By Sean
Date 01-14-2008 16:22
Edited 01-14-2008 16:25
ISO 9000 is a family of standards (9000, 9001 and 9004). When people refer to ISO 9000 they are refering to the ISO 9001 and/or 9004 portions of the family. ISO registration means that you should be able to produce a consistent product or service. The amount of quality is determined or set by your organization.
If I was to summarize ISO 9000 it would be that your processes are Planned, Done according to that Plan, Check (or verified) that the plan was effective and/or efficient and then Acted upon the results of the plan and your checking. The level of quality is set by management... which can be good or bad. Technically you could make lead life jackets and as long as the organization was meeting their objectives you could become registered to ISO 9001.
There is a book called, "ISO 9000: The Essentials", published by the Canadian Standards Association (www.csa.ca) that is very useful to understanding the standards and how to implement a QMS.
Before you begin any QMS make sure that you flow chart your processes and identify what controls you have for them.