ISO 9001- Context of the Organisation

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Understanding the Context of the Organisation (or COTO for short) was a key part of the major update incorporated into the 2015 version of the ISO 9001 standard.

At the time it was a completely new ethos and way of thinking and as such it caused great distress amongst those needing to transition from the 2008 version of the standard to the newer updated 2015 version. Needless to say as time has moved on it has become clear what the standard actually expects....

The 'Context of the Organisation' is a term used to describe your place in the market. It is the defenition of who you are, what you sell and the challenges and opportunities you face.

To define your Context of the Organisation we would carry out a SWOT Analysis (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) and assess the following:

Internal & External Issues: This includes assessing staff competency, product range, knowledge share and internal culture. We would also look at the strength of the competition, changes to legislation and issues with supply chains.

We must also take into account and identify interested parties such as Employees, Customers, Sharehoders etc.

The COTO review forms an integral part of the business planning process, the outputs of the COTO review help to shape the QMS in order to keep it relevant and strategically aligned with the business objectives.

Context of the Organisation shouldn't be a box ticking operation, it is critical to understanding your business and its place in the market. If you are serious about taking advantage of the opportunities that ISO 9001 offers your company you should give GC Logicals a call.