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The ISO 9000 family of standards addresses various aspects related to quality management, taking care of providing the necessary guidance and sufficient tools for companies and organizations that want to ensure that the quality of their products and services continues to improve and that In addition, customer requirements are consistently met.
ISO 9000 standard
The ISO 9000 standard is part of a series of standards that begin with section 9000. The ISO website describes the ISO 9000 standard as a “collection of formal international standards, technical specifications, technical reports, manuals and documents based on web about Quality Management “. There are approximately 25 documents in the collection. International standards of the ISO 9000 series are numbered starting at 1000 and ending with 10,000. For example, a particular standard may be ISO 9001: 2008, which is the standard that provides a set of standardized requirements for a quality management system. On the other hand, another standard of the series can be ISO 9004: 2009, which is the standard that manages the sustained success of an organization.
In this group of ISO 9000 standards are the following:
- ISO 9001: 2015 – establishes the requirements of a quality management system.
- ISO 9000: 2015 – covers the basic concepts and language.
- ISO 9004: 2009 – focuses on how to make a quality management system more efficient and effective.
- ISO 19011: 2011 – establishes guidelines on internal and external audits of quality management systems.
Although implementing the content of the standards is not an obligation, as can be the provisions included in Laws and Directives at national or community level, it is highly recommended for the business to assimilate to the provisions of ISO 9000 standards.
Doing so guarantees, in the first place, to have a framework in which to rely to grow as a business and drive processes and operations towards excellence; and secondly to apply the recommendations of this family of standards is the best presentation letter to customers, but also to supply chain partners.
Organizations that work following the guidelines of ISO 9000 standards are able to:
- Strengthen its internal structure, increasing its efficiency.
- Design the mechanisms that help you experience predictable performance.
- Improve the integration of its processes, achieving the performance objectives.
- Avoid confusion, by having the necessary tools and documentation to provide clear direction to employees and partners.
- Exceed customer expectations.
- Comply with all applicable legal requirements.
ISO 9000 standards: the importance of ISO 9001: 2015
The application of ISO 9000 standards guarantees the achievement of a robust and flexible system, aimed at continuous improvement. Specifically, ISO 9001: 2015 defines the prevailing criteria in any quality management system and, its peculiarity is that, of all ISO 9000 standards, it is the only one for which certification can be obtained.
Many organizations decide to become certified, not only to demonstrate that they comply with the quality management principles set forth in the standard, but to benefit from the incorporation of best practices in terms of customer service, staff motivation and involvement of the high direction, application of a process-based approach and commitment to continuous improvement.
The implementation of the provisions of this standard is simple and facilitates its incorporation into work dynamics, both in large-scale companies and in smaller companies. Nor are there limitations to its application in the sector, since any industry can benefit from the guidelines of this standard. Precisely for this reason, according to data from ISO.org, there are more than one million companies and organizations certified in ISO 9001 distributed geographically in more than one hundred and seventy different countries.
Development of the ISO 9000 standard
The ISO 9000 standard is developed by the ISO Technical Committee and its subcommittees. The committees are responsible for the development of the series of standards. ISO describes the work of the committees that are being carried out on the basis of a consensus among industry experts that focus on quality. These experts are nominated by the national standardization bodies and represent a wide range of stakeholders.
Management systems
The ISO 9000 quality management series is part of a family of systems and management processes. ISO describes its processes to provide the following benefits: integration and alignment of the processes to achieve the desired results, ability to focus efforts on the efficiency of the process and efficiency. In addition, it provides clients with confidence in the constant performance of the organization, operational efficiency, lower costs and the creation of shorter cycle times, improved results, provision of opportunities for focused and prioritized improvement initiatives and the promotion of the participation of others.
Types of processes
The ISO 9000 series of standards involves sets of process types. In accordance with section 3.1 of the ISO 9000 standard, “Organizations have to define the number and types of processes necessary to [fulfill] their business objectives.” The processes are unique for each organization, but it is possible to identify the typical processes, such as the processes for the management of an organization, the procedures for the management of the resources, the processes of realization and the processes of measurement, analysis and improvement. The management processes of an organization refer to strategic planning, policy formulation, setting objectives, effective communication and quality control. The processes for the management of the resources imply all the necessary processes to provide the necessary resources for the objectives of quality of the organization and the desired results. The processes of realization include the systems that are related to the objectives of the organization. The processes of measurement, analysis and improvement determine the qualitative measurements and provide an analysis of the data to improve the efficiency of the organization.
Importance of ISO standards
ISO standards are an important part of the systems and processes that support the organizational objectives of the ISO organization. The ISO website defines the importance of its standards to guarantee the desirable characteristics of products and services, such as quality, respect for the environment, safety, reliability, efficiency and exchange capacity at an economic cost. Therefore, the purpose of the family of ISO 9000 management standards is to provide systems and processes for the efficient and effective management of quality in companies.