How To Implement ISO 9001 Standards Using Template & Softwares

There are few ways of implementing the ISO 9000 in a particular organization. One of the easy way is hiring a ISO 9000 consultant in a turn key project basis. This definitely will incur cost. However, some of the organization will appoiint an employee to start up the ISO 9000, by learning thru seminar, preparing the ISO 9000 Quality Manual, Procedure & Form by using some of the ISO 9000 Template sell at internet. Some of the provider such as http://www.iso-consults.com & http://www.quality-template.com are providing such services.

Normally, the template provide will provides the ISO 9000 Quality Manual Template, Standand Procedure & also sample form for the ISO 9000 implementation. One of the provider likehttp://www.e-wia.com give a very complete set of the ISO 9000 Templates, which will help an organization to implement the ISO 9000 easily.

There are also some ISO 9000 Softwares which helps the organization in the ISO 9000 implementation. Some of the ISO 9000 Software are listed below:

a. Document Control Software – Software which Helps the organization to keep track & control of the ISO 9000 Documents.

b. Audit Control Software – Software which helps the organization to keep track of internal & external audit events.

c. Training Record Management Software – Software which helps the organization to keep track of Training records in a system.

d. Calibration Software – Software to maintain the calibration records for tool & machinery.

More Sites on ISO 9001 Standards Template & Softwares are as below:

http://www.iso9001store.com

http://www.iso14000store.com

ISO 14001 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AUDIT

In order to be in conformance with this provision of ISO 14001 an organization must be able to answer the overall question: “How does the organization conduct environmental audits of the EMS?”. In order to answer that question four specific tasks must be addressed under the Management System Audit section of the standard.

First, the organization must develop a program and related procedures that define an audit plan of the environmental management system. In addition the program must define frequency of the audit process. Second, the procedures must specify the methodology of the audit process, including the qualifications of the auditors. Third, the audit reports must be submitted to top management. Fourth, the audit reports must provide recommendations directed at correcting any reported nonconformance that was discovered in the audit process.

The audit process discussed in this section of the standard is directed at internal audits. The standard is silent on the frequency issue. Generally accepted practice with a mature ISO 14001system is a total audit of the system once a year. In the implementation phase of anenvironmental management system a more frequent audit process might be appropriate. In addition any part of the environmental management system that has been previously determined to be in nonconformance should be audited with an increased frequency. The methodology of the audit process required by the standard requires two distinct steps:

A. determine whether the environmental management system conforms to the requirements of ISO 14001, and
B. that the system has been managed as described in the Environmental Policy statement, the Environmental Objectives and Targets, and the related work descriptions and procedures.

It is critical that an audit report that relates a nonconformance be forwarded to top management promptly. The internal audit staff must be competent with respect to the requirements of ISO 14001.

INTEGRATING THE NATURAL STEP ELEMENTS INTO ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

In 1988, Dr. Karl-Henrik Robert began the process of developing the principles and objectives that have become known as The Natural Step.

Robert convened a group of over 100 Swedish scientists and asked them to develop a vision for a sustainable society based on the scientific principles. The Natural Step framework (Robert, 1991) was the result of this effort and is becoming widely recognized.

In this framework, there are four underlying principles or conditions and four guiding objectives.

These system conditions are:

Nature should not be subject to systematically increasing concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth’s crust;

Nature should not be subject to increasing concentrations of substances produced by society;

Nature should not be subject to systematically increasing degradation by physical means; and

People should not be subject to conditions that systematically undermine their capacity to meet their needs.

These conditions can be converted to four objectives that are more easily understood:

Eliminate our community’s contribution to fossil fuel dependency and to the wasteful use of scarce metals and minerals;

Eliminate our community’s contribution to dependency upon persistent chemicals and the wasteful use of synthetic substances;

Eliminate our community’s contribution to encroachment upon nature; and Meet human needs fairly and efficiently.

To apply The Natural Step, Boisvert et al. (1999) recommend an A-B-C-D approach: Awareness, Baseline Analysis, Compelling Vision, and Down to Action. Kent County chose to align its program with The Natural Step because of its simplicity and scientific basis.

An environmental management system (EMS) is a set of processes and practices that enable an organization to reduce the environmental impacts from its operations and increase efficiency. It helps the organization to systematically manage its environmental “footprint.” Alternatively, according to the ISO definition (ISO, 2004) an EMS is “a part of an organization’s management system used to develop and implement its environmental policy and manage its environmental aspects.” It is built upon the concept of continuous improvement and follows a four element Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. The EMS is an evolving process and is consistently modified to accommodate new information, changing circumstances and changes in organization priorities.

The critical components of each of the four elements are:

Planning, includes identifying environmental aspects and establishing goals [Plan];

Implementing, includes training and operational controls [Do];

Checking, includes monitoring and corrective action [Check]; and

Reviewing, includes progress reviews and acting to make needed changes to the EMS [Act].

There are a variety of reasons that an organization may develop and implement an EMS. The reasons are many and varied and often depend upon the type of organization. A business with international offices has different reasons than a public agency to develop and implement an EMS. Table 1 provides a list of the most common of these reasons.

Some disadvantages to developing and implementing an EMS relate to the costs associated with development of the program and include:

An investment of internal resources, including staff/employee time;

Costs for training of personnel;

Costs associated with hiring consulting assistance, if needed; and

Costs for technical resources to analyze environmental impacts and improvement options, if needed.

Critical factors that assure the success of any management system include:

Commitment from senior management;

Designated staff including a Core team to act as a cheerleader and a representative trained in the program;

Involvement of all employees in the covered fenceline;

Dedicated resources;

A link to the overall strategic planning of the organization;

Sufficient time to develop and implement the program;

Proper follow through on the checking and acting components; and

A willingness to make the cultural shift required for the program to succeed.

The ISO 14001 guidance lists 17 elements, shown in Table 2, as the foundation of an EMS.

Several documents and publications cover the various elements of an EMS in detail. One of these is the US EPA publication “Achieving Environmental Excellence: An Environmental Management Systems (EMS) Handbook for Wastewater Utilities,”

Monitoring and Measurement In ISO 14001 Standards

Monitoring and Measurement In ISO 14001 Standards

The Monitoring and Measurement section contains two requirements:

1) Measurement and monitoring of environmental performance associated with operations that can have a significant impact on the environment; and

2) Calibration and maintenance of equipment used for environmental monitoring and measurement.

Monitoring and Measuring of Performance — This section calls for a“procedure to monitor and measure… key characteristics of… operations that can have a significant impact on the environment.”

Note that the section does not specifically require the organization to monitor and measure the significant environmental impacts of its products or services. As a practical matter, however, organizations should establish measurements over all environmental aspects that they determine are significant irrespective of whether the impacts relate to an activity, product, or service.

This section also requires the documentation“of information to monitor performance, applicable operational controls, and… environmental objectives and targets.” §4.6,

Management Review, requires that environmental performance and achievement of objectives and targets become inputs into the Management Review (sub-sections c & d).

Calibration and Maintenance — The requirement of having a calibration system is to ensure that measurements are reliable and accurate. A calibration system may be developed following these steps:

· Identification of measurements to be made;

· Identification of equipment, instruments, hardware and software to be used;

· Identification of the testing methods to be used;

· Determination of the accuracy and precision required or desired;

· Definition of calibration procedures;

· Use of the system;

· Establishment of records;

· If equipment is found to be out of calibration, corrective action; and

· Improvement of the system as necessary.

ISO 14001 Standards Certification

ISO 14001 Standards Certification

ISO 14001 sets out a system that can be audited and certified. In many cases, it is the issue of certification that is critical or controversial and is at the heart of the discussion about the trade implications.

Certification means that a qualified body (an “accredited certifier”) has inspected the EMS system that has been put in place and has made a formal declaration that the system is consistent with the requirements of ISO 14001.

The standard allows for “self-certification,” a declaration by an enterprise that it conforms to ISO 14001. There is considerable skepticism as to whether this approach would be widely accepted, especially when certification has legal or commercial consequences. At the same time, obtaining certification can entail significant costs, and there are issues relating to the international acceptance

of national certification that may make it particularly difficult for companies in some countries to achieve credible certification at a reasonable cost. For firms concerned about having certification that carries real credibility, the costs of bringing in international auditors are typically quite high, partly because the number of internationally recognized firms of certifiers is limited at present.2

The issue of accreditation of certifiers is becoming increasingly important as the demand increases.

Countries that have adopted ISO 14001 as a national standard can accredit qualified companies as certifiers, and this will satisfy national legal or contractual requirements. However, the fundamental purpose of ISO is to achieve consistency internationally. If certificates from certain countries or agencies are not fully accepted or are regarded as “second class,” the goal will not have been achieved. It is probable that the international marketplace will eventually put a

real commercial value on high-quality certificates, but this level of sophistication and discrimination has not yet been achieved. It is essential to the ultimate success of the whole system that there be a mechanism to ensure that certification in any one country has credibility and acceptability elsewhere.

The ISO has outlined procedures for accreditation and certification (Guides 61 and 62), and a formal body, QSAR, has been established to operationalize the process. At the same time, a number of established national accreditation bodies

heavily involved in ISO have set up the informal International Accreditation Forum (IAF) to examine mechanisms for achieving international reciprocity through multilateral agreements (MLAs). However, these systems are in the early

stages, and many enterprises continue to use the established international certifiers, even at additional cost, because of lack of confidence in the acceptability of local certifiers.

Given the variability in the design of individual EMS and the substantial costs of the ISO 14000 certification process, there is a growing tendency for large companies that are implementing EMS approaches to pause before taking this

last step. After implementing an EMS and confirming that the enterprise is broadly in conformance with ISO 14001, it is becoming routine to carry out a “gap analysis” to determine exactly what further actions would be required to achieve

certification and to examine the benefits and costs of bringing in third-party certifiers.

ISO 14001 Standards Certification

ISO 14001 Standards sets out a system that can be audited and certified. In many cases, it is the issue of certification that is critical or controversial and is at the heart of the discussion about the trade implications.

Certification means that a qualified body (an “accredited certifier”) has inspected the EMS system that has been put in place and has made a formal declaration that the system is consistent with the requirements of ISO 14001 Standards.

The standard allows for “self-certification,” a declaration by an enterprise that it conforms toISO 14001 Standards. There is considerable skepticism as to whether this approach would be widely accepted, especially when certification has legal or commercial consequences. At the same time, obtaining certification can entail significant costs, and there are issues relating to the international acceptance

of national certification that may make it particularly difficult for companies in some countries to achieve credible certification at a reasonable cost. For firms concerned about having certification that carries real credibility, the costs of bringing in international auditors are typically quite high, partly because the number of internationally recognized firms of certifiers is limited at present.2

The issue of accreditation of certifiers is becoming increasingly important as the demand increases.

Countries that have adopted ISO 14001 Standards as a national standard can accredit qualified companies as certifiers, and this will satisfy national legal or contractual requirements. However, the fundamental purpose of ISO is to achieve consistency internationally. If certificates from certain countries or agencies are not fully accepted or are regarded as “second class,” the goal will not have been achieved. It is probable that the international marketplace will eventually put a

real commercial value on high-quality certificates, but this level of sophistication and discrimination has not yet been achieved. It is essential to the ultimate success of the whole system that there be a mechanism to ensure that certification in any one country has credibility and acceptability elsewhere.

The ISO has outlined procedures for accreditation and certification (Guides 61 and 62), and a formal body, QSAR, has been established to operationalize the process. At the same time, a number of established national accreditation bodies

heavily involved in ISO have set up the informal International Accreditation Forum (IAF) to examine mechanisms for achieving international reciprocity through multilateral agreements (MLAs). However, these systems are in the early

stages, and many enterprises continue to use the established international certifiers, even at additional cost, because of lack of confidence in the acceptability of local certifiers.

Given the variability in the design of individual EMS and the substantial costs of the ISO 14000 certification process, there is a growing tendency for large companies that are implementing EMS approaches to pause before taking this

last step. After implementing an EMS and confirming that the enterprise is broadly in conformance with ISO 14001 Standards, it is becoming routine to carry out a “gap analysis” to determine exactly what further actions would be required to achieve

certification and to examine the benefits and costs of bringing in third-party certifiers.

What Is Environmental Management System?

What Is ISO 14001 Environmental Management System?

ISO 14000 is primarily concerned with Environmental Management. In plain language, this means what the organization does to minimize harmful effects on the environment caused by its activities.

Improving the environmental performance of corporations is one way of limiting environmental damage. Environmental management systems (EMS’s), such as ISO 14001, provide a framework for organizations that wish to effectively manage their environmental affairs. Implementing an EMS that conforms to the ISO 14001 standard may help businesses integrate environmental values into their operations.

An EMS can be described as a program of continuous environmental improvement that follows a defined sequence of steps drawn from established project management practice and routinely applied in business management. In simple terms these steps are as follows:
• Review the environmental consequences of the operations.
• Define a set of policies and objectives for environmental performance.
• Establish an action plan to achieve the objectives.
• Monitor performance against these objectives.
• Report the results appropriately.
• Review the system and the outcomes and strive for continuous improvement.
Not every system will present these steps in exactly the same way, but the basic principles are clear and easily understandable.

The ISO 14000 series is a series of standards for different aspects of environmental management. A number of these standards relating to environmental management systems have been adopted formally by the members of the ISO, while others are in different stages of preparation.

ISO 14000 is a group of standards covering the following areas:
•Environmental Management Systems (14001,14002, 14004)
•Environmental Auditing (14010, 14011, 14012)
•Evaluation of Environmental Performance (14031)
•Environmental Labeling (14020, 14021, 14022, 14023, 14024, 14025)
•Life-Cycle Assessment (14040, 14041,14042, 14043)

History Of ISO 14001 Standards

The ISO 14000 series emerged primarily as a result of the Uruguay round of the GATT negotiations and the Rio Summit
on the Environment held in 1992. While GATT concentrates on the need to reduce non-tariff barriers to trade, the Rio
Summit generated a commitment to protection of the environment across the world. The environmental field has
seen a steady growth of national and regional standards.
The British Standards Institution has BS 7750, the Canadian Standards Association has environmental management,
auditing, eco-labeling and other standards, the European Union has all of these plus the eco-management and audit
requlations, and many other countries (e.g. USA, Germany and Japan) have introduced eco-labeling programs.
After the rapid acceptance of ISO 9000, and the increase of environmental standards around the world, ISO assessed
the need for international environmental management standards. They formed the Strategic Advisory Group on the
Environment (SAGE) in 1991, to consider whether such standards could serve to:
· Promote a common approach to environmental
· management similar to quality management
· Enhance organizations’ ability to attain and measure improvements in environmental performance; and
· Facilitate trade and remove trade barriers.

In 1992, SAGE’s recommendations created a new committee, TC 207, for international environmental management standards. The committee, and its subcommittees include representatives from industry, standards organizations, government and environmental organizations from many countries.
ISO 14004 and ISO 14001—were published in September and October 1996, respectively. The ISO 14000 family
consists of standards and guidelines relating to environmental management systems and supporting standards, terminology and specific tools, such as auditing.
Essentially, the standards are concerned with what an organization does to minimize harmful effects on the environment caused by its activities: either during production or disposal, either by pollution or by depleting natural resources.

Elements Of ISO 14001 Environmental Management System

Elements Of ISO 14001 Environmental Management System

ISO/DIS 14001 is one of a series of emerging international environmental management standards aimed at promoting
continual improvement in company environmental performance through the adoption and implementation of an environmental management system. The (draft) standard specifies the core elements of an EMS, but contains only those elements that may be objectively audited for certification or self-declaration purposes. A companion guidance standard, ISO/DIS 14004 includes examples, descrïptions and options that aid in the implementation of an EMS and in integrating the EMS into overall management practices. It is not intended for use by certification/registration bodies.

ISO/DIS 14001 defines an overall environmental management system , closely modeled on the ISO 9000 quality systems standard , and covers the following key elements:

· Establishment of an appropriate environmental policy that is documented and communicated to employees and made available to the public, and which includes a commitment to continual improvement and pollution prevention, regulatory compliance and a framework for setting objectives;
· A planning phase that covers the identification of the environmental aspects of the organization’s activities, identification and access to legal requirements, establishment and documentation of objectives and targets consistent with the policy, and establishment of a program for achieving said targets and objectives (including the designation of responsible individuals, necessary means and timeframes);
· Implementation and operation of the EMS including the definition, documentation and communication of roles and responsibilities, provision of appropriate training, assurance of adequate internal and external communication, written management system documentation as well as appropriate document control procedures, documented procedures for operational controls, and documented and communicated emergency response procedures;
· Checking and corrective action procedures, including procedures for regular monitoring and measurement of key characteristics of the operations and activities, procedures for dealing with situations of non-conformity, specific record maintenance procedures and procedures for auditing the performance of the EMS;
· Periodic management reviews of the overall EMS to ensure its suitability, adequacy and effectiveness in light of changing circumstances.

The EMS as outlined in ISO 14001 provides a structured process for the achievement of continual improvement, the rate and extent of which is determined by the organization in light of economic and other circumstances. Although some improvement in environmental performance can be expected due to the adoption of a systematic approach, it should be understood that the EMS is a tool which enables the organization to achieve and systematically control the level of environmental performance that it sets itself. The establishment of an EMS will not, in itself, necessarily result in an immediate reduction of adverse environmental impact. Indeed, care needs to be taken that the mere establishment of an EMS does not lull the organization into a false sense of security. But effectively used, an EMS should enable an organization to improve its environmental performance and avoid or reduce adverse environmental impacts over time.

Environmental Policy In iSO 14001 Standard

Environmental Policy In ISO 14001 Standard

The company or organisation must write an environmental policy

statement which is relevant to the business activities and approved by

top management. Their full commitment is essential if environmental

management is to work. The ISO 14001 Standard clearly sets out

what to cover in the policy. Often a one page document is sufficient.

Produce a first issue and expect to amend it several times before

assessment and registration as knowledge grows in the company.