History of ISO 9000

ISO 9000 grew out of BS 5750, a standard published by the British Standards Institution (BSI) in 1979. Initially, it was used only in manufacturing industries. ISO 9000 is now employed across a variety of other types of businesses. It is a set of international standards of quality management systems. ISO 9000 has been accepted by more than 100 countries as their national quality assurance standard by the end of 1997.

The history of ISO 9000 dates back to Mil-Q-9858a, the first quality standard for military procurement established in 1959 by the US. By 1962, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) developed its quality system requirements for suppliers. In 1965, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) accepted the AQAP (allied quality assurance procedures) specifications for the procurement of equipments.

During the 1970s, BSI published BS 9000 (the first UK standard for quality assurance) and BS 5179 (guidelines for quality assurance) norms. In 1979, it created BS 5750, a series of standards for use by manufacturing companies. They were enforced through assessments and audits. In 1988, ISO (International Standards Organization) adopted the BS 5750 standard without changes and published it globally under the name ISO 9000. The ISO adopted this standard with a view to create an international definition of the necessary characteristics of a quality system for all businesses, regardless of industry. In 1994, the ISO revised the ISO 9000 standard and published it globally.

In the beginning, ISO 9000 was implemented exclusively by large companies. But by mid-1990s, small and mid-sized companies began to increasingly implement these standards. In the United States, the total number of registrations increased from a little more than 2,200 in 1993 to more than 17,000 in 1998. Of these 17,000 registrations, almost 60 percent were held by businesses with annual sales of $100 million or less.

ISO 9000 provides detailed information on ISO 9000, ISO 9000 Standards, ISO 9000 Software, ISO 9000 Consulting and more. ISO 9000 is affiliated with Home Inspections.

Is ISO 9001 Registration For My Organization?

Firstly you should decide your own reasoning behind considering ISO 9001 2000 registration for your organization.

Is the number of registrations in your market sector increasing?

Are your competitors seeking registration?

Are your customers asking about registration?

Are registrations increasing in your industry?

Are your customers asking you to become registered?

Have your group HQ asked you to gain registration?

Do you want to reap the financial benefits of registration?

Have the number of customer or consumer complaints increased?

Do preventable errors keep occur again and again in your business?

It is not possible to state exactly what benefits will your organization will gain by having a formal quality system, primarily because each organization is different. However, I think it is fair to say that most organisations will benefit from having a formalized Quality Management system where:

Work proceeds in an orderly and predictable way.

The same old preventable errors stop occurring.

Customer and consumer complaints fall dramatically.

Your Management System improves.

Internal communication within your organization improves.

Returned product from customers reduces week on week.

The quality of your product and or service improves.

The level of customer and employee satisfaction improves.

Your organization produces quality data to improve your business.

By now you should have a reasonable idea of whether or not ISO 9001 2000 registration is right for your organization and whether or not you will gain financially from adopting the ISO 9001 2000 standard as a method of running your business effectively and efficiently.

If you are now seriously considering seeking registration to the ISO 9001 2000 standard you must begin to understand what the standard requires of an organization. There are many books and resources available which discuss implementing the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard into an organization, including the documentation and resources to be found on this web site.

You may like to begin your ISO 9001 2000 education by reading the various articles and resources to be found on this web site. I would thoroughly recommend reading the Questions and Answers (Q&A) section of this web site as it will answer many of the initial questions that you might have about the ISO 9001 2000 registration process.

To begin to understand the requirements of the ISO 9001 2000 standard we recommend that you read Preparing For ISO 9001 2000 Registration. Alternatively you could take a training course which will teach you about the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard and the registration process.

To determine the amount of input required by your organization to comply with the requirements of the ISO 9001 2000 standard will require that you assess your existing management system. You could to fetch in a consultant at this stage because a consultant will be able to identify exactly what your organization needs to do in order to achieve the requirements of the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard.

Many organizations opt to carry out a gap analysis audit by themselves. However, this is such an important part of the ISO 9001 2000 registration process it is worth seeking professional help from a consultant. Many organizations who opt to jump straight into the gap analysis audit process themselves can often waste time, money and resources by not fully understanding the intent of the ISO 9001 2000 standard. Whereas seeking professional advice from a consultant will set your organization on the right path with clear instructions on who, what, where, why, when and how things should be done.

If on the other hand your organization already has a very good understanding of the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard and you have:

A documented Quality policy.

Been setting and using documented Quality objectives.

Documented Top management reviews of your Quality Management System.

Documented top level Quality Management System Manual.

Documented effective and efficient process procedures and or work instructions.

Documented employee skills and training records which are regularly reviewed.

Documented ISO 9001 2000 compliant Quality Management System Audits.

Documented an effective and compliant Customer complaint process.

Documented an effective corrective & preventive action process.

If you are doing all the above then you may be well on your way toward gaining ISO 9001 2000 registration. However, if your Quality Management System is incomplete or immature it will require much more effort to become compliant. You can continue to adjust your system, carry out internal quality audits to check for compliance, train employees etc. Until you reach a position where you feel you have done as much as you are able to do yourself. Once you have reached this stage you may be concerned that you have missed something important. It seems rather silly to embark on a full registration audit at great cost to your organization when you can hire a consultant to carry out a gap analysis audit for a relatively small sum of money to ensure that your quality management system is compliant with the requirements of ISO 9001 2000. If you fail the certification body initial assessment audit the cost of a full re-audit by a registration body can be prohibitively expensive.

A pre-assessment or gap analysis audit is survey carried out by a professional who compares what processes your organization has in place compared to those required by the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard. The consultant will report any deficiencies in your organizations processes, it is then up to you to decide if you want to tackle these deficiencies by yourself or to engage the professional services of consultant.

Driso provide ISO 9001 2000 consultancy, auditing, software, and training Services. They also supply Easy ISO 9001 2000® software for initially setting up an ISO 9001 2000 compliant Quality Management System or improving upon an existing one. To contact Driso Consultancy Services visit the web site below and see what they can do for you and your business.http://www.driso.co.uk