What is ISO?

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies, at present comprising 140 members, one in each country. The object of ISO is to promote the development of standardization and related activities in the world with a view to facilitating international exchange of goods and services, and to developing cooperation in the spheres of intellectual, scientific, technological and economic activity. The results of ISO technical work are published as International Standards.

What is ISO 9000?

The ISO 9000 family of standards represents an international consensus on good management practices with the aim of ensuring that the organization can time and time again deliver the product or services that meet the client's quality requirements. These good practices have been distilled into a set of standardized requirements for a quality management system, regardless of what your organization does, its size, or whether it's in the private, or public sector.

Why should my organization implement ISO 9000?

To keep customers - and to keep them satisfied - your product (which may, in fact, be a service) needs to meet their requirements. ISO 9000 provides a tried and tested framework for taking a systematic approach to managing your business processes (your organization's activities) so that they consistently turn out product conforming to the customer's expectations. And that means consistently happy customers!

How does the ISO 9000 family of standards work?

The requirements for a quality system have been standardized - but most of us like to think our business is unique. So how does ISO 9000 allow for the diversity of say, on the one hand, a "Mr. and Mrs." enterprise, and on the other, to a multinational manufacturing company with service components, or a public utility, or a government administration?

The answer is that ISO 9000 lays down what requirements your quality system must meet, but does not dictate how they should be met in your organization - which leaves great scope and flexibility for implementation in different business sectors and business cultures...as well as different national cultures.

So, the ISO 9000 family includes the standard, ISO 9001:2000 that gives organizations requirements on what constitutes an effective quality management system. ISO 9004:2000 is the standard giving guidelines on the elements of quality management and a quality system.

Finally, the family includes a standard on terminology (ISO 9000:2000), and other standards, which can be described as "supporting tools", that give guidance on specific aspects, such as auditing quality systems.

For a complete listing of ISO documents, please see the ISO Website

What are the requirements for transitioning to ISO 9001:2000?

Please visit "Transition to the ISO 9000:2000 series" for details.