ISO9001

Who are ISO and what do they do?

The 'International Organization for Standardization' (ISO) was established in 1947 and is an association of 162 countries, each represented by a National Standards Body. ISO's headquarters are based in Geneva, Switzerland.

What is ISO 9001?

ISO 9001 is the internationally recognised standard for an organisation's internal Quality Management. The term 'Quality' refers to all those features of a product or service which are required by the customer. An organisation's 'Quality Management' refers to an organisation's actions to ensure that its products or services satisfy its customers' quality requirements, and complies with any regulations applicable to those products or services, this allows it to be applied to any sized organisation within any industry. ISO 9001 has proven very popular with buyers who want to ensure that all suppliers meet minimum quality requirements.

What are the requirements of ISO 9001?

ISO 9001 is designed to enable organisations to develop the minimum amount of documentation needed in order to demonstrate the effective planning, operation and control of its processes, and the implementation of the effectiveness of its Quality Management System (QMS), including ongoing improvement. A QMS is therefore necessary in order to meet the requirements of ISO 9001. Our organisation's QMS contains the processes, documents, resources, and monitoring systems that direct the work of our organisation regarding product and service quality. To achieve certification, organisations must demonstrate that they have effective procedures, which are consistently applied for activities such as:-

• Measurement, analysis and improvement
• Internal communication
• Control of documents
• Managing human resources and the network environment
• Determining product/service requirements
• Product/service design
• Monitoring customer satisfaction
• Measurement, analysis and continual improvement

What is ISO 9001:2008?

The ISO 9001 standard provides a set of standardised requirements for a quality management system, regardless of what a particular organisation does. It is the only standard within the ISO 9000 family of documents against which organisations can be certified. Conformity to ISO 9001:2008 will be evaluated by certification bodies during regular surveillance visits.

Certification:

Achieving ISO 9001 certification involves a third party certificating body verifying that the organisation meets the requirements of the standard. This normally involves an initial visit to establish what requirements are unfulfilled, with a second visit to formally audit what has been put into place.