ISO 9001:2000

What is ISO 9001:2000?

ISO 9001:2000 represents the international standard for Quality Management Systems. It has been developed by the IOS (International Organization for Standardization) to establish the minimum requirments an organization should implement to insure they are meeting customer requirements. These requirements are based on proven management philosophies including:

1.Customer Focus
2.Leadership Committment
3.Involvement of People
4.Process Approach to Delivery of Service
5.System Approach to Management
6.Continual Improvement
7.Factual Approach to Decision Making

Many management systems focus on the outcomes and adjust the process when the outcome does not meet the desired requirement. ISO 9001:2000 utilizes a front end approach to systems management. The underlying premise of ISO 9001:2000 is to first understand the customer requirements, establish objectives based on these customer requirements, communicate relevant information to the organization, train competent staff in their responsibilities, maintain the infrastructure and work environment, and purchase from reliable vendors. Only then are you ready to deliver the service. After the service has been delivered, ISO 9001:2000 requires the organization to begin robust measuring and monitoring. Requirements for measuring and monitoring are: customer satisfaction, internal systems assessment, process performance, and outcomes performance. The measuring and monitoring activities generate data, which must be analyzed and fed back to top management for resource allocation. The fundamental goal of ISO 9001:2000 is two fold. The first objective is to standardize the processes of the organization. The second objective is to continuously improve the processes of the organization by reducing the process variation.

How Does Your Organization Benefit From ISO 9001:2000?
1.) Establishes the organization as a highly customer focused organization-ISO 9001:2000 requires the organization to determine the customer requirements and then implement processes to ensure those requirements are met.

2.) Increased Profitability-By standardizing the organiztion and removing variations from the processes the profit margins of the organization are increased.

3.) Recognition as an industry leader-By becoming ISO 9001:2000 certified you will be recognized as a leader in your industry.

4.) Develops a system of continuous readiness-ISO 9001:2000 based management systems instill a state of continuous readiness for external audits by other agencies.

5.) Establishes a cultural of prevention in the organization-Organizations with ISO 9001:2000 management systems no longer live in fire fighting mode.

6.) Creates a transparent, accountable, sustainable organization-By the utilization of management review, defined responsibilities, and the utilization of an internal assessment program the organization becomes less dependant on key individuals.

Bottom line is a well implemented and maintained ISO 9001:2000 based business management system creates a tremendous ROI for the organization.