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DURING WWII, there were quality problems in many British high-tech industries such as munitions, where bombs were going off in factories. The adopted solution was to require factories to document their manufacturing procedures and to prove by record-keeping that the procedures were being followed. The name of the standard was BS 5750, and it was known as a management standard because it did not specify what to manufacture, but how to manage the manufacturing process. According to Seddon , "In 1987, the British Government persuaded the International Organisation for Standardisation to adopt BS 5750 as an international standard. BS 5750 became ISO 9000."
ISO 9000:1987 was also influenced by existing U .S . and other Defense Standards ("MIL SPECS"), and so was well-suited to manufacturing. The emphasis tended to be placed on conformance with procedures rather than the overall process of management — which was likely the actual intent.
Since then there have been 2 versions to replace the 1987 version, one in 1994, and the 2000 version.
ISO 9000:1994 emphasized quality assurance via preventative actions, instead of just checking final product, and continued to require evidence of compliance with documented procedures. As with the first edition, the downside was that companies tended to implement its requirements by creating shelf-loads of procedure manuals, and becoming burdened with an ISO bureaucracy. In some companies, adapting and improving processes could actually be impeded by the quality system.
ISO 9001:2000 combines the three standards 9001, 9002, and 9003 into one, now called 9001. Design and development procedures are required only if a company does in fact engage in the creation of new products. The 2000 version sought to make a radical change in thinking by actually placing the concept of process management front and center . ("Process management" was the monitoring and optimizing of a company's tasks and activities, instead of just inspecting the final product.) The 2000 version also demands involvement by upper executives, in order to integrate quality into the business system and avoid delegation of quality functions to junior administrators. Another goal is to improve effectiveness via process performance metrics — numerical measurement of the effectiveness of tasks and activities. Expectations of continual process improvement and tracking customer satisfaction were made explicit.
ISO 9001:2008 standard, was released in February 2008. As with the release of previous versions, organizations registered to ISO 9001 will be given a substantial period to transition to the new version of the standard.
The applying organization is assessed based on an extensive sample of its sites, functions, products, services and processes; a list of problems ("action requests" or "non-compliance’s ") is made known to the management. If there are no major problems on this list, the certification body will issue an ISO 9001 certificate for each geographical site it has visited, once it receives a satisfactory improvement plan from the management showing how any problems will be resolved.
An ISO certificate is not a once-and-for-all award, but must be renewed at regular intervals. In contrast to the Capability Maturity Model there are no grades of competence within ISO 9001.
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