Overview
CQMS have skills to develop and implement an Integrated Management System compliant with the Quality Standard ISO 9001:2000, the Environmental Standard ISO 14001, and the Health & Safety Standard OHSAS 18001. Many businesses have a quality system, an independent Health & Safety system, and often some elements of an Environmental system. Individual systems share many common elements, so why not integrate them? Some of the benefits are: Reduced system maintenance - integration will expose areas of wasted time in terms of maintenance, there may be conflict because the systems are probably written by different individuals at different times to meet different criteria. Reduced costs of auditing - internal auditing is costly and has limited benefits as it addresses each of the disciplines of Quality, Health and Safety and Environment separately and focuses simply on compliance. Integrated audits should be undertaken to examine the effectiveness and efficiency of the whole management system in addition to compliance issues. business Improvement - integration leads to risk and cost reduction so improving the business. business Culture - an integrated system leads to integrated business/culture where everyone knows what the objectives are.