The ISO 9000 family of quality standards has a new look for the new millennium.

ISO 9000:2000 (Quality management systems - Fundamentals and vocabulary) establishes a starting point for understanding the standards and defines the fundamental terms and definitions used in the ISO 9000 family which you need to avoid misunderstandings in their use.

ISO 9001:2000 (Quality management systems - Requirements) is the requirement standard you use to assess your ability to meet customer and applicable regulatory requirements and thereby address customer satisfaction. It is now the only standard in the ISO 9000 family against which third-party certification can be carried. (Gone are 9002 and 9003.)

Differences between ISO 9000:1994 and ISO 9000:2000

The ISO 9000:2000 series was created after extensive consultation with users. It is simpler, more flexible for organizations to adopt and embraces the use of Plan-Do-Check-Act principles and Process Management.

The single most significant change to ISO 9001 is the movement away from a procedurally based approach to management (stating how you control your activities) to a process based approach (which is more about what you do).

This shift enables organizations to link business objectives with business effectiveness more directly. The revitalised standard focuses not only on the familiar clauses of the ISO 9000 series, but extends them to view the organization as a series of interacting processes - the very processes which produce the products and services customers buy.

ISO 9001:2000 includes the following main sections:

1. Quality Management System - an organisation needs to ensure that it has established what its processes are, how they interact with each other, what resources are required to provide the product and how the processes are measured and improved. When the above has been established then a system for the control of documentation has to be established together with the Quality Manual and controls for looking after records.
2. Management Responsibility - the management at the highest level in the organisation will need to be conversant with this important section of the standard. It is their responsibility to set policies, objectives and review the systems, as well as communicating the effectiveness of the systems within the organisation.
3. Resource Management - more emphasis has been placed on the resources the organisation needs to ensure that the customer receives what has been agreed. It covers not only people but also physical resources such as equipment premises and any support services required.
4. Product Realisation - this section covers the processes that are needed to provide the product/service. These processes cover activities such as taking the instruction from the customer, the design and development of products, the purchasing of materials and services and the delivery of the products and services.
5. Measurement Analysis and Improvement - carrying out the measurement of the products, customer satisfaction, the management systems and ensuring continual improvement of the systems are vital to the management of the systems.

In comparison with the original standard, the revised standard:

• applies to all product categories, sectors and organizations
• reduces the required amount of documentation.
• connects management systems to organizational processes
• is a natural move towards improved organizational performance
• has greater orientation towards continual improvement and customer satisfaction
• is compatible with other management systems such as ISO 14001
• is capable of going beyond ISO 9001:2000 in line with ISO 9004:2000 in order to further improve the performance of the organization.

For more information on the ISO 9000 family, check out the ISO web site

January 2001