Understanding ISO 9000 Series of Standards

The ISO 9000 series of standards is the international standard for quality management. Moreover, the objective of the series of standards is,

• Firstly, to aid supplier quality assurance.
• Then, providing a common and accepting the standard by which to evaluate.
• Lastly, comparing the potential of firms to meet acceptable levels of quality and reliability.

Advantages

• Firstly, there are a significant number of organizations around the world that require their suppliers to hold ISO 9000 certification.
• Moreover, for some companies, ISO 9000 provides access to markets that is not available to them. And providing potential customers the confidence to buy them.
• In particular, ISO 9000 has been seen as a stepping stone to Total Quality Management. This has been a key argument for many consultants, but the necessity of having ISO900 in order to become an excellent organization has no strong evidence base.

ISO 9000 (2008) Principles

The principle of all these standards is that quality systems are formality since this permits objectivity. Moreover, the standards attempt to formalize and standardize the general approach towards Quality by,

• A Quality policy representing the management’s approach for delivering customer requirements is set out by senior management.
• Moreover, the deployment of policy throughout the organization with more descriptions of processes in detail for implementation at lower levels in the business.
• The organization internally audits with regards to the policies and procedures, keeping records of audits and quality performance.
• Using records as the basis for corrective and improvement actions.

Certification Process

• ISO does not certify companies to ISO 9000. Rather, each member country has an accreditation body that accredits certification bodies who deal with certification of companies.
• Moreover, agreements between national bodies allow for international recognition of certificates by ACB.
• Above all, the focus of the report is ‘Non-Compliances’ where the company fails to fully meet certification criteria.
• And, the certificate will be subject to renewal every three years and to ‘surveillance’ audits of lower intensity on an annual basis.

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