What is ISO 9001?
ISO 9000 - Quality management
The ISO 9000 family addresses various aspects of quality management and contains some of ISO’s best known standards. The standards provide guidance and tools for companies and organisations who want to ensure that their products and services consistently meet customer’s requirements, and that quality is consistently improved.
ISO 9001:2015
ISO 9001:2015 sets out the criteria for a quality management system and is the only standard in the family that can be certified to (although this is not a requirement). It can be used by any organisation, large or small, regardless of its field of activity. In fact, there are over one million companies and organisations in over 170 countries certified to ISO 9001.
This standard is based on a number of quality management principles including a strong customer focus, the motivation and implication of top management, the process approach and continual improvement. These principles are explained in more detail in the pdf Quality Management Principles. Using ISO 9001:2015 helps ensure that customers get consistent, good quality products and services, which in turn brings many business benefits:
ISO 9001 is for quality management.
- Quality refers to all those features of a product (or service) which are required by the customer.
- Quality management means what the organisation does to ensure that its products or services satisfy the customer's quality requirements and comply with any regulations applicable to those products or services.
- Quality management also means what the organisation does to enhance customer satisfaction, and achieve continual improvement of its performance.
For more information on ISO's certifications and guidelines visit their website by clicking here.
