Quality Management StandardISO 9001:2008

ISO 9001 is part of the ISO 9000 suite of standards for Quality Management Systems. ‘ISO’ stands for the International Organisation for Standardisation that maintains the Standard although it is administered by various accreditation and certification bodies, including UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Services).

History:

ISO 9000:1987

Developed from the BS5750 UK Standard (loved by some but loathed by many) that set out three separate models for Quality Management Systems, depending on the nature of the organisation but firmly aligned to manufacturing companies:

• ISO 9001:1987: quality assurance in design, development, production, installation and servicing for companies involved in new product development
• ISO 9002:1987: as above with the exception of ‘development’ so aimed at companies not involved in developing new products
• ISO 9003:1987: quality assurance in testing and final inspection

ISO 9000:1994

This update focused on quality assurance by taking preventative measures rather than just checking the finished product.
For all of the above, documentary evidence was required to show that procedures had been adhered to, often resulting in mountains of paperwork. The question was: “Are we doing this the way the manual says we should?”

ISO 9001:2000

An amalgamation of the 9001, 9002 and 9003 Standards. The biggest change was that ISO9001:2000 now looked at quality assurance throughout the entire process, rather than just the end product and required commitment from the top of the organisation to ensure that ‘quality’ became part of the overall management systems. Now the question asked of all organisations became: “Is this process fit for purpose or is there a better way of doing it?”
Continual Improvement was stressed as an essential component of customer focus and satisfaction, so a requirement was introduced for the ‘gathering and reviewing’ of ideas for doing things better.

ISO 9001:2008
No major new requirements from the 2000 version – however some changes have been made aimed at improving its alignment with the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard. Also, following on from ISO 9001:2000’s requirement for ‘gathering and reviewing’ ideas for improvement, 2008 requires implemented ideas to be monitored for output and effect.