ISO 9001:2000 is the world's most successful standard addressing best practice in the application of quality management systems.
The standard is based around the principles of customer satisfaction, continual improvement and the development of a process based quality management system. Although not referenced in the standard itself the ISO 9001:2000 document is underpinned by eight key quality management principles: |
- a customer focused organization
- leadership
- the involvement of people
- ensuring a process approach
- a systematic approach to management
- a factual approach to decision making
- mutually beneficial supplier relations
- continuous improvement
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| ISO 9001:2000 has been written to ensure that its guiding principles are equally relevant to all sectors of industry and to all types of organization. Although containing requirements to control the key processes within an organization, it only requires six documented procedures. The standard emphasizes the need for an organization to continually monitor their own processes and systems, with many clauses making reference to self monitoring or measurement or both. This emphasis aims for an integrated approach to business processes. Instead of operating to a business plan on one hand and a quality management system on the other, the standard aims to integrate both of these functions into one system. |
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