FAQs
Q. What is ISO 9000?
ISO 9000 is a family of documents that address the quality management of an organisation. This means what an organisation does to fulfil the following:
the customer's quality requirements, and
applicable regulatory requirements, while aiming to
enhance customer satisfaction, and
achieve continual improvement of its performance in pursuit of these objectives
ISO/TC 176, which is responsible for the ISO 9000 family, unites expertise from participating countries and a number of international and regional organisations, plus other technical committees.
The language of this first version of the Standard was influenced by existing US and other Defence Military Standards so it was more accessible to manufacturing and was well suited to the demands of a rigorous, stable, factory-floor manufacturing process. With its structure of twenty 'elements' or requirements, the emphasis was placed on conformance to procedures rather than the overall process of management, which was the original intent.
The ISO 9000 family includes many guidance documents, the standard itself is denoted as ISO 9001 - and is the only one in the family that an organisation can be certified to - has evolved over several revisions. The initial 1987 version (ISO 9001:1987) had the same structure as BS 5750, with three 'models' for quality management systems; the selection of which was based on the scope of activities of the organisation. The standard was last revised in November 2008, resulting in ISO 9001:2008.
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