An effective ISO9001 Quality Management System can improve customer satisfaction, business efficiency and achieve considerable cost savings, whilst positively enhancing your Company Image.

What is ISO 9000 Standard?

ISO 9000 is an International Standard Certification that developed by the International Standard Organisation (ISO) Technical Committee for the Quality Management and Quality Assurance System. ISO 9000 Certification is verifying the Quality Systems of organisations under the ISO Standard Procedures and helps to build up the best Quality Products for the organisations, the final suppliers and users. The organisations have to be taken the Qualified Audit and to be registered the certification through the Accredited 3rd party.

ISO 9001:2000, the requirement standard, includes:

1. Quality Management System
2. Management Responsibility
3. Resource Management
4. Product Realisation
5. Measurement Analysis and Improvement.

Benefits

• Enhanced business competence
• Integrated management systems
• Strengthened the effectiveness and efficiency
• Upgraded reliability
• Increased customer satisfaction
• Profit maximisation through the unnecessary cost cutting down.
• Elimination of the non-compliances and fundamental defects

Transition to ISO 9001:2000

The major research findings based on consultation with a sample of 350,000 users

• Increasing adoption of ISO 9000 in the service sector
• Not user friendly
• Not compatible with the ISO 14000 series.

The changes to the standard have taken into account the above findings and allow organisations to focus on the processes that are essential to their operations.

ISO 9001:2000 series comprises of:
· ISO 9000 Quality Management Systems - Fundamentals and vocabulary (this supersedes ISO 8402 and ISO 9000-1),
· ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems - Requirements,
· ISO 9004 Quality Management Systems - Guidelines for performance improvement (this supersedes ISO 9004-1),
· ISO 19011 Guidelines on auditing quality and environmental management systems.

Transition period:
   - 15th December 2000: Issue of 9000, 9001 and 9004:2000,
   - 14th December 2003: end of three year transition period.


Principles of ISO 9000

The new standard is process model based and has been developed using a core set of eight quality management principles defined in ISO 9000:2000, Quality management systems Fundamentals and vocabulary, and in ISO 9004:2000, Quality management systems Guidelines for performance improvements. They are:

1. Customer focus: An organisation depends on its customers and should therefore understand current and future customer needs, meet customer requirements and strive to exceed customer expectations.

2. Leadership: Leaders establish unity of purpose and direction of an organisation. They should create and maintain the internal environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving an organisation's objectives.

3. Involvement of people: People at all levels are the essence of an organisation and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used for the organisation's benefit.

4. Process approach: A desired result is achieved more efficiently when related resources and activities are managed as a process.

5. System approach to management: Identifying, understanding and managing a system of interrelated processes as a system contributes to an organisation's effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its objectives.

6. Continual improvement: Continual improvement of an organisation's overall performance should be a permanent objective of the organisation.

7. Factual approach to decision making: Effective decisions are based on the analysis of data and information.

8. Mutually beneficial supplier relationships: An organisation and its suppliers are interdependent and a mutually beneficial relationship enhances the ability of both to create value.