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Quality Coach is a monthly newsletter of hints, ideas and perspectives on
quality. It aims to help you create simple quality systems that
are useful, real and practical.
Here's a question which applies to any 1-person or very
small business.
Q: I am a Civil Engineering consultant and provide a range of services to
mainly Local Government in traffic engineering, road, drainage design etc. I
operate as a sole practitioner, but I have strategic links to other sole
practitioners who assist me to complete projects. If I have a certified ISO
9001 quality system in place I can be registered with the State authority to
provide services to them as well as being listed on their web site as a
pre-qualified consultant.
My question is: can a sole practitioner who uses other practitioners (who
aren't certified) have a quality system that is acceptable?
A: Yes, of course.
The 9001 Standard specifically states it is intended to be 'applicable to
all organizations, regardless of type, size and product'. (clause 1.2 -
my bolding)
There are a few challenges in designing a system where you're a sole
practitioner, but none are insurmountable.
Re. the other people or organisations you use, no, they don't have to be
certified. This applies quite regardless of size, whether you're a 1-person
or a 500-person business. They are suppliers to you. While they don't have
to be certified (in your example, they presumably subcontract to you), you'd
definitely have to show how your quality system selects, monitors &
manages them to ensure that your client gets the standard of work they
expect and you agreed to supply.
But that, like so much of ISO 9001 is just sheer good business sense in any
case.
The biggest issue to consider is whether it is worth a sole practitioner
becoming certified. There's an obvious cost involved: the cost of
certification itself, plus any other costs eg, consulting/buying a kit, work
associated with developing your system.
That can be a burden for a sole practitioner (or any very small
business).
So this is something you have to weigh up to see if it's worth it to you and
to your particular business. And only you can answer that question. It is
not as simple as 'everyone should'.
For example, if it gets you no more work, and no more customers, I'd
definitely query whether it's worth the cost & time. But if having
certification does get you work that you otherwise couldn't get, or stops
you losing a large customer that you would otherwise lose, then that would
tip the scales strongly.
One of my clients was quite literally a one-man band - his main business was
import & export, and he moved things around largely via email, phone & fax.
He achieved certification. Was it worth it? In his case, yes. His largest
customer (multi-national corporation and ~80% of his business) insisted. No
ISO 9001 = no further business from them.
If you do decide to go ahead, as always: keep it simple, workable &
practical.
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