ISO-9001 Sets Standard For Industry And Business
ISO-9001 is an international quality management standard used by industry and businesses to ensure the consumer quality products . It is a member of the ISO-9000, a family of standards for quality management systems developed and maintained by ISO. The ISO, the acronym for International Organization for Standardisation, is based in Geneva, Switzerland and administered by international accreditation and certification committees. Members who compose the committees are many and come from a lot of different countries allowing for a very broad support for these norms. Before any standards are published, technical committees that develop them, check the content carefully. Afterwards, they give their formal approval to publication. The standards are on documents that interpret the set of rules companies must comply with to be certified. These rules explain how to maintain control in managing the raw materials, developing the processes, technologies, and systems, making and distributing the resultant products and services by their work force. Companies who qualify after following the procedures and rules get an ISO certificate that usually helps them get more business. This certificate however, is a temporary award, that must be renewed at regular intervals of three years. The whole standards certification system began more than 60 years ago during the darkest hours of WW2 in Britain as means to maintain safe munitions production. The authorities created British Standard 5750 to solve quality problems. In 1987, the International Organization for Standardization agreed to adopt BS 5750 and the complimenting US Department of Defense MIL SPECS as an international standard and morphed them into ISO-9000. North America today has basically a service sector driven economy because most of its manufacturing base has moved to the Far East. Because of this a lot more companies are using ISO-9000 as a business tool. It has allowed for an increase in their efficiencies and profitablity when used properly. Because it is a very generalized and abstract set of norms, companies must be careful in how they interpret its parts to mesh with their particular businesses. Management must exercise good business judgement to determine its proper role for their company. The rewards however, are great if proper quality management is implimented, giving businesses the following advantages:
The certification process begins with auditing by a company's own specially trained staff and by companies that specialize and are accredited by the ISO to do this type of work. Only a company or organization that has gone through the independant auditing process and is certified conforming to the norms is allowed to state it is ISO-9001 certified or registered. Both the audited company's own internal, and external independant auditors perform audits. The common goal is a continual process of review and assessment. Every system is verified looking where improvements can be made, and to correct or prevent problems after they are identified. Both groups of auditors strive to remain independant of influences from company management to prevent clouding their judgement. Conformance means that the company meets the ISO-9001 requirements which include the following:
Statistics show that registration itself creates little improvement. Interested companies already have made a commitment to quality and were performing just as well before registration. As with anything else people like to complain, and criticism of ISO-9001 is no exception. One common one is about all the money, paperwork and time it takes. According to one expert, some claim that it is only for documentation. Advocats say that if a company documents its quality systems beforehand then most of the paperwork needed for certification is already “fait accomplis” or been done. Another complaint is certification is a method to increase consulting services business. This particular complaint is used by certain companies that want to be called “certified” or “registered” before giving quality. The standards since inception have evolved with the times or at least have done their best to do so. One way ISO-9001 has evolved is by integrating other members of the ISO-9000 family. Standards 9001, 9002 and 9003 are now 9001. Below are briefs about the different versions of this standard and what they are all about. ISO-9000:1994 emphasized quality assurance through preventative actions instead of just checking final product. It required continued evidence of compliance with documented procedures. “Product” according to the ISO means a physical object, or services, or software. Also , they say that in 2004 service sectors accounted for 31% or the highest number of ISO 9001:2000 certificates. ISO-9001:2000 main purpose was combining 9001, 9002, and 9003 creating a new ISO-9001. Monitoring and optimizing of company tasks and activities superceded just inspecting the final product. It also asked for involvement by upper management to integrate quality into the business system avoiding quality functions authority delegation to junior administrators. Continual process improvement and tracking customer satisfaction were made paramount. Certification does not guarantee the company compliance or the quality of their products or services. Instead it certifies consistent business processes being applied. It also gives no guarantee to superior or even decent quality products.
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