ISO 9000, 9001, 9002 registration - Eden Quality Management - Consulting: Burlington Ontario, CANADA.

ISO 9000 is a series of international quality standards and guidelines, issued by the International Organization for Standardization in Geneva, Switzerland. The standards were designed with the aim of ensuring that any organization, regardless of size, can consistently deliver the product or service that meets their customer's quality expectations.

ISO 9000 is a practical tool to assist users in assuring the quality of their product or service. Like all ISO standards, its use is voluntary - unless a business sector makes it a market requirement, or unless a government issues regulations making its use obligatory. Therefore, organizations that implement ISO 9000 voluntarily are only doing so because they expect the standard to help them to do things better - and to provide real benefits.

The requirements of ISO 9000 are simply good business management practices, which when implemented provide a framework for taking a systematic approach to managing your organization's activities. The requirements are completely generic. Since most of us like to think that our business is unique, it is essential that an international quality standard allow for the diversity of all types of organization, large or small, product or service, public or private. ISO 9000 lays out what the requirements are for developing a quality management system, but it does not dictate how those requirements must be met.

The revised core series of the ISO 9000 family of International Standards for quality management was published on 15 December 2000. ISO has allowed a 3 year transition period during which accredited certification to the 1994 standards and ISO 9001:2000 may continue to coexist. This transition period will end on 15 December 2003. By that date, all organizations wishing to retain accredited certification will have to have migrated their quality management system to being compliant with ISO 9001:2000.

Eight universally accepted quality management principles are now the basis for the revised standards, which are better aligned with the philosophy and objectives of most quality award programs. These principles are:

Customer focus,
Leadership,
Involvement of people,
Process approach,
System approach to management,
Continual improvement,
Factual approach to decision making, and
Mutually beneficial supplier relationships.

(Source: International Organization for Standardization)