ISO 9000 Quality Assurance

ISO 9000 is a set of standards developed by the ISOopportunity to understand, control, and improve its
(international organization for standardization) for qualityprocess network.
assurance systems. It was first published in 1987 andISO quality assurance is a management activity that
the standards were modified in 1994. ISO 9000 servescontains auditing and reporting actions. These two
as a true base for organizations to improve theirfunctions assist the manager to verify the efficiency of
quality assurance systems.the quality system. ISO 9000 expresses quality
A quality assurance system involves the organizationalassurance resources in general terms that can be
structure, duties, procedures, processes, and materialsused by any organization irrespective of the products
for applying quality management. It is designed to helpor services provided. However, ISO 9000 does not
businesses assure their services and products, andexplain how a business should apply these quality
please customer hopes by meeting their specifications.system elements.
Quality assurance covers all activities of a product?sMost companies first attempt to get certified to one of
life cycle, including planning, controlling, measuring, testingthe quality assurance system models in the ISO 9000
and reporting, and improving quality levels.series. For this, the company?s quality system and
ISO 9000 quality assurance models view an enterpriseactions are audited by third party auditors for
as a network of interconnected processes. For aconformity to the standard and for effective operation.
quality system to be ISO-compliant, the processesUpon successful certification, the company obtains a
should address areas known in the standard andcertificate from a certification body represented by the
should be documented and practiced as described.auditors.
Documenting a process gives an organization the