ISO 14001 Standards – Control Of Forms

ISO 14001:2004, element 4.4.5, instructs an organization to control documents required by the EMS and the standard. While some companies often try to justify not controlled forms, let’s find out if forms are the same as “documents” and if they also should be controlled.

Organizations use forms and tables within their environmental, quality, H&S and other management systems. Often, instead of preparing a traditional instruction or a procedure with all the sections, such as scope, purpose and process description, a simple form can provide this information. Frequently registrars issue companies non-conformities for their not controlled forms of their EMS.

Repeatedly I discuss this issue with my clients. Regularly I hear the same answer “Why do I need control a form?” Honestly, I do not understand this! Why should a form be treated differently from any other document? How would one know that we need a form if it is not referenced in our ISO 14001 management system? If forms are not managed by your documentation system, and you decide to modify them, how can you be confident that you make changes to the latest revision? Anyway, what is a form? A short review will help answering this question. If we have a list of directions telling us to:

1 – prepare 2-column table

2 – note your organization’s name in the first column

3 – put your business’s URL into the 2-nd column

There is no doubt; most of us would call this three-line direction a procedure or an instruction. So, if this is an instruction, it shall be controlled per ISO 14001 Standard.

Now, what if we were given a two-column table where the first column was titled “You enterprise name” and the second column “Internet address”. We were asked to complete the form. Easy to imagine, we would enter our company’s name and our URL in the table. It means that we interpreted this table as an “instruction”. If it walks like duck it is a duck! OK, most like a duck

This example demonstrate that our first three-line instruction in English (that obviously needs to be controlled), serves the same function, producing the same result, as our form. Therefore, the form as an instruction and “shall” be controlled as well.

I suspect that the confusion regarding forms used in ISO 14001 environmental management systems is based on the fact that forms serve two purposes. Blank forms are brief instructions written in tabular language. The same form, after being completed, becomes a record. Since records are not required to have a number, I presume this transposes on the source document – our blank table. Let’s remember this and treat our blank forms as instructions letting the documentation control process govern them. There are a couple of easy tests you may take when you are tempted to use a form that has not been identified:

- If you created a form for ISO 14001:2004 EMS and found it was changed, would you like to know who did it and why?

- If you revised one of your ISO 14001 forms, would you like your users use the latest revision?

- If you are in Brazil on a business trip, would you like other employees to know where to find your form in your EMS?

If you answered, “yes” at least once, your form is a definite candidate for being a part of your formal ISO 14001 documentation management system.

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ISO Certification – A Standard For a Quality Business

ISO certification is accepted as the worldwide stamp of approval for business wanting to demonstrate compliance to quality systems. It is an organization working across 161 countries around the world looking to established standards for quality of materials, products, process, etc. It provided unique identification and goodwill to the organization to conduct business with any other, to deal in a global market.

The importance of ISO certification is that it provides assurance of Quality management which gives assurance to the customers. ISO Standard assessment and certification is recognized worldwide for giving your business the competitive edge, client confidence and market place leverage.

ISO provides the necessary tools to improve and unite work force of a business to increased profit margins, work efficiency, improved accuracy and customer base right through business operations. So although the process seems daunting and time consuming, the benefits of taking the time and putting the initial hard work into certification is well worth it for the long term benefit achieved. The process also includes regular internal audits of a company, to identify any nonconformity in procedures or documentation. By this it is easy catch small errors in processes or procedures before they become costly problems.

There are many ISO Companies that provides ISO Certification, Quality management, ISO standards, ISO 9001, ISO 9000, ISO 14001, ISO 27001, ISO 17025, ohsas, ohsas 18001 etc. It helps to ensure and keep the organization focus in terms of standard and quality. This is made possible in the course of certification. The organization will be given standards to work with and other training or enlightenments. The organization is to continue to follow if it must remain in the good book of the ISO. It helps in building customers trust and confidence in the company and its products. All an all ISO certification is very important for the growth and trust of customer on the business.

Read more on ISO 9001 Standards at http://www.iso9001store.com