Who is ISO?
ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 148 countries, on the basis of one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system.
ISO is a non-governmental organization: its members are not, as is the case in the United Nations system, delegations of national governments. Nevertheless, ISO occupies a special position between the public and private sectors. ISO, officially began operations on 23 February 1947. ISO is the world's largest developer of standards. Although ISO's principal activity is the development of technical standards, ISO standards also have important economic and social repercussions. ISO standards make a positive difference, not just to engineers and manufacturers for whom they solve basic problems in production and distribution, but to society as a whole. (www.iso.ch/iso/en/ISOOnline.frontpage)
Who benefits from ISO standards?
For businesses, the widespread adoption of International Standards means that suppliers can base the development of their products and services on specifications that have wide acceptance in their sectors. This, in turn, means that businesses using International Standards are increasingly free to compete on many more markets around the world.
For customers, the worldwide compatibility of technology which is achieved when products and services are based on International Standards brings them an increasingly wide choice of offers, and they also benefit from the effects of competition among suppliers.
For consumers, conformity of products and services to International Standards provides assurance about their quality, safety and reliability.
For everyone, International Standards can contribute to the quality of life in general by ensuring that the transport, machinery and tools we use are safe.
For the planet we inhabit, International Standards on air, water and soil quality, and on emissions of gases and radiation, can contribute to efforts to preserve the environment.
CERTIFIED!
Certification to the ISO 9001:2000 standard requires a comprehensive self assessment and audit ensuring that the company maintains, uses and can show proof of proper procedures and processes of it’s Quality Management System. Only after an accredited Registrar's audit of a company's Quality Management System can the ISO registration be received. Annual audits are conducted by an accredited Registrar to ensure that the Quality Management System is being correctly applied, maintained, and improved per the requirements set forth in the ISO 9001:2000 Standard. Crystal Group Inc. was audited by Orion Registrar Inc. of Arvada, CO on November 18, 2003.
What is ISO 9001:2000?
On December 15, 2000 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published the ISO 9001:2000 standard, which, by design, replaces three older ISO standards (ISO 9001:1994, ISO 9002:1994, and ISO 9003:1994). Organizations certified to any of the 1994 versions were given a three-year period, until Dec 15, 2003, to transition to the new ISO 9001:2000 standard.
The main difference between the ISO 9001:1994 requirements and the ISO 9001:2000 requirements is the usage of a “process approach” within an organization’s Quality Management System. A “process approach” is an application of a system of processes with in an organization. This approach ensures ongoing control and linkage between individual processes within the organization. When used within an Organization’s Quality Management System this process approach emphasizes the importance of:
- Understanding and meeting requirements
- The need to consider processes in terms of added value
- Obtaining results of process performance and effectiveness
- Continual improvement of processes based objective measurement
Preparation and Audit Process
In preparation to meet the new standard, Crystal’s Compliance Engineer, Director of Operations and an ISO consultant from CIRAS, a branch of Iowa State University, met in the spring of 2003 to kick off a review of Crystal’s Quality Management. From this review, data was captured and a plan was set in place to update the Quality Management System, which was certified to meet ISO 9001:1994 standard, to meet the new ISO 9001:2000 standard.
In October of 2003, a team of six Crystal employees from all areas of the organization including Sales, Engineering, Executive Management, Technical Services, and Purchasing were trained as Internal Auditors per the new ISO 9001:2000 standard. Once the two-day training was complete, the Internal Audit Team performed audits of the Quality Management System, internal processes, and internal procedures used through out the organization compared to the new ISO 9001:2000 standard. Any nonconformance or clarification that was uncovered in the audit was documented and corrected.
Crystal's Quality Management System was surveyed by Orion Registrar Inc. and certified compliant on June 30, 2004.
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