What are ISO 9000 and ISO 9001? International Standards for Quality Management Systems ISO 9000 is a set of standards for quality management systems that is accepted around the world. Currently more than 90 countries have adopted ISO 9000 as national standards. When you purchase a product or service from an organization that is registered to the appropriate ISO 9000 standard, you have important assurances that the quality of what you receive will be as you expect. In addition, with the year 2000 revision of the standard, quality objectives, continual improvement, and monitoring of customer satisfaction provide the customer with increased assurances that their needs and expectations will be met. The standard intended for quality management system assessment and registration is ISO 9001.  The standards apply uniformly to organizations of any size or description.

Quality Management System - an organization needs to ensure that it has established what its processes are, how they interact with each other, what resources are required to provide the product and how the processes are measured and improved. When the above has been established then a system for the control of documentation has to be established together with the Quality Manual and controls for looking after records.

Management Responsibility - the management at the highest level in the organization will need to be conversant with this important section of the standard. It is their responsibility to set policies, objectives and review the systems, as well as communicating the effectiveness of the systems within the organization.

Resource Management - more emphasis has been placed on the resources the organization needs to ensure that the customer receives what has been agreed. It covers not only people but also physical resources such as equipment premises and any support services required.

Product Realization - this section covers the processes that are needed to provide the product/service. These processes cover activities such as taking the instruction from the customer, the design and development of products, the purchasing of materials and services and the delivery of the products and services.

Measurement Analysis and Improvement - carrying out the measurement of the products, customer satisfaction, the management systems and ensuring continual improvement of the systems are vital to the management of the systems.