Globalization has become a reality since ISO 9000 was first published in 1987. For today’s suppliers have increasingly realized the importance of maintaining global standards of quality, if they have to survive and grow. Thus, product development and marketing strategies must be done on par with any other global operator, to effectively compete,

ISO 9000 began with the launch of a special Technical Committee in 1979 to deal with generic quality principles, to satisfy the need for an international standard for manufacturing quality assurance methods. This included not only product quality, but also maintaining uniformity and predictability. This will assure the customers that they will be getting reliable quality throughout the product life cycle, from the certified supplier.

Nearly 30 countries participated in this exercise, and in 1987, they created by consensus a series of quality-system management standards called ISO 9000. It was the first ISO standard to go beyond nuts and bolts and attempt to address management practices. It quickly became the most widely known and widely adopted. Subsequently, it went through upgradation in 1994 to make it further effective. Currently ISO 9000-2000 is the prevailing standard, wherein documentation part has been fairly simplified.

The ISO 9000 Standard is a single system originally designed to cover all manufacturing, later extended to the service industries, now being extensively used across the globe. ISO 9000 certification could become a key requirement for any supplier who wants to do business in the MNC marketplace as well as in the global markets.

Basically, ISO 9000 certification ensures the veracity of the supplier’s quality reports. So, the customer organization need not go about a full-fledged quality check. This is ensured by faithfully implementing 20 requirements under the standard, also known as elements. Of these 20 elements, nearly 17 will be compulsory for most industries, while some elements like Design or Service may not be fully applicable. So, based on the applicability of the elements, certification is done as 9001, 9002 etc. Again ISO 9000 certification has to be done only by accredited agencies, who have certified lead auditors, specially trained for this purpose.

In essence, ISO 9000 aims at bringing about a total cultural change within an organization with regard to its business functioning. “Do what you say, and say what you do” and “Customer is the King” are two main objective approaches to ISO 9000.

PROGRAMME MODULES –

This is a regular programme for IIPE. In-house programmes are conducted for various industries in Bangalore, Hosur and Chennai, with specific highlights on QS-9000 where required.