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Table of Contents
- What is ISO?
- What is ISO 9000?
- Why should my organization implement ISO 9000?
- How does the ISO 9000 family of standards work?
- What is the difference between ISO 9001, 2 and 3?
- What is the Year 2000 Series?
What
is ISO?
ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is a
worldwide federation of national standards bodies, at present comprising 127
members, one in each country. The object of ISO is to promote the development of
standardization and related activities in the world with a view to facilitating
international exchange of goods and services, and to developing cooperation in
the spheres of intellectual, scientific, technological and economic activity.
The results of ISO technical work are published as International Standards.
What is ISO 9000?
The ISO 9000 family of standards represents an international
consensus on good management practices with the aim of ensuring that the
organization can time and time again deliver the product or services that meet
the client's quality requirements. These good practices have been distilled into
a set of standardized requirements for a quality management system, regardless
of what your organization does, its size, or whether it's in the private, or
public sector.
Why should my organization
implement ISO 9000?
To keep customers - and to keep them satisfied - your product
(which may, in fact, be a service) needs to meet their requirements. ISO 9000
provides a tried and tested framework for taking a systematic approach to
managing your business processes (your organization's activities) so that they
consistently turn out product conforming to the customer's expectations. And
that means consistently happy customers!
How does the ISO 9000 family of
standards work?
The requirements for a quality system have been standardized - but most of us
like to think our business is unique. So how does ISO 9000 allow for the
diversity of say, on the one hand, a "Mr. and Mrs." enterprise, and on
the other, to a multinational manufacturing company with service components, or
a public utility, or a government administration?
The answer is that ISO 9000 lays down what requirements your quality system
must meet, but does not dictate how they should be met in your organization -
which leaves great scope and flexibility for implementation in different
business sectors and business cultures...as well as different national cultures.
So, the ISO 9000 family includes standards that give organizations guidance
and requirements on what constitutes an effective quality management system. ISO
9004-1 (and the other parts of ISO 9004) are the standards giving guidelines on
the elements of quality management and a quality system.
The family also includes models against which this system can be audited to
give the organization and its clients assurance that the system is operating
effectively. The three quality assurance models are ISO 9001, ISO 9002 and ISO
9003.
Lastly, the family includes a standard on terminology, and other standards,
which can be described as "supporting tools", that give guidance on
specific aspects, such as auditing quality systems.
What is the difference between ISO
9001, 2 and 3?
If you have heard of ISO 9000, then it is most probably through ISO 9001, ISO
9002 or ISO 9003, the three quality assurance models against which organizations
can be certified. At some stage, you have probably wondered what the difference
between them is. The answer is that the difference is simply one of scope. It
works like this:
- ISO 9001 sets out the requirements for an organization whose business
processes range all the way from design and development, to production,
installation and servicing;
- for an organization which does not carry out design and development, ISO
9002 is the appropriate standard, since it does not include the design
control requirements of ISO 9001 - otherwise, its requirements are
identical;
- ISO 9003 is the appropriate standard for an organization whose business
processes do not include design control, process control, purchasing or
servicing, and which basically uses inspection and testing to ensure that
final products and services meet specified requirements.
- So, an organization chooses that its quality system be certified against
ISO 9001, ISO 9002 or ISO 9003 according to the business processes covered
by the quality system. There is no difference of quality ranking between the
three standards.
What is the Year 2000 Series?
Each ISO technical committee is responsible for reviewing its standards every
5 years in order to determine their continued relevance. ISO/TC 176 is planning
its next release as early as the Year 2000. For the Year 2000 standards, several
key goals were adopted by the committee:
- Universal Acceptance
- Current Compatibility
- Forward Compatibility
- Forward Flexibility
Progress towards these goals have been made with the release of the following
Draft International Standards (DIS):
- ISO/DIS 9000: 2000, Quality Management Systems - Fundementals and vocabulary
- ISO/DIS 9001: 2000, Quality Management Systems - Requirements
- ISO/DIS 9004: 2000, Quality Management Systems - Guidelines for Performance
Management
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