Since its launch in the 1980s, more than a million companies have earned the certification for ISO 9001, the international standard that specifies requirements for quality management. These organizations use the standard to demonstrate their ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory demands.

Depending on the organization’s size, achieving ISO 9001 certification can require hundreds of staff hours and cost tens of thousands of dollars. Given those hurdles, some in the architecture/engineering (A/E) industry ask: Is it worth it?

YES, IT IS
Greg Quinn answers that question with a strong affirmative. Quinn is CEO at X-Design, an interior design and project management firm based in Toronto. After becoming certified to the ISO 9001:2008 standard in 2015, X-Design recently completed re-accreditation to the 2015 standard. He says the firm has no regrets.

“It is totally worth it,” Quinn reports. “We believe ISO certification has been central to us growing to be four times bigger than we were 2013. It’s added some much-needed discipline to our project processes to support the growth we wanted to achieve.”

BEGAN AT THE BEGINNING
X-Design had been considering ISO certification since it was founded in the mid-1990s. Recently, as the firm faced more ambitious growth targets, an idea that had always been on the back burner came to be seen as a necessity.

“When you’re experiencing rapid growth, even simple things like internal communications and onboarding new staff members can be a challenge,” he says. “To become the firm we wanted to be, we knew we’d have to upgrade our quality programs. ISO certification kind of gave us a reason to do that.”

Among the immediate benefits of certification Quinn can point to:
• Streamlined operational processes that enabled the firm to keep administration teams very lean.
• Improved quality processes that helped them avoid costly mistakes.
• A better staff performance platform.
• Development of adjunct tools and skills (such as root cause analysis, OKRs, and problem solving) that have proven vital to the growth of the team.
• A training platform for new staffers coming on board.

Quinn says the certification has helped X-Design make their processes leaner, identify areas of friction in the project delivery process, and improve communications within the organization and with clients. He believes it is largely responsible for the firm growing from 50 – 60 project starts a year to more than 300 in 2018.

“These days, we can have as many as 10 project start-ups a week. That would have been chaos without ISO training,” he says. “ISO certification forces us to get better. Continuous improvement is baked into the standard. If our teams are not constantly getting leaner and more effective, then we fail.”

And somewhat to its surprise, X-Design has also found certification to be an effective sales tool: “Some clients really gravitate to it,” says Quinn. “Maybe it’s because not a lot of A/E firms have it, but certification sets us apart from the competition. Our clients are some of the world’s biggest brands, and ISO certification tells them we are as disciplined as they are.”

This article is featured in the March edition of the Professional Services  Management Journal (PSMJ) newsletter. In today’s fast-moving information overload world, it seems that there is industry-related content everywhere you look, with some nuggets of advice on how you can be more successful. PSMJ’s carefully-curated content ensures that you are not getting generic filler, hypothetical fluff, or anything but proven battle-tested advice. Check out a free copy available at the link below.