What is ISO 9000

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an independent, non-governmental organization made up of members from the national standards bodies of over 160 countries that set international standards related to products and services. ISO has published over 13,000 standards. The ISO 9000 series of standards, related to quality management, is perhaps the most widely known and impactful of any standards issued by ISO.

The ISO 9000 definition is a description of a quality management system. The object of the ISO 9000 family of standards is to provide organizations with the guidance and tools needed to ensure that their products and services meet external requirements and drive consistent quality improvement.

The ISO 9001 standard is a document that describes all of the requirements needed in order to create and maintain a quality management system as described in ISO 9000. This is a subtle difference between ISO 9000 and ISO 9001 that some fail to recognize. So, to explicitly point it out, the difference between the two (ISO 9000 vs 9001) is summarized as the definition of the quality management system (ISO 9000) and requirements needed to meet that definition (ISO 9001).

ISO 9001:2008 is applicable to businesses and organizations from every sector. The process-oriented approach makes the standard applicable to service organizations as well. Its general guidelines allow for the flexibility needed for today’s diverse business world.

Both the ISO 9000 and 9001 standards are based on a number of quality management principles including a strong customer focus, the motivation, and implication of top management, the process approach, and continual improvement. 

ISO 9000 Principals

The seven quality management principles include the following as described by the ISO:

• Customer focus – Quality management primarily focuses on meeting customer requirements and striving to exceed customer expectations.
• Leadership – Helping leaders to establish unity of purpose and direction at all levels and to create conditions to engage members of the organization in achieving the organization’s quality objectives.
• Engagement of people – Obtaining and maintaining (at all levels throughout the organization) competent, empowered, and engaged people to enhance the organization’s capability to create and deliver value.
• Process approach – Delivering consistent and predictable results through the use of effective and efficient activities that are understood and managed as interrelated processes that function as a coherent system.
• Improvement – Maintaining an ongoing, organization-wide focus on improvement.
• Evidence-based decision-making – Using the analysis and evaluation of data and information in the decision-making process to produce desired results.
• Relationship management – Managing the organization’s relationships with related parties, such as partners or vendors, for sustained success.

How does ISO 9000 work?

ISO 9000 is set up as a collection of guidelines that help a company establish, maintain, and improve a quality management system. It is important to stress that ISO 9000 is not a rigid set of requirements and that organizations have flexibility in how they implement their quality management system. This freedom allows the ISO 9000 standard to be used in a wide range of organizations, and in businesses large and small.

One important aspect of ISO 9000 is its process-oriented approach. Instead of looking at a company’s departments and individual processes, ISO 9000 requires that a company look at “the big picture.” How do processes interact? Can they be integrated with one another? What are the important aspects of products and services?

Once this process-oriented approach is implemented, various audits can be done as a check of the effectiveness of your quality management system. There are three main types of audits – 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party audits. An internal audit is a 1st party audit. ISO 9000 encourages (and requires) this type of audit so that an organization can get feedback quickly from those who know the company best. However, this audit process cannot be viewed as impartial. Therefore, 2nd party audits allow for a consumer to evaluate the performance on an organization. As an alternative to a 2nd party audit, many companies choose to become certified with ISO 9000 through a 3rd party audit. In this case, an independent certification body comes into an organization and evaluates it in terms of the ISO 9000 guidelines. If an organization meets the requirements of the standard, it becomes certified in ISO 9000 and carries a seal of quality recognized throughout the world.

Why is ISO 9000 important?

The importance of ISO 9000 is the importance of quality. Many companies offer products and services, but it is those companies who put out the best products and services efficiently that succeed. With ISO 9000, an organization can identify the root of the problem, and therefore find a solution. By improving efficiency, profit can be maximized.

As a broad range of companies implements the ISO 9000 standards, a supply chain with integrity is created. Each company that participates in the process of developing, manufacturing, and marketing a product knows that it is part of an internationally known, reliable system.

Not only do businesses recognize the importance of the ISO 9000, but also the customer realizes the importance of quality. And because the consumer is most important to a company, ISO 9000 makes the customer its focus.