Since we’ve been selling standards since 1982, we’ve seen the business of standards-based quality schemes (like 6 Sigma, TQM, etc.) really take off . And the certification for ISO 9000 has been the most successful of all of these programs. ISO states that ISO 9001:2008 is implemented by over a million organizations in 176 countries. But for the new-comer to the standard, there are any number of questions that always come up.
The first issue that new customers have is understanding why they need to purchase ISO 9001 when they are going for ISO 9000 certification.
This is because ISO 9000 really refers to a family of standards. The ISO 9000:2005 is an overview document, covering “Quality management systems — Fundamentals and vocabulary.” The document number is ISO 9000, the 2005 refers to the year that it was published.
An organization actually certifies to the ISO 9001 standard. It is called out as ISO 9001:2008, even though it was corrected and reprinted in 2009. This document, “Quality management systems — Requirements,” provides for the adoption of a process approach when developing, implementing and improving the effectiveness of a quality management system, to enhance customer satisfaction by meeting customer requirements. It specifies requirements for a quality management system that can be used for internal application by organizations, or for certification, or for contractual purposes. This means that when an organization is certified to “ISO 9000,” it is actually judged against the requirements of ISO 9001.
There are additional offspring of ISO 9001 for various industries. So, you may prefer to be certified to AS 9100, “Quality Management Systems – Requirements for Aviation, Space and Defense Organizations,” ISO/TS 16949, “Quality management systems — Particular requirements for the application of ISO 9001:2008 for automotive production and relevant service part organizations,” or ISO 13485, “Medical devices – Quality management systems – Requirements for regulatory purposes.”
If you’d like to take a look at the documents that make up the ISO 9000 family, take a look at our ISO 9000 Compendium page. It offers a listing of the ISO 9000 standards family as of the date of the last published ISO compilation of the documents.
As always, the standards mentioned are available for sale at our Document Center Inc. website, www.document-center.com. Or contact us by phone (650-591-7600), fax (650-591-7617) or email (info@document-center.com). We’re open from 8 am to 5 pm California time to assist you with all your standards requirements.