Quality Management System Standard: Iso 9000:2000

The international Organization for Standardization (ISO) had developed in 1987 a series of international quality systems standards popularly known as ISO 9000 series of standards to provide the framework for the third party certification of the quality systems. These systems were revised in 1994. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) had also launched the Third Party Certification Scheme of Quality System known as IS:14000 later changed to (ISO:IS:9000) series of standards in India. This series of standards provide an assurance that the quality system installed and operated conform to the international standards and will generate the confidence of the customer in the quality offered by the firm. The ISO 9000 series of standards were first published in India by BIS in 1988 and subsequently revised in 1994 as IS/ISO 9000 series of standards (IS/ISO 9001, 9002, 9003 etc.) with totally identical text as published by International Organization for Standardization. The essential features of the ISO-9000:2000 series of standards are as follows:

• They call for integration of all the activities which have a direct or indirect effect on the quality of a product or service.
• They tell suppliers and manufacturers as to what is expected of them in respect of a quality-oriented working system
• These standards define the basic concepts and specify the procedures and criteria to ensure that the final product meets the customer‘s requirements.
• These standards are designed to be user-friendly and are applicable to every product and service.
• These standards call for verification of quality system by the customer which gives him the confidence that the organization is capable of delivering the products of services of desired quality.

Elements of quality management system

The following are the elements:

• Documentation
• Management responsibility
• Responsibility, Authority and Communication
• Management review
• Resource management
• Product realization
• Customer-related processes
• Review of requirements related to the product
• Customer communication
• Design and development
• Purchasing
• Production and service provision
• Control of monitoring and measuring devices
• Measurement, Analysis and Improvement
• Corrective action
• Preventive action