengthen, and improve your overall quality management system, leaving the customers to rest assured.

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