why ISO 9000

Purpose of ISO 9000 Standards

By LavelleL, eHow Contributor

updated: September 11, 2010

ISO standards raise the bar.

The International Organization for Standardization is the world's leading organization for standards development. The organization developed the 9000 standard to set the bar for quality management. According to the ISO website, the ISO 9000 quality management system standards cover four areas: customers' quality requirements, applicable regulatory requirements, customer satisfaction and achievement of continual improvement of performance in pursuit of objectives.

ISO 9000 Standard

1. The ISO 9000 standard is a part of a series of standards that begin with the 9000 section. The ISO website describes the ISO 9000 standard as a "collection of formal International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports, Handbooks and web based documents on Quality Management." There are approximately 25 documents in the collection. The international standards in the ISO 9000 series are numbered beginning at 1000 and ending with 10000. For example, a particular standard may be ISO 9001:2008, which is the standard that provides a set of standardized requirements for a quality management system. Alternatively, another standard in the series may be ISO 9004:2009 is the standard that manages the sustained success of an organization.

Development of the ISO 9000 Standard

2. The ISO 9000 standard is developed by the ISO Technical Committee and its subcommittees. The committees are responsible for developing the series of standards. ISO describes the work of the committees as being conducted on the basis of consensus among experts in the industry who focus on quality. These industry experts are nominated by national standards bodies and represent a wide range of interested parties.

Management Systems

3. The ISO 9000 series of quality management is part of a family of management systems and processes. ISO describes its processes as providing the following benefits: integration and alignment of processes to achieve the desired results, ability to focus effort on process effectiveness and efficiency, customer confidence about the consistent performance of the organization, operational efficiency, lower costs and creation of shorter cycle times, improved results, provision of opportunities for focused and prioritized improvement initiatives and encouragement of involvement from others.

Process Types

4. The ISO 9000 series of standards engages sets of process types. According to section 3.1 of the ISO 9000 standard, "organizations have to define the number and types of processes needed to [fulfill] their business objectives." The processes are unique to each organization, but it is possible to identify typical processes such as processes for the management of an organization, processes for managing resources, realization processes and processes for measurement, analysis and improvement. The processes for managing an organization relate to strategic planning, policy making, objective setting, effective communication and quality control. Processes for managing resources involve all the processes necessary to provide the resources needed for the organization's quality objectives and desired outcomes. The realization processes include the systems that relate to the organizational goals. The measurement, analysis and improvement processes determine qualitative measurements and provide analysis of data to improve efficiencies within the organization.

Importance of ISO Standards

5. The ISO standards are an important part of the systems and processes that support organizational goals of the ISO organization. The ISO website defines the importance of its standards for ensuring desirable characteristics of products and services such as quality, environmental friendliness, safety, reliability, efficiency and interchangeability at an economical cost. Therefore, the purpose of the ISO 9000 family of management standards is to provide systems and processes for efficient and effective quality management in businesses.

References

• ISO 9000 family
• ISO frequently asked questions
• ISO management systems
• Discover ISO

Resources

• International Organization for Standardization

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Read more: Purpose of ISO 9000 Standards | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6981483_purpose-iso-9000-standards.html#ixzz0zIfAXSWi