An ISO 9001 certificate proves that your quality management system has been certified against a best practice standard and found compliant. Issued by a third party certification body/registrar, the certificate lets customers know they can trust that you have implemented the necessary internal processes to meet obligations.

ISO 9001 is particularly strong on seeking to reduce errors, both in preventing mistakes recurring and by identifying potential mistakes before they occur. This reduction in errors brings associated benefits in terms of cost savings.

The internationally recognised ISO 9001 standard is generic. It is not a product standard, but applicable to any manufacturing or service industry. Created by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), its objective is to set international requirements for quality management systems.

Key features
The standard applies to the processes in an organisation which have an impact on quality. It emphasises continual improvement and customer satisfaction.
The major clauses in the standard are:

• Quality management system

• Management responsibility

• Resource management

• Product realisation

• Measurement, analysis, and improvement

ISO 9001 is under revision
ISO 9001:2000 is the current version of the standard. A new revision of the standard is expected to be published during fall 2008. Only minor changes are expected to the current content.

Where do I go from here?
For third party certification, you need to implement an effective quality management system complying with the requirements of the standard. The first step is to get on the road to certification.