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An Introduction to ISO 9000, 9001, 9002, ISO 9000:2000

As geographic barriers between countries deteriorate with the continued evolution of the Internet, ISO 9000 may be one of the largest differentiators between you and your competitors. Already, ISO 9000 plays a key role in winning new customers, maintaining satisfied current customers, accessing foreign countries and dealing with the government.

What is ISO 9000, 9001, 9002, ISO 9000:2000?
ISO is the word that represents the International Organization for Standardization. It's not the acronym for the International Organization for Standardization as many people think. It is the worldwide federation of national standards bodies for approximately 130 countries.

The ISO 9000 standards are produced by an international consensus of countries with the aim of creating global standards of product and service quality. These sets of standards form a quality management system and are applicable to any organization regardless of product, service, organizational size, or whether it's a public or private company.

ISO covers all technical fields and is not limited to any particular discipline. It does not, however, cover electrical or electronic engineering which are the responsibility of the IEC. The responsibility for information technology is performed by a joint ISO/IEC technical committee.

Your business can be certified against one of three quality systems: ISO 9001, ISO 9002 or ISO 9003.

• ISO 9001 sets out the requirements for an organization whose business processes range all the way from design and development, to production, installation and servicing;
• ISO 9002 is the appropriate standard for organizations that do not design and develop products, since it does not include the design control requirements of ISO 9001. Its requirements are identical aside from that distinction.
• ISO 9003 is the appropriate standard for an organization whose business processes do not include design control, process control, purchasing or servicing. It focuses on inspection and testing to ensure that final products and services meet specified requirements.

It is your organization that chooses which of the three quality systems to be certified against (ISO 9001, ISO 9002 or ISO 9003) based on business processes. None is considered more important than another; it is important to identify the appropriate standard before pursuing certification.

Next Page > The Benefits of ISO Certification
Page 3 > How to Pursue ISO Certification
Page 4 > Timeline and Cost Implications of Implementing ISO
Page 5 > What's the Future of ISO? ISO 9000:2000