III. A Review of ISO 9000
The ISO 9000 standards for quality assurance and quality management were published in 1987 by ISO Technical Committee 176. This series of standards had a dramatic impact due to their scope and rate of acceptance. This series of standards applies to all sizes and types of manufacturing and service companies and cover almost everything in a company's business functions with the main focus on processes, procedures and practices. As Hall states "The focus was to do things right in the first place rather th an the retrospective, and more expensive, doctrine of inspection for faults after the event." (Hall, T. J. The Quality Systems Manual: the definitive guide to the ISO 9000 family and TickIt. John Wiley and Sons: Chicester, England.1995).The history behind this series of standards can be traced to the USA during World War II. From the USA, the concept of quality assurance spread to Europe via NATO where it evolved into the Allied Quality Assurance Publication (AQAP). This series of docu ments discussed everything from production efficiency to selection of suppliers. The AQAP series were adopted by the UK Ministry of Defense for the British Armed Forces. This series had a trickle down effect as organizations began to require quality ass urance programs from their suppliers. The problem was that there was much diversity in the requirements for different organizations
The diversity issue was addressed by the British Standard BS 5750 which was based on the AQAP series and was introduced in 1979. The BS 5750 standard was considered so effective that it was adopted almost without change by ISO in 1987 as ISO 9000. The f ormation of the European Union and the perception that it was required in order to do business with Europe lead to the widespread acceptance of the ISO 9000 series.
The main documents in this series are:
- ISO 9000 - Guidelines for selection and use.
- ISO 9002 - Quality Systems Model for quality assurance in design, development, production and servicing.
- ISO 9003 - Quality Systems Model for quality assurance in final inspection and test.
- ISO 10011 - Guidelines for auditing quality systems.
- ISO 10012 - Quality assurance requirements for measuring equipment.
- ISO 10013 - Guidelines for developing quality manuals.
The main value of the 9000 series is that the analyses of processes required by the standard leads to improving or re-engineering of processes. The benefits to a company who follows the standard's practices are said to be new markets for their goods and services, increased cost-efficiency, improved employee morale and increased customer satisfaction.
- I. Introduction
- II. A Brief History of ISO
- III. A Review of ISO 9000
- IV. An Overview of ISO 14000
- V. The Costs and Benefits of ISO 14000 Certification
- VI. More Information
Email: cjmar@sis.pitt.edu