UPDATE ON STANDARDS

In the past year there has been a lot of activity in the development and revision of ISO standards. Highlighted below are a few key updates:

ISO 41001 – Facility Management

This new standard applies the concept of the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle to the discipline of Facilities Management. This standard provides the requirements for a facility management system where an organization needs to demonstrate effective and efficient delivery of services. The standard is aligned with the High Level Structure adopted by ISO thus ensuring easier integration with other standards. Benefits of implementing this standard, per ISO, include improved productivity, communications, service consistency and costs benefits.

ISO 19011 – Guidelines for Auditing

ISO 19001 has become the primary guideline for all audits conducted globally. The FDIS was recently cleared and the updated revision is due to be published in July 2018. One of the main changes lies in the new auditing principle “Risk-based approach: an audit approach that considers risks and opportunities. The risk-based approach should substantively influence the planning, conducting, and reporting of audits in order to ensure that audits are focused on matters that are significant for the auditee and for achieving the audit program objectives.” This approach is evident in all the clauses of the standard which not follows the High level Structure. We will further update our readers as the standard is published.

ISO 9004 – Guidance to achieve sustained success

The standard has been updated to reflect the guidelines to achieve sustained success of and ISO 9001:2015 QMS. Per ISO, factors affecting an organization’s success continually emerge, evolve, increase or diminish over the years, and adapting to these changes is important for sustained success. The document addresses systematic improvement of overall performance and includes a self-assessment tool for reviewing the extent of conformity by the organization.

QMII Headquarters is moving to Loudoun County, VA

The company is moving to a fully renovated office space at Pipeline Plaza, Ashburn, by the end of March 2015.

QMII chose Loudoun County as its headquarters to better serve government clients such as The U.S Coast Guard, Federal Highways and NOAA, as well as to meet the growing demands of the region’s businesses. “Over 28 years of assisting corporations of varied sizes and diverse industries, we have come to understand the pains of ineffective management systems and the vital impact it has on financial and material resources, the company’s reputation and stakeholders’ objectives. Our ultimate goal is to enable our clients to become more efficient by continually improving their management system and, in the long run, allowing innovation to be nurtured leading to a better economy and stronger nation.” – declares QMII President & CEO, Captain IJ Arora (IJ).

The new facility includes a modern and functional classroom for 10 students. “Now we have our own training space so we can locally add tremendous value to large, medium and small businesses seeking to jump-start improvements on their systems and obtain conformity or certification to ISO Standards such as 9001, 14001 and 28000 among a host of others. Companies looking to invest in advancing their teams will also benefit from our team building, leadership and lead auditor courses to achieve continual growth .” -adds IJ.

QMII is now located at 44081 Pipeline Plaza unit 115, Ashburn, VA 20147. For more information about QMII services, visit their site at www.qmii.com.