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The ISO 9001 standard is one part of the group (or “family”) of ISO 9000 standards. This ISO family is focused on Quality Management Systems (QMS) that help organisations “ensure that their products and services consistently meet customer’s requirements and that quality is consistently improved.”
The standards origins hark back to the 1980’s with BS 5750 when it had a manufacturing focus. Over the years and the transformation to an internationally recognised ISO 9000, many organisations’ first experience of the standard was as a tender requirement. The customer procurement functions were particularly interested in each tenderers ability to provide a consistent level of quality to the supplier’s product and services.
World War II devastated most of Europe. Winston Churchill first proposed the concept of a “United States of Europe” in 1946. As treaties evolved and countries rebuilt, they found that there were many aspects of businesses that were incompatible from country to country. Quality standards were very diverse, and the need for a single standard led to the creation of what we now know as ISO 9001.
Technical Committee 176 (ISO /TC 176) was formed in 1979 to create a universal quality standard. Based on the British Standard BS5750, ISO 9000 was first released in 1987. It was referred to as a “quality assurance standard”.
The current revision of the standard is ISO 9001:2015, replacing the previous revision ISO 9001:2008. This certification has found its way in over one million companies worldwide across every industry and country. This updated revision includes many of the processes from the previous revision of the standard, with a greater focus on risk-based thinking and understanding the context of the organisation.
As an international standard, it is recognised as the basis for any company to create a system to ensure customer satisfaction and improvement and, as such, many corporations require this certification from their suppliers.
The standard provides your customers with the assurance that you have established a Quality Management System based on the seven quality management principles of ISO 9001.
With customers being better educated and more demanding of consistent service levels from a business, the same high standard should be expected from every supplier and their partners. As the internet allows people to provide feedback or vent frustrations about a brand, quickly damaging vulnerable reputations, their influence has never been greater.
The ISO 9001 standard gives businesses, regardless of size, the ability to deliver a consistent level of quality, whether this be a product or service. Customer confidence levels will increase as a result of businesses complying with the standard due to these increased quality levels.
The Agility System software combines powerful elements to control processes, documents, risk and compliance. Unlike traditional quality management systems, the Agility System software’s process-based approach with integrated risk complies with ISO 9001:2015 standards.
Book a demo with one of our experienced business analysts today to discuss your organisations specific ISO requirements, and how the Agility System can help you achieve them.
With extensive experience of Quality Management, Risk & Compliance in the Energy, Nuclear & Defence industries since 1979, Peter formed BusinessPort in 1996 to specialise in Process-based Management Systems delivering both Performance and Compliance.
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