Organisations have been asked to adopt the International Organisation for Standardization’s (ISO) standards with a goal to mitigate various business risks.
Speaking during a customer awareness forum held in Nairobi, Kebs Managing Director Charles Ongwae said with increased complexity in the business environment, it is important that companies incorporate standards in the overall strategic plan.
“I urge all organisations, both public and private to incorporate both local and international standards in their business delivery plans. It is important that your companies diversify their uptake of critical standards such as Environmental Management System, Information Security Management System, Business Continuity Systems and Risk Management Systems,” said Mr Ongwae.
Currently, there are only 600 organisations which have taken up ISO standards in the country.
According to statistics from ISO, there were a total of 1,609,294 certificates issued to companies globally in 2014.
Kebs which is a certified body that offers international standards also trains companies on various standards regulations and policies. The trainings are carried by the National Quality Institute (NQI).
“We are at the forefront in influencing policies related to quality in various spheres of our economy. And we count on both public and private institutions to support us in delivering our mandate of standardizing Kenya by adopting standards,” he said.
The certification body aims at reaching out to at least 50 per cent institutions to apply for ISO 9001 quality management system as a minimum by the year 2030 whose end game is to improve quality of goods and services.
Kebs has partnered with universities in Kenya and introduced academic programmes on standardization.
This is a key focus area for Kebs in an effort to introduce students on standardization at an early stage.
Meanwhile, Mr Ongwae has also advised firms that are certified on ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2008 to comply with the revised editions ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015. The deadline for compliance is September, 2018.
According to Mr Ongwae, the revisions are meant to help businesses grow, increase customer satisfaction and profitability.
“The new editions provide a great opportunity for organisations to review their quality management system and ensure that they are aligned with the strategic priorities of their respective organizations,” he said.
For instance, one of the major changes to ISO 14001 is that it brings environmental management and continual improvement into the heart of an organisation.
This means that the new standard gives an opportunity for organisations to align their strategic direction with their environmental management system.
The standardization body will provide guidance to firms to move from the 2008 version to 2015 in a period that will end September 2018 after which Certifications to ISO 9001:2008 will be rendered null and void.