ISO 9001

The ISO 9000 family of standards relates to quality management systems and is designed to help organizations ensure they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders. The standards are published by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, and available through National standards bodies. ISO 9000 deals with the fundamentals of quality management systems, including the eight management principles on which the family of standards is based. ISO 9001 deals with the requirements that organizations wishing to meet the standard have to fulfill. Third party certification bodies provide independent confirmation that organizations meet the requirements of ISO 9001. Over a million organizations worldwide are independently certified, making ISO 9001 one of the most widely used management tools in the world today.

The ISO family of standards is the only international standard that addresses systemic change and repeatability of results. The global adoption of ISO 9001 may be attributable to a number of factors. A number of major purchasers require their suppliers to hold ISO 9001 certification. In addition to several stakeholders’ benefits, a number of studies have identified significant financial benefits for organizations certified to ISO 9001. A 2011 survey from the British Assessment Bureau shows that 44% of their certified clients had won new business. Another study showed that certified organizations achieved superior return on assets compared to otherwise similar organizations without certification. There is data showing that organizations with ISO 9001 certification showed superior performance and demonstrated that this was statistically significant and not a function of organization size. Implementing ISO 9001 leads to superior operational performance and improvements in operating performance. This can be linked to superior financial performance and better overall financial stability; while the connection between superior financial performance and ISO 9001 may be seen proving a  direct causation. Some writers, suggested that while there is some evidence a tendency for better performing companies to seek ISO 9001 certification.

The mechanism for improving results has also been the subject of much research. It was identified that operational improvements (cycle time reduction, inventory reductions, etc.) as following from ISO 9001 certification caused by internal process improvements in organizations leading to externally observable improvements. Some research results indicate that firms that are certified outperform their control group during the post-implementation period and effective implementation of total quality management principles and philosophies leads to significant wealth creation. The benefit of increased international trade and domestic market share, in addition to the internal benefits such as customer satisfaction, interdepartmental communications, work processes, and customer/supplier partnerships derived, far exceeds any and all initial investment. All these benefits are available and attainable only if the total management system is defined, developed and implemented customized and in unison to the existing business processes.

ISO 9000 was first published in 1987. It was based on the BS 5750 series of standards from British Standard that were proposed to ISO in 1979. However, its history can be traced back some twenty years before that, to the publication of the Department of Defense MIL-Q-9858 standard in 1959. MIL-Q-9858 was revised into the NATO AQAP series of standards in 1969, which in turn were revised into the BS 5179 series of guidance standards published in 1974, and finally revised into the BS 5750 series of requirements standards in 1979 before being submitted to ISO.ISO 9001:2008 is the only standard in the

ISO 9000 family against whose requirements your quality system can be certified by an external agency. The ISO 9001:2008 certification signifies a global benchmark in customer satisfaction, product quality, and leads to significant reduction in defect levels. The standard recognizes that the word "product" applies to services, processed material, hardware and software intended for, or required by your customer, hence including all possible enterprises.