ISO 9000 – Quality Management
The family of ISO 9000 deals with different aspects of quality management and contains some of ISO’s popular standards. They provide guidance and tools for companies and organizations to ensure that their products and services consistently meet customer’s requirements and that quality is improved day by day.
ISO 9000 family includes:
ISO 9001:2015 – sets out 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 – sets out guidance on internal and external audits of quality management systems.
ISO 9001:2015 sets out the criteria for a quality management system and is the only standard in the family that can be certified to (although this is not a requirement). It can be used by any organization, large or small, regardless of its field of activity. This standard is based on a number of quality management principles including a strong customer focus, the motivation and implication of top management, the process approach and continual improvement. Using ISO 9001:2015 helps ensure that customers get consistent, good quality of products and services, which can bring many business benefits.
Checking whether the system is working is a vital part of ISO 9001:2015 by regular internal audits. An organization may decide to invite an independent certification body to verify that it is in conformity to the standard. Alternatively, it can invite its clients to audit the quality system for themselves.
Organizations which are already certified with ISO 9001:2008 standard are permitted for a period of three years to migrate their quality management system to the new edition of the standard.
All ISO standards are reviewed for every five years to establish if a revision is required to keep it current and relevant for the changing market needs. ISO 9001:2015 is designed to respond to the latest trends and be compatible with other management systems such as ISO 14001.
The new version follows a higher level structure to make it easier to use in conjunction with other management system standards, with increased importance given to risk.
The new version of ISO 9001:2015, which was released in Sept. 2015. The Certified companies and organizations are willing to know the next steps, and how to become compliant with the new version.
The ISO organization stated that the transition period will take three years. So the organizations may get their ISO 9001:2008 certificates or have surveillance audits according to the old version until September 23, 2018. Even though it is sufficient period, organizations can plan to catch up with the changes much sooner to demonstrate that they are keeping up with the world and gain a competitive advantage.
The new standard was published on September 15, 2015,so the ISO 9001:2008 standard will become invalid by September 14, 2018. To avoid the pressure at the eleventh hour, organization are recommended to plan their transition at the earliest possible time frame.