FAQs

Q. What is ISO 9001?

ISO 9001 is part of the ISO 9000 family of documents. Previous standards within the ISO 9000 family (i.e. 9001, 9002 and 9003) have all now been superseded by later versions of ISO 9001. It is common for organisations to claim 'ISO 9000 certification' but this actually means that they have achieved certification to ISO 9001.

ISO 9001 is the internationally recognised standard for an organisation's internal Quality Management. The term 'quality' refers to all those features of a product or service which are required by the customer. An organisation's 'Quality Management' refers to an organisation's actions to ensure that its products or services satisfy its customers' quality requirements and complies with any regulations applicable to those products or services.

The fourth and latest edition of the standard (ISO 9001:2008) was published on November 14th 2008. This revision contains minor amendments only. The aim of this revision is to clarify existing requirements and improve consistency of approach with other management standards, like ISO 14001:2004.

Popularity

In 2009, there were 41,193 organisations in the UK with ISO 9001, according to a survey by the International Organization for Standardization. This puts the UK in 7th place on the Top 10 list for countries with ISO 9001 certification worldwide

ISO 9001 is a generic quality management standard, which allows it to be applied to any sized organisation within any industry. By being generic, ISO 9001 has proven very popular with buyers who want to ensure that all suppliers meet minimum quality requirements.

In the UK, central and government often stipulates the standard within tender documents. The British Assessment Bureau's 2011 Client Satisfaction Survey reported that 44% of respondents said that they had won business as a result of becoming certified to the ISO 9001 quality management standard.

Certification

Achieving ISO 9001 certification involves a third party certification body verifying that the organisations meets the requirements of the standard. This normally involves an initial visit to establish what requirements are unfulfilled, with a second visit to formally audit what has been put in to place.