What is the starting point of this case study?
An SME that does good work but cannot prove it. This is a composite case study: it brings together situations we encounter in the construction and services companies we support. The company, its customer and the figures quoted are fictitious and given for illustration.
The company carries out building services packages, electrical and air-conditioning works, in the Casablanca region. It employs about forty people: management, a technical office and a small workshop at head office, site foremen, teams of electricians and refrigeration technicians, and temporary workers depending on the workload. Most of its business comes from a large general contractor that builds industrial and office buildings.
When the framework agreement came up for renewal, the general contractor sent a new qualification questionnaire: an accredited ISO 9001 certificate would be required from building services subcontractors by the start of the next contract.
The gap analysis, carried out at head office and on two live projects, gave a mixed picture.
What existed | What was missing |
|---|---|
Shop drawings approved by the customer’s design office | A traced bid review: pricing and lead times approved by one person only |
Signed handover reports | Tracking of snags through to clearance, with dates |
Self-inspections by experienced site foremen | Written self-inspection sheets and hold points, identical on every project |
Electrical authorisations for the teams | An up-to-date competence and authorisation matrix, temporary workers included |
Measuring instruments on every project | Periodic verification of instruments, identification, records |
Long-standing subcontractors | Selection criteria and end-of-project evaluation |
Complaints handled by phone | Recording, root cause analysis, actions |
Which scope and which edition, under contract pressure?
The scope that covers what the customer buys, and the 2026 edition: two decisions taken in the first month.
The scope. Management’s first idea was to certify “head office”, to go faster. It did not answer the request: the general contractor buys works carried out on its construction sites. The scope retained, reviewed with the main contractor’s buyer, reads along the lines of “shop drawings and execution of electrical and air-conditioning works, at head office and on construction sites”. Design stayed in scope: the technical office produces the shop drawings and sizing calculations on which the customer relies. Excluding it would have shortened the audit, but Global ACI allows that reduction only when the company is not responsible for design; here, it is.
The edition. ISO 9001:2026, published on 16 September 2026. According to the Global ACI transition document, no initial certification to the 2015 edition will be issued after 31 March 2028, and a certification body issues accredited certificates to the 2026 edition only after its accreditation body’s transition decision, by 30 September 2027 at the latest. The company therefore consulted several accredited certification bodies, identified in particular from the lists published by the Moroccan Ministry of Industry and Trade of bodies accredited by SEMAC (Service Marocain d’Accréditation, the Moroccan Accreditation Service), and asked each about its transition. The written schedule of the chosen body was passed on to the general contractor, which accepted it. Had the deadline been shorter, the fallback was an initial certification to the 2015 edition on a system designed to the 2026 edition: our article on a first ISO 9001 certification since the 2026 edition details these options.
How do you build a system that works at head office and on site?
By separating what is decided once at head office from what applies on each project, and by giving the site foreman a single file. The process map follows the path of a contract, not the organisation chart.
Process | Owner | At head office | On each project |
|---|---|---|---|
From tender to order | Sales director | Bid review, pricing, approval of lead times | — |
Shop drawings | Head of technical office | Drawings, sizing calculations, check before issue | Current drawings available to the teams |
Preparation and execution | Works director | Standard inspection plan, hold points | Self-inspections, signed hold points, site diary |
Handover and snag clearance | Works director | Consolidated snag tracking | Handover report, dated clearance of each snag |
Purchasing and subcontracting | Purchasing manager | Selection criteria, annual evaluation | Subcontractor evaluation at the end of the project |
Competence and equipment | Management, workshop manager | Authorisation matrix, verification of measuring instruments | Authorisation check on arrival, instruments identified |
Complaints and improvement | Quality manager | Log, root cause analysis, actions | Reported by the site foreman |
Three choices made the difference. First, a single-folder project file: current drawings, self-inspection sheets, list of personnel and subcontractors, snag log. Second, work instructions written in the teams’ language, Arabic for execution roles, with photos of good and bad practice. Third, quality culture led by management on the ground, as clause 5.1.1 of ISO 9001:2026 requires: a monthly site visit by the managing director, and a simple rule that a site foreman who reports a defect before handover is never penalised for reporting it.
The quality manager, recruited from among the company’s site managers, was trained as an internal auditor together with two site foremen; each audits projects other than their own. The general method is described in our guide to ISO 9001 certification in Morocco, and the sector context on our construction and infrastructure page.
How do you prepare the audit when the work is on temporary sites?
By guaranteeing the auditor live projects, and a headcount declared without adjustment. Document Global ACI-TECH-3-004 sets the rules that the certification body applies.
- The headcount retained includes permanent, temporary and part-time staff within the scope. For about forty people, the Global ACI table gives a starting point of 4 audit days, stages 1 and 2 combined (26 to 45 people band). A reduction for unskilled temporary workers is possible for quality, but the document considers it unusual and requires it to be justified.
- The risk level depends on the activity: as examples, Global ACI classifies complex construction and electrical equipment as high risk, and simple construction as medium risk. For a company that mixes both, the certification body determines audit time taking into account the staff assigned to each activity.
- Temporary sites are included in the audit programme and sampled according to risk and project progress. On-site audit remains the rule; interviews, document reviews or remote means can replace part of it.
- Subcontractors are not audited on their own system: the certification body checks the control the company exercises over them.
In this case study, the mock audit covered a project at finishing stage and head office. It revealed two typical weaknesses: measuring instruments without identification on one project, and subcontractors evaluated “from memory”. Both were addressed before stage 1. Stage 2 was scheduled while two projects were live, at different stages. The detailed sequence is in our ISO 9001 certification steps checklist, and the effect of these parameters on budget in our article on ISO 9001 certification cost in Morocco.
What does the main contractor check on the certificate?
The certificate, then the results: a serious buyer is not satisfied with a PDF copy.
What the buyer checks | Where to find it | Trap to avoid |
|---|---|---|
Accreditation of the certification body | Certificate, accreditation body’s mark, accreditation body’s list | A non-accredited certificate, refused by many buyers |
Scope | Wording on the certificate | A scope limited to head office or to an activity the customer does not buy |
Sites and projects | Certificate and audit report | Construction sites missing from the system |
Edition of the standard | Certificate | A certificate to the 2015 edition, which will stop being valid on 30 September 2029 without transition |
Validity | Certificate dates, certification body’s register | A suspended or withdrawn certificate not reported |
Actual results | Snags, deadlines, complaints, supplier audit | A valid certificate, but snags that drag on |
The general contractor in this case announced a second-party supplier audit on its sites for the following year, independent of certification. This type of audit is covered by our audits and inspections service.
What lessons for an SME supplying a major account?
What subcontractors who keep their contracts remember:
Supervisor training falls within our construction site management training domain, and internal auditor training within our ISO standards training. Written into the training plan, both may fall under the special training contracts (CSF) of OFPPT, Morocco’s vocational training office, with no guaranteed amount.