Does it Take Too Long to Implement a Quality Management System?

No matter where the requirement for certification to ISO standard is coming from the biggest challenge is to understand how long will it take to implement a QMS?

Based on your resource availability and capacity, it is critical that timelines are created.  Not only will it help to ensure an appropriate budget is allocated but also to monitor the important milestones.

How long you will take to implement a quality management system? Here are some rules of thumb.

A generic guideline based on the employee count & number of locations is as below:

  • 50 people or less: Smaller business? Play your cards right and you’re looking at 6-8 months.
  • Under 500 employees: Get the right people on your team and you’re doing in under a year.
  • 500+: Larger means longer, but you could be finished in as few as 15 months.

Most small businesses can implement ISO in 3 months or less with Sync Resource. 

Start with a detailed gap assessment. Gap Analysis helps to identify the gaps in policies, procedures, processes, a document review as compared to the standard requirement. Once you know where the difference is, you can figure out how to close the gap.

You can implement quality management by yourself but getting an expert to help you will absolutely speed up the process since the expert focuses on “how to”. While doing it yourself may seem economical, the time and resources you use in your trial and error will cost your organization the next customer or contract.

An expert helps you understand the requirement and identify the best way to implement without changing the core processes. The bottom line is with the right people, you can implement a quality management system quickly, effectively and most important correctly.