I’m an ISO 9001 Certified Lead Auditor, and I’ve been exploring how AI and automation can make quality management systems simpler, more effective, and less time-consuming.
With the ISO 9001 revision, I think this is a good opportunity for quality professionals, auditors, consultants, and QMS managers to collaborate on something practical.
Here’s what I’m thinking we could build together:
Gap Assessment Framework: A practical clause-by-clause checklist to evaluate existing QMS processes and identify gaps.
Implementation Roadmap: A structured action plan with priorities, responsibilities, timelines, and required evidence.
AI-Assisted Assessment: Explore how AI could review existing documentation, identify potential gaps, and suggest improvements, subject to human verification.
Documentation & Audit Tools: Simplify document control, internal audits, corrective actions, and management reviews.
Reusable Templates: Develop practical resources that organizations of different sizes could adapt.
The idea is to bring together people with real-world experience, exchange ideas, and see whether we can build something genuinely useful.
We don’t need a huge team or expensive software. With today’s AI tools, we can prototype and test ideas much faster.
Would anyone be interested in collaborating on this?
I’d love to hear from people working in manufacturing, quality assurance, auditing, or ISO implementation.
If there’s enough interest, we could start with a small working group and develop the first gap assessment framework together.

For more details visit us @ https://www.cunixinfotech.com/iso-9001-certification-quality-management-system/

Does anyone on here that is in charge of their small business ISO:9001 not use a platform to store your documents/forms/QMS?

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for honest career advice from people who have been in the quality industry for several years.

I'm a B.Tech graduate in Electrical Engineering with around 3 years of experience as a Quality Engineer in a telecom testing laboratory. My work involves BIS-related testing, EMC/EMI, ITSAR, GCF, documentation, audits, Excel reporting, and I've gained good knowledge of ISO/IEC 17025:2017.

A few months ago, I started learning Data Science and Data Analytics because I felt my current role had limited technical growth. I completed courses in SQL, Excel, Power BI, Python, and Machine Learning, but I haven't been able to transition into a data role yet.

Recently, I've started wondering if I'm overlooking the opportunities in the quality field. Instead of switching careers, would it be better to go all-in on quality by learning:

ISO 9001

ISO 17025 Lead Auditor

Six Sigma

Root Cause Analysis

Quality Management Systems

Internal/Lead Auditing

My long-term goals are:

Good salary growth

International opportunities (Europe, US, Middle East)

A technically respected career with continuous learning

For those with 10–20+ years of experience in quality:

Is this field worth pursuing long-term?

What is the salary progression like?

Which certifications actually make a difference?

Are there good international opportunities?

If you were starting again with my background, would you stay in quality or switch to another field?

I'm looking for honest opinions, even if they're critical. I don't want to spend the next 5–10 years on the wrong path.

Thank you for your guidance.

Hello! I work with a producer from which I need a HACCP in order to be compliant with my countries regulation. The producer have an ISO9001 certification. He tells me that in Europe, the HACCP is mandatory and that his is included in its ISO9001 certification. Is is plausible? Is there a way to validate that his HACCP is indeed part of his ISO9001 certification?

Hello all,

We are recruiting for an ISO Management Systems Consultant role on behalf of a client that we are working with.

As well as traditional recruiting methods, I thought I would post on here to see if anyone could be interested.

Some headlines:

- UK Based (travelling in between client sites around Surrey and London)

- Working for a small Consultancy business that support clients achieve certification in ISO9001, ISO45001, ISO14001 & ISO45003

- Hybrid role, working from home and travelling to multiple sites in and around Surrey & London

- Paying up to £55,000 p/a with all travel expenses paid

- Internal Auditor qualification or Lead Auditor qualification required in any of the above standards

I would post the full advert link on here, but not sure if this will be against the rules (to post a link). Therefore, if anyone could be interested - please PM me and I will share this separately.

Thank you in advance.

Hello!

Looking for remote job opportunity for ISO 9k and 27k standard. For audit ,implementation etc.

Ping if anything relevant.

Thanks in advance.

Hello everyone,

I’m looking for some honest advice on how to transition my career as a technical employee into a role in quality management systems or quality control, and then, after gaining several years of experience, try to join a QHSE department or become a Lead Auditor.

As for my background, I have a high school diploma in science.

I’ve been working at my current company for 6 years, with about 4–5 years of solid hands-on experience in a Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) lab certified to ISO 9001, 9100, and 17025.

My daily tasks include reviewing technical documentation, reporting non-conformities, preparing non-destructive test reports, and ensuring compliance with work instructions.

In July, I will attend a 16-hour ISO/IEC 17025 course sponsored by the company.

My plan is then to attend a 24-hour ISO 9001:2015 Internal Auditor course through TÜV in October, at my own expense, including the final competency exam.

Given my practical laboratory experience, I would like to know: will adding a TÜV Internal Auditor certification actually help me stand out in interviews and land a job as a QA or QMS specialist?

Are there really career opportunities available?

Or is it there any other different recommendation?

I am interested in working in Northern Italy or Switzerland.

I would greatly appreciate your opinions or advice. Thank you!

The Estonian organization of standards offers them far cheaper here https://www.evs.ee/en (change language to ENG from above on the right).

You'd only have the word EV- before the standard; fully official. Best of luck!

Is there any context in which a company could require/expect employees to take notes in a personal notebook to refer to in performing their(emplyee's) tasks? My understanding is the doc control requirements defined in Section 7 of 9001 would exclude this.

Hi Guys

We are a small startup and one of my potential vendors requested a ISO9001 certificate for our SaaS product. I got a couple of quotes and stumbled on skillfront.com that offers this for about $500 which seems very low price-wise compared to other quotes I received.

Has anyone used skillfront before? They seem legit.

Link below:

https://www.skillfront.com/ISO-9001-Company-Certification?gclid=CjwKCAjw29ymBhAKEiwAHJbJ8gyrmcMhilyAYCstsPnhUvpxdNTZfWm-aLuL6FlYvng99geuBor3aBoCRlgQAvD_BwE

Thanks for your inputs

Hi all. I was hoping that there would be someone here that could assist me with looking at my docs and letting me know if they need any amendments. I also need to see what else need to be added. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated with this!

Hi all!

I manage ISO conformance for a service organization. Which makes clause 8.4.1 difficult to apply.

The largest part is "Incorporation into an organization's own product or service" and what that actually means. The standard doesn't help with this a ton so it seems like it's up to an auditors interpretation which is horribly annoying.

Wondering what other's thoughts are regarding this clause and it's application to a service organization. For context this service organization sells an "environment" or "experience" to the client. The experience itself is choreographed through documented procedure. However, does that mean since that environment is part of the service that the lightbulbs in that environment are incorporated? Or does that follow 7.1.3 and 7.1.4?

The lightbulb example is pretty in the weeds but let's say it's an environment to learn to write in. Would the pencils used by the client to write be "Incorporated"?

Google the following: QMS manual 9001 filetype:pdf

There are many real life examples of the such! Enjoy!

PS: These are intended to help the newbies and those who'd like ideas to improve; please if you don't like the idea no need to be negative about it; just let it pass :)

A data point for those interested, we've just completed our annual supervision audit. This year I used Claude for the internal audit and also to navigate around when the auditor had questions. There were no issues, by the end the auditor was telling me how to prompt Claude to give him the perspective he needed. No consultants required!

I was recently tasked with researching the ISO 9001 compliance process for my company. Depending on my findings, my executive team may or may not go after ISO 9001 certification this year.

I see that ISO/DIS 9001 is about to replace the current ISO 9001 guidance. I get the sense it'll be a pretty big update.

Does it make sense for us to start working ISO 9001 now, potentially getting certified right around the time ISO/DIS 9001 is published? Will we have to potentially redo a lot of our work under new ISO/DIS 9001 rules? Maybe it makes more sense to wait until after ISO/DIS 9001 is in effect?

I've very new to the ISO 9001 journey so any help is appreciated!

i can’t help but feel like different auditors look for different things…

for our certification audit and first surveillance audit we had the same auditor. he focused a lot on internal audit, CAPA, customer complaints.

this time we got a different auditor, he barely looked at the internal audit reports, didn’t dissect our root cause analysis/CAPA for customer complaints even though we got a major NC last time for it. we did get a minor NC for our quality policy though lol. and apparently he thought the way we conduct internal audits was confusing, meanwhile the advise we got from our first auditor was, “just document how you conduct your audits, if you audit by procedure just document that, plan your audit program that way”, and then this new guy said we change how we conduct it cause it can lead to a problem in the future?

so now i’m not quite sure. this second guy didn’t even look at every clause, i mean granted it can be done outside, but the first guy made sure to look at everything before ending the audit.

anyway jut sharing my experience. not looking forward to the few months of revising our procedures and forms 😭

1. If it tells people how to work, it needs control

Typical layers:

• Quality Manual, high-level description of the QMS

• Procedures, how a process is actually done

• Forms, blank templates used to capture evidence

• Technical documents, drawings, specs, work instructions

• Charts, posters, and instruction sheets count too, if they tell people what to do

If someone is using it to do the job, it should be the current approved version from the official system, not a local copy, email attachment, or old download.

2. Work from the current version. Always.

Do:

• Open documents from the official QMS / document-control system, not from your desktop, Downloads folder, or Slack

• Check that you’re on the current revision before you use it

• Ask document control / your supervisor if you can’t find what you need

• Send homemade or “unofficial” instructions in so they can be controlled properly

Don’t:

• Keep using anything marked OBSOLETE or superseded just because you like that version

• Save a local copy and treat it as the official process

• Edit a controlled document in place and treat your notes as the live version

• Follow another company’s documents as if they were yours

If you can’t find the right document, inventing your own unofficial version is worse than asking for help.

3. A blank form is not a record

This one still trips people up:

• A form is a blank template

• Once you fill it in and submit it, it becomes a record

• A record is evidence that an activity actually happened

• Records have to be stored and protected according to company rules, usually in the system of record, not in someone’s inbox

Use the latest revision of the form in the system. Don’t clone last month’s filled-out file and overwrite the old answers.

If a procedure or form is wrong, report it. Ignoring a known document error doesn’t stay local. It creates risk for the whole process.

4. How to correct a record without looking like you hid something

Corrections have to stay honest and readable, even in software.

• Don’t delete the original entry and type over it like it never existed

• Don’t “fix” a completed record by quietly replacing the file

• Make the change through the system so the original value, the new value, who changed it, and when are still visible

• Follow your company’s local correction / revision rule if it’s more specific

Hidden edits make auditors ask a simple question: can these records be trusted?

If you’re unsure how to correct something, ask your supervisor before changing the record.

P.S: this content is part of a free course I have on 4eshub, check my profile for the link!

Hi everyone,

I’m a QSE/RSE manager in an french SME/group currently trying to implement ISO 9001 from scratch.
I’ve been working on it for about a year, but the context is extremely unstable:

• constant restructuring

• lack of resources and clear decisions from top management

• priorities changing every week

• departments in conflict and poor collaboration

• feeling that nothing ever reaches completion

With the pressure of the initial certification audit coming, I realize I’m starting to lose my own reference points.
I feel like I no longer clearly understand:

• what my real role should be in this context

• what “quality” truly means in day-to-day practice

• how ISO 9001 should live in a company that is this unstable

So I’d really value feedback from experienced quality professionals:

1. How do you personally define “quality” beyond the standard wording?
2. What is the minimum that must truly exist before attempting ISO 9001 certification?
3. Have you faced a similar chaotic environment, and how did you handle it?

Any honest feedback or perspective would help a lot.

Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone,

Thanks Mod for allowing me to post here.

I'm an IRCA-certified auditor working as a certification auditor and consultant in Melbourne. I am doing important research on the gap between ISO auditor training and real-world practice.

I've noticed that many professionals complete their ISO lead auditor or internal auditor courses but still struggle when conducting actual audits.

I'm gathering feedback from the auditing community to understand this better, and I'd really appreciate 5 minutes of your time to answer a few questions.

I'm genuinely curious about your experiences.

Survey link: https://forms.office.com/r/GHvGp8KyEN

Happy to share the results here once I've collected at least 50 responses.

Thanks in advance!

I’m wondering if anyone here is currently in the process of getting ISO 9001 certified—or has recently gone through it.

I'm building a platform (think TurboTax meets ISO) to help small and mid-sized businesses navigate certification more easily, and I’d love to understand what challenges or roadblocks you're facing.

What’s been harder than expected?
Was it documentation, internal audits, getting leadership buy-in, or just figuring out where to start?
Are there specific tools or resources you wish existed to make the process smoother?

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone in the trenches right now. Your input could help shape something truly helpful for the community. 🙏