Have you ever thought to integrate the ISO 9001 quality management system and ISO 14001 environmental management system together? Many companies save both time and money by working on these two different management systems together. You may, undoubtedly, face a few challenging while integrating ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 together, but their similarities will make it easy for you to implement them in a fair manner.
ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 have got many requirements that are identical in nature and can easily be done together while meeting the requirements of the two standards of ISO family. For example, the overall policy and objects with targets are required by both the standards. Similarly, both standards require identified responsibility and authority from the concerned organization. Other similarities include competence, awareness, training, communication, controlled system documents, records, non-conformity, preventive action, internal audit, and management review of the system.
With all these similarities, doesn’t it seem logical to maintain these two standards together? You can easily have one system to work on preventive actions and competence checking. Similarly, you can have a combined system for training, awareness, and management review. Most importantly, the similarities between ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 in Saudi Arabia allow you to use one documentation control procedure that can easily cater to both systems.
There are a few main differences between the two standards. The differences, however, can make the integration process a little difficult for you. Have a look at some elements of ISO 14001 that you won’t find in ISO 9001:
Legal Requirements
In ISO 14001, you will find a separate section that urges to identify and maintain legal requirements that can pertain to the company. Once this is done, a continued review can also be performed regarding the resources. If you can’t do it by yourself, you can easily find many companies offering their services, particularly for identification and maintenance. The standard also demands to evaluate compliance with the requirements the standard identifies.
Emergency Response
ISO 14001 also urges organizations to make plans for emergency preparedness. Plans for emergency preparedness or response are important to cater to emergencies so that a company can minimize environmental damages.
A company also needs to identify and classify environmental aspects, especially its interactions with the environment. The interaction can be both negative and positive, so every company striving to get ISO 14001 certified has to prove that its processes are environmentally friendly.
Thus, a company can save both time and money by interaction both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 together. The similarities between the two standards such as overall policy, competence, training, and others make it easy for a company to implement these two different management systems. However, a few challenging may hinder your process, and you’ll be required to approach a professional and trained ISO professional to get this job done with perfection.
