CONSULTANCY SERVICES

ISO 9001

Introduction

In today's highly competitive business environment, the main critical factor for business success and excellence is quality. The quality of a company's product or service becomes very important to the customers. Companies can demonstrate their ability to supply quality products and services by setting up a properly designed and well-managed quality management system. The first step to setting up such a system is to implement the ISO 9000 standards.

What is ISO 9000?

ISO 9000 is a series of international standards developed to assist companies to design, develop and implement effective quality management systems. The ISO 9000 standards have been widely adopted by more than 100 countries around the world as their national standards. Certification to ISO 9000 has become a minimum prerequisite nowadays because it demonstrated that the company has met minimum quality standards.

In December 2000, the ISO 9000:1994 series have been revised to the new ISO 9001:2000.

What are the Benefits of ISO 9000?

The ISO 9000 Standards help your company to gain worldwide recognition and to ensure your management system is adequate and appropriate for your business. ISO 9000 will :-

Enhance market confidence in your products and services, thereby helping your company to gain a competitive edge over your competitors.

Provide a systematic framework for improving operational efficiency, cutting costs and improving customer satisfaction.

Open doors to new customers for whom ISO 9000 Certification is a condition of contract.

Conversion

In December 2000, the existing ISO 9000:1994 series had been revised to the new ISO 9001:2000. The revision of the standards is part of the ongoing review exercise every five years by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). This is to ensure the standards reflect the best practices and take into account any lessons that have been learnt during the application of the standard.

The previous ISO 9001, ISO 9002 and ISO 9003 standards had been consolidated into one single standard – ISO 9001. This new ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 9001:2008 standard is intended for organizations to demonstrate their ability :-

To consistently provide products and services that meet customer and applicable regulatory requirements

To address customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for continual improvement and the prevention of nonconformity.

The new ISO 9001:2000 standard have been developed using a simple process-based structure, rather than the current 20-element structure used. This provides a more generic approach and adopts the process management approach widely used in business today.

What are the Changes?

The 20 elements in the previous ISO 9001:1994 will be replaced with five main clauses in the new ISO 9001:2008 Standards :

· Quality Management System
· Management Responsibility
· Resource Management
· Product Realisation
· Measurement, Analysis and Improvement

The following are the key new requirements which have entered the standard :-

Process Approach

Continual Improvement

Competency

Quality Objectives

Effective Communications (Internally and with Customers)

Quality Manual to define scope of system, including exclusions

Product Requirements to include those necessary for intended and specified use

Proactive Customer Satisfaction Measures

How can Goleman Consulting assist?

Goleman Consulting has a team of experienced and qualified consultants to assist companies to design and develop a ISO 9000 quality management system.

Our consultants are highly professional, experienced, trained and competent to carry out consultancy services in management systems on a wide range of industrial sectors.

We will assist your company to achieve ISO 9000 Certification in a simple and practical way, using the shortest time and with the least cost.