Quality Standards
ISO 9001
The ISO 9001 standard represents an international consensus on good management practices with the aim of ensuring that the organization maintain the ability to deliver products and/or services that consistently meet client's quality requirements. These good practices have been distilled into a set of standardized requirements for a quality management system, regardless of what your organization does, its size, or whether it's in the private or public sector. The key elements of an ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS) are:
Quality Policy — the commitment to pursue adherence to the standard requirements via objectives, targets, and programs directed to continual improvement and customer satisfaction
Planning — the analysis of the ability to perform so as to meet customer expectations within the organization (including evaluation of established processes as well as the goods and services used by the organization);
Implementation and operation — implementation and organization
of processes to control and continually improve operational
activities that are critical from a quality and customer's
satisfaction perspective (including both products and
services of an organization)
Checking and corrective action — the monitoring,
measurement, and recording of the characteristics
and activities that can have a significant impact meeting
the goals and objectives of the company and customer
Management Review — review of the QMS by the organization's
top management to ensure its continuing it's continuing suitability,
adequacy and effectiveness
Continual improvement — the concept of continual improvement is a key component of the quality management system; it completes the cyclical process of plan, implement, check, review and continually improve.
From the International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee 176 (www.tc176.org)
