Scope determination - a management not a technical decision

Answer:

Organizations have the authority to define the scope of their quality management system. Certification bodies have the responsibility to ensure that there is no misleading information. For example, an organization cannot choose a restricted scope and then use the certificate to promote the whole organization. For example, currently I’m working with a company with two families of products and they are only certifying one of those families. I’m also working with a hotel that excluded their spa operations from the quality management scope. Another example, hospitals normally certify only some services, not the whole operation.

The following material will provide you information about scope:
- ISO 9001 – How to define the scope of the QMS according to ISO 9001:2015 - https://advisera.com/9001academy/knowledgebase/how-to-define-the-scope-of-the-qms-according-to-iso-90012015/
- free online training ISO 9001:2015 Foundations Course - https://training.adv isera.com/course/iso-90012015-foundations-course/
- book - Discover ISO 9001:2015 Through Practical Examples - https://advisera.com/books/discover-iso-9001-2015-through-practical-examples/

Hi this is very helpful, my next question is, we want to get an ISO certification for our Operations Department, can we say that part of our customer is our internal staff. Because the function of our Operations Department (OD) is to support the organization in delivering our projects. Under our OD we have 9 sub departments which are Fleet Management, Facility Management, Supply Chain unit, etc etc those are the intended scope of the ISO 9001:2015. But we are getting confused of who are the customers? Thank you

Hi, did you map your organization (Operations Department) as a set of interrelated processes? With what outside parties do those processes interact? Some of those outside parties will be suppliers, other regulators, other maybe partners. Can any of the remaining outside parties be considered as customers? Unzoom yourself from the detail and answer yourself to the question: Who does my organization (Operations Department) serve?

And if they are insiders, and those whom we serve, in turn, who do they serve?

Follow the mission of your organization, perhaps that can help find one or more groups of customers, internal and external.

Does this help you? Let me know.