ISO 9001 QMS

ISO 9000 in brief

The ISO 9000 standard is one of the best known international standards; it is implemented by countless companies and other organizations in over 170 countries. It is a customer focused standard. It is about effectively controlling key processes of an organization in order to continually improve and achieve customer's satisfaction. ISO 9000 addresses "quality management". This means what the organization does to fulfill:

• Their customers' quality requirements, plus
• any applicable regulatory requirements, while aiming to
• enhance customer satisfaction, and
• achieve continual improvement of its performance.

What is ISO 9001 Certification?

ISO 9001 certification is also known as ISO 9001 registration, ISO 9000 certification (if one is less precise), ISO 9000 registration, ISO 9001:2008 certification (if one specifically refers to the latest version of the ISO 9001 standard), or ISO 9001:2008 registration. All of these refer to an independent certification body attesting that your company's ISO 9001 quality management system meets all requirements of the ISO 9001 2008 standard. Typically, the certification company sends one or more auditors to perform an initial audit of the quality management system. If no significant gaps to the ISO 9000 requirements are discovered, a certificate is issued. The certificate is typically valid for three years provided that period audits (usually every 6 - 12 months) continue to show compliance.

The Benefits of ISO 9001

The key benefits of ISO 9000 certification are:

• Improvement: ISO 9001 is an excellent tool to develop a strong foundation of good processes and systems. Processes and systems are essential for the performance and expansion of any company. Quality improvements come along with this. Remember, ISO 9001 was developed as a real tool to improve companies.
• Marketing: ISO 9001 certification can effectively used in marketing as it is a well-recognized standard for quality; it shows your customers that you take quality seriously, that you are proactive and that you put your customers' satisfaction first.
• Customer Requirements: if your company provides products or services to other companies, some of those customers may require you to be ISO 9001 certified in order to do business with you.

 

What is the Difference between ISO 9000, ISO 9001, and ISO 9001:2015? And what are ISO 9002 and ISO 9003?

The quick answer is "none". These terms are all used to describe the ISO 9001 standard. Prior to December 2000, there used to be an ISO 9001, an ISO 9002 and an ISO 9003 standard; without focusing on the technical differences between them, people would just simply refer to each as ISO 9000. In December 2000, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) merged ISO 9001, ISO 9002, and ISO 9003 into a revised ISO 9001 standard. In order to distinguish between the previous ISO 9001 version, the revised standard was then often referred to as ISO 9001:2000 or ISO 9000:2000 (":2000" indicates the year of the revision). The current revision of ISO 9001 is ISO 9001:2015; it was published in September 2015 as successor to ISO 9001:2008.

How long does it take to implement ISO 9001?

It depends on you and your company. The very fastest is 3 - 4 months because most ISO 9001 registrars require at least 3 months ISO 9001 track record before the certification audit. More realistically: if you have a relatively small company (say, less than 20 employees), if your employees are motivated and if they don't oppose change, if you have the backing of all senior executives, if you and other managers are ready to put some significant time and efforts into this endeavor, then you may be able to get certified in as short as 3-4 months.