About ISO 9000  Nowadays most of the companies are aware that the quality certificates have an effective influence and image on potential customers. Proof of attaining a quality culture to produce appropriate product and service is a major responsibility of managers. An effective ISO 9000 Quality Management System provides both influencing fall down on cost and increasing company image in a positive manner while boosting customer satisfaction and work productivity.

What is ISO 9000 Standard?  ISO 9000 is a certification standard develped by International Standards Organization (ISO) Quality Management and Quality Assurance System Technical Committee. ISO 9000 Standard provides the evaluation of organization’s quality systems according to ISO Standard procedures and provides product and service quality to reach the best progress both within the organization and customers and suppliers. Organizations shall be audited by an approved third party independent and objetive certification bodies to receive an ISO 9000 certificate.

The content of ISO 9001:2000 Standard is as follows: 

1. Quality Management System

2. Management Responsibility

3. Resource Management

4. Product Realization

5. Measurement, analysis and improvement.

Uses
– Increased competition power

– Integrated Management Systems

– Increasing effectiveness and productivity

– Increasing reliability

– Increasing customer satisfaction

– Increasing profitability due to decrease in unnecessary expenditure

– Elimination of non-conformances and basic errors

Switching to ISO 9001:2000  according to the studies made with 350.000 ISO9000 applicants:

– Increase in ISO 9000 tendency in service sector.

– Difficult to apply

– Not compatible with ISO 14000 series are the facts found as a result of studies. Standard was revised to allow the organizations easily focus on the most important processes and by doing so, the above findings are considered too. ISO 9001:2000 series:

ISO 9000 Quality Management Systems – Fundamentals and terminology (replaced to ISO 8402 and ISO 9000-1),

ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems – Requirements,

ISO 9004 Quality Management Systems – Fundamentals of performance increase (ISO 9004-1),

ISO 19011 Fundamentals of Quality and Environment Management Systems audits.

Transition Period:

– 15th December 2000: issuing of  9000, 9001 and 9004:2000,

– 14th December 2003: End of 3-year transition period.

Fundamentals of ISO 9000  New standard is based on process model and established on 8 basic management scheme described in ISO 9000:2000 Quality Management Systems, Fundamentals and Terminology and ISO 9004 Quality Management Systems-Fundamentals of Performance Increase. These are:

Customer focus: Existanc of an organization depends on its customers. Therefore it affords to understand the current and future customer needs, respond customer reqirements and serve above the customer expectations.

Leadership: Leaders attain vision and target unity in the companies. Creating an environment, where all personnel works for the company’s targets , and assuring the continuity are in responsibilities of leaders.

Committment of personnel: An organization is formed from personnel from all levels and personnel commitment allows their capabilities to be utilized for the benefit of the company.

Process Aproach: If related terms and actions are managed as a process, a planned action can be achieved more effectively.

System approach in management: Defining, understanding and managing related process as a system contributes to the effectiveness in attaining the company’s targets.

Continuous improvement: Continuous improvement of company’s total performance should be a permanent target for the company.

Fact based approach in decision-making period: Effective decisions depend on data analysis.

Mutually beneficial relations with suppliers: An organization and its suppliers are mutually dependent on each other. A mutually beneficial relationship develops value adding capability