ISO 9000

ISO 9000 is a family of standards for quality management systems. ISO 9000 is maintained by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization and is administered by accreditation and certification bodies. Some of the requirements in ISO 9001 (which is one of the standards in the ISO 9000 family) would include:a set of procedures that cover all key processes in the business;monitoring processes to ensure they are effective;keeping adequate records;checking output for defects, with appropriate corrective action where necessary; regularly reviewing individual processes and the quality system itself for effectiveness; andfacilitating continual improvement A company or organization that has been independently audited and certified to be in conformance with ISO 9001 may publicly state that it is "ISO 9001 certified" or "ISO 9001 registered." Certification to an ISO 9000 standard does not guarantee the compliance (and therefore the quality) of end products and services; rather, it certifies that consistent business processes are being applied.
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A set of international standards for both quality management and quality assurance that has been adopted by over 90 countries worldwide. The ISO 9000 standards apply to all types of organisations, large and small, and in many industries.
The standards require: standard language for documenting quality processes; system to manage evidence that these practices are instituted throughout an organisation; and third-party auditing to review, certify, and maintain certification of organisations. The ISO 9000 series classifies products into generic product categories: hardware, software, processed materials, and services.
Documentation is at the core of ISO 9000 conformance. In fact, the standards have been paraphrased as:
"Say what you do. Do what you say. Write it down."
In Britain it is associated with BS5750 which may become obsolete.
["The ISO 9000 Guide," c. 1993 Interleaf, Inc].
(1995-01-30)