Quality Management Systems (QMS) popularly known as ISO 9000 was first introduced in 1987 by the International Organisation for Standardisation. ISO (a non-governmental organization) is a federation of the national standards bodies of 149 countries, from all regions of the world.

At present more than 600,000 organisations worldwide and more than 50,000 organisations in India have benefited by adopting the ISO 9000 standards.

For businesses, the widespread adoption of International Standards means that businesses are increasingly free to compete on many more markets around the world.

For consumers, conformity of products and services to International Standards provides assurance about their quality, safety and reliability.

For governments, International Standards provide the technological and scientific bases underpinning quality, health, safety and environmental legislation.

The ISO 9000 standard has largely been adopted by organisations due to various reasons, such as, pressure from customers, to capitalise on opportunities in EC markets, to improve quality, to gain marketing advantage over competitors, etc. In addition there is a marked improvement in all key processes resulting in higher productivity and reduction of wastages and losses.

The ISO standard has been more popular with the manufacturing sector, however even the service sector too has felt the need to adopt quality standards and be ahead of competition. The implementation of the Quality System would facilitate service organisation provide better service experience and differentiate their service to retain customers.

The ISO 9001: 2000 Model requires organisations to address the following:

The ISO Standard requires the organisation to identify the processes, the sequence and interaction of processes. The QMS documentation should include the quality policy, quality objectives, Quality Manual, plans and records that provide objective evidence of implementation of the system.

The documentation and records should be maintained and controlled and there should be procedures for identification, storage, protection, retrieval, retention and disposition of records.

The standard requires the management to demonstrate it commitments for implementation of the QMS and its continual improvement. Top Management shall ensure customer requirements are determined and are met with the aim of enhancing customer satisfaction. Top management shall conduct reviews at planned intervals.

The organisation is required to determine and provide resources to maintain QMS and enhance customer satisfaction. The organisation is required to identify skills of its employees and provide training. Necessary infrastructure and work environment should be provided to achieve conformity to product requirements.

The management is required to plan and develop processes needed for product realisation. Some of the processes are design and development, customer related process, purchasing, production and service provision, preservation of product, etc.

The standard requires the organisation to measure the processes and products, conduct internal audits at periodic intervals, analyse data related to customer satisfaction and suppliers and take preventive and corrective action to eliminate causes of non conformities and potential non conformities.

The revised standard introduced in December 2000 and has brought into focus –

The implementation of ISO 9000 is the basic requirement for any company that wishes to achieve business excellence.

ISO certification is a step towards (a) achieving a globally recognised quality certificate; (b) improving efficiency and serving customers better thereby improving bottom-lines; and (c) an assurance that good management practices are implemented by the organisation.

For more information refer www.iso.org