Quality, the environment, and health and safety are all unified by the concept of risk. Using three separate management systems within one organization is clearly time-consuming expensive and inefficient.
By integrating your management systems, you can minimize duplication align your objectives and reduce costs. An integrated management system (IMS) describes several previously separate management systems grouped together to form a single system. For example, it could combine ISO 9001:2000 (quality)certification with ISO 14001 (environment) certification. A management system is integrated when at least two out of three possible systems (quality, environment and health and safety) are integrated. The different possibilities are:
Quality + Environment
Quality + Health & Safety
Environment + Health & Safety
Quality + Environment + Health & Safety