ISO 9001 – Quality Management Systems

ISO 9001 is an internationally recognized standard for quality management concerning all companies, regardless of type, size, product or service.

ISO 9001 describes a management model that when applied it ensures the expected quality in the products and services of an organization, having as a main goal customer satisfaction.

With more than 1.1 million certificates according to ISO 9001, it helps organizations prove to their customers that they offer with reliability and consistency quality products and services according to agreed requirements.

• Improvement of company’s reputation by ensuring customer trust
• Creation of chances for entering international markets as a result to the improvement of the image and credibility of the organization
• Reduction of production costs due to improvement or resources and time management
• Improvement of involvement of personnel in quality management
• Increase of customer satisfaction
• Constant improvement of processes based on the application of objective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and thus upgrade of company’s processes so as to result to added value

The ISO 9001 standard was introduced in 1987 by the ISO Organization (International Organization for Standardization) following the British Standard BS 5750. The language of this first version was strongly influenced by the strict standards of the American Military, making its application by the industrial sector easier, but not by the other financial activity sectors. Even though the first purpose of the ISO Organization was to set through the standard the basic Quality Management Principles, that was not achieved. In the 1994 version (ISO 9000: 1994) a first attempt was made to introduce the term “prevention”. Unfortunately, the companies were already accustomed to the application of the requirements of the standard by created a large number of procedures that led to bureaucracy. The concept of constant improvement through prevention was hard to understand and achieve in such environments.

The 2000 issue tried to cause radical changes in the ways of thinking. The concept of quality management was made the core of the standard. And so the eight basic quality management principles were introduced, in order to serve as a common base for all standards concerning quality management.

Today, 40 years after the first issue of ISO 9001, the Technical Committee of ISO for ISO 9001 has decided that the review and revision of the standard is an obligation, so as to:

1. Create a common form and language in the standards and allow the harmonization of management systems (i.e. with ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 etc.). In this framework, ISO designed a common structure for all Management Systems standards, which has a common scheme, terms and definitions. (Higher Level Structure).
2. Reduce the demands for documentation by emphasizing to the value of organization and to the customer.
3. Maintain the significance of Quality Management Systems for the market. 

In the new version, the ISO organization attempts a new change in the standards philosophy (ISO 9001:2015), but keeps in its core the 8 basic quality principles and the fundamental approach to quality management: Plan – Do – Check - Act.

The language and purpose of the standard has significantly changed in comparison to its previous versions. New terms were introduced for the interested parties, the organization’s functions and the risks.

The requirements that will probably have the highest impact on the organization include:

• Determination of internal and external issues that could affect the achievement of the desired results of the quality management system.
• Determination of interested parties and their demands
• Compatibility of quality policy and goals with the organization’s strategies
• Incorporation of quality performance in strategic planning
• Tracking and monitoring of organizational threats and chances
• Review by the leadership regarding the above mentioned requirements

TÜV HELLAS having great experience in the field of Quality Management Systems Certification, carries out inspections and issues ISO 9001 certificates for organizations in Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Egypt, Rumania and the Middle East.

Audits according to the new version ISO 9001:2015 are already carried out by TUV HELLAS.