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ISO 9000 is a family of standards for quality management systems. ISO 9000 is maintained by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization
and is administered by accreditation and certification bodies. Some of
the requirements in ISO 9001 (which is one of the standards in the ISO
9000 family) include
A company or organization that has been independently audited and
certified to be in conformance with ISO 9001 may publicly state that it
is "ISO 9001 certified" or "ISO 9001 registered". Certification to an
ISO 9000 standard does not guarantee any quality of end products and
services; rather, it certifies that formalized business processes are
being applied. Indeed, some companies enter the ISO 9001 certification
as a marketing tool.
Although the standards originated in manufacturing,
they are now employed across several types of organization. A
"product", in ISO vocabulary, can mean a physical object, services, or software. In fact, according to ISO in 2004, "service sectors now account by far for the highest number of ISO 9001:2000 certificates - about 31% of the total." [1]
ISO 9000 is a family of standards for quality management systems. ISO 9000 is maintained by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization
and is administered by accreditation and certification bodies. Some of
the requirements in ISO 9001 (which is one of the standards in the ISO
9000 family) include
- a set of procedures that cover all key processes in the business;
- monitoring processes to ensure they are effective;
- keeping adequate records;
- checking output for defects, with appropriate and corrective action where necessary;
- regularly reviewing individual processes and the quality system itself for effectiveness; and
- facilitating continual improvement
A company or organization that has been independently audited and
certified to be in conformance with ISO 9001 may publicly state that it
is "ISO 9001 certified" or "ISO 9001 registered". Certification to an
ISO 9000 standard does not guarantee any quality of end products and
services; rather, it certifies that formalized business processes are
being applied. Indeed, some companies enter the ISO 9001 certification
as a marketing tool.
Although the standards originated in manufacturing,
they are now employed across several types of organization. A
"product", in ISO vocabulary, can mean a physical object, services, or software. In fact, according to ISO in 2004, "service sectors now account by far for the highest number of ISO 9001:2000 certificates - about 31% of the total." [1]
