ISO 9000

Every organization would like to improve the way it operates, whether that means increasing market share, driving down costs, managing risk more effectively or improving customer satisfaction. A quality management system gives you the framework you need to monitor and improve performance in any area you choose.

ISO 9001 is by far the world’s most established quality framework, currently being used by around 897,000 organizations in 170 countries worldwide, and sets the standard not only for quality management systems, but management systems in general.

It helps all kinds of organizations to succeed through improved customer satisfaction, staff motivation and continual improvement.

ISO 9000 series of standards

ISO 9001 is one of a series of quality management system standards. It can help bring out the best in your organization by enabling you to understand your processes for delivering your products/services to your customers. The ISO 9001 series of standards consist of:

ISO 9000 – Fundamentals and Vocabulary: this introduces the user to the concepts behind the management systems and specifies the terminology used.
ISO 9001 – Requirements: this sets out the criteria you will need to meet if you wish to operate in accordance with the standard and gain certification.
ISO 9004 – Guidelines for performance improvement: based upon the eight quality management principles, these are designed to be used by senior management as a framework to guide their organizations towards improved performance by considering the needs of all interested parties, not just customers.

Video Clip 1: What Is ISO 9000 Standards?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvlIjP6iWXc

Video Clip 2: Origin Of ISO 9000 Standards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kCW1PVvDuo

Video Clip 3: Why Is ISO 9000 Standards Important?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7jUVnauOg8

Video Clip 4: ISO 9000 Standards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8WI2MgyS7w

The standard requires companies to write an ISO 9000 quality manual that defines how each requirement of the rather broad ISO 9001:2008 standard is applied at the company. In a sense, the ISO 9000 quality manual is a company specific version of the standard.

While writing the quality manual represents a big hurdle for most companies, the ISO 9001:2008 standard requires further details in form of ISO 9000 quality procedures, a quality policy and quality objectives. Most companies make the mistake of creating various different documents to meet these requirements; however, this usually is the beginning of a cumbersome and bureaucratic ISO 9000 quality system.
Tip: Combine the different documentation requirements (i.e., quality manual, procedures, corporate policy and objectives) as much as possible into one comprehensive manual. This reduces repetition and bureaucracy, and it saves time implementing the quality system.