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<div>When the management at Mawaddah International Group for Hotel &amp; Umrah Services learned that the Ministry of Hajj was planning to announce a new requirement that all companies offering Umrah services become ISO 9001:2015 certified, they decided to get ahead of the game by meeting those standards now.</div>
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<div>ISO 9001:2015 is a set of standards put forth by the International Organization for Standardization. It is based on quality management principles such as the process approach to continual improvement and putting the customer at the focal point to ensure that the company meets customer needs and expectations. Overall, implementation of the standards helps organizations to be more efficient and improves customer satisfaction, both of which can fuel growth and profits.</div>
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<div>Mawaddah began the process of implementing ISO 9001 with an internal audit to assess the company&rsquo;s current processes, practices and internal relationships, in order to gauge their conformity with the ISO standards and to identify areas for improvement. Mawaddah staff were trained in the audit process including how to produce systematic, independent, well documented evidence and how to objectively evaluate that evidence to determine the extent to which the criteria of the standards were being fulfilled.</div>
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<div>The internal audit, a management tool Mawaddah is using to measure the effectiveness of quality management and identify areas of non-conformance with ISO 9001 standards so that corrective actions can be implemented, is expected to result in improved efficiency and business opportunities. As part of the process, Mawaddah managers are focusing on increasing quality awareness and reducing quality costs.</div>
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<div>The next step in the process is an external audit and finally, the ISO certification.</div>
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<div>Mawaddah International Group was ranked by the Ministry of Hajj as one of the top ten companies in 1437 A.H. for providing pilgrims&rsquo; services.</div>
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