Requirements for Products and Services

As we know, ISO 9001 is primarily aimed at meeting customer requirements. It’s one thing to have a business, but for it to survive you’ll need to ensure that you have customers who are happy with your products and/or services, are willing to do business with you, and will keep coming back. 

This is where Clause 8.2 (Requirements for products and services) in ISO 9001 comes to the fore. This part of the standard boils down to ensuring that you: 

• Provide the customer with information about your products and/or services, have processes for handling customer enquiries and complaints, and are clear on how you’ll handle and manage their property (products, materials, information).
• Clearly understand the customer’s requirements, which includes those that are explicitly communicated or specified by the customer, as well as any legal or regulatory requirements that you will need to comply with in the provision of your products and services.
• Can deliver on your claims to meet your customer’s needs in terms of capacity, competency, timeliness and any other expectations that your customer has.
• Conduct a review of your ability to meet your customer’s requirements before committing to product or service provision, including clarifying any requirements not stated by the customer, ensuring that you have identified requirements for delivery and post-delivery activities, and that any requirements differing from those previously discussed have been addressed.
• Control any changes to the provision of your products and/or services, including ensuring that relevant persons are made aware of such changes, and that documented information is amended and retained from any changed requirements. 

This clause includes requirements for documented information to be retained, though this will be tailored to the nature of your product and service offerings, and must meet the needs and expectations of your customers. 

Learn more about how DBell Consulting can assist you with using the principles of ISO 9001 to improve your management system processes.