ISO 9001 2000 INTRODUCTION

ISO 9001 2000 is OBSOLETE. It has been replaced by ISO 9001 2008

ISO first published its ISO 9001 standard in 1987, and later published an
updated version in 1994. In an effort to address the changing needs of its
users, ISO has updated its ISO 9001 standard in 2000 and again in 2008.
The newest version is known as ISO 9001 2008.

The ISO 9001 quality management standard applies to areas such as
manufacturing, processing, servicing, printing, forestry, electronics, steel,
food processing, legal services, financial services, trucking, banking, retailing,
drilling, recycling, aerospace, construction, exploration, textiles, pharmaceuticals,
oil and gas, pulp and paper, publishing, petrochemicals, shipping, mining, energy,
telecommunications, plastics, metals, research, health care, hospitality, utilities,
aviation, machine tools, agriculture, government, education, recreation, tourism,
fabrication, sanitation, software development, consumer products, transportation,
instrumentation, computing, biotechnology, chemicals, consulting, insurance etc.

ISO has two kinds of quality management standards: requirements and
guidelines. Together these two kinds of quality standards make up what is
known as the ISO 9000 family of standards.

Requirements are the formal expectations that you must meet if you wish to
be officially certified or registered. They are compulsory. Guidelines, on the other
hand, are suggestions and recommendations only. They are voluntary. In the past,
ISO had three sets of quality requirements: ISO 9001, ISO 9002, and ISO 9003.
However, now there’s only one standard: ISO 9001 2008. ISO 9002 and 9003
have been dropped.

In the past, ISO’s quality guidelines included ISO 8402, ISO 9000, ISO 9004,
ISO 10005, ISO 10011, ISO 10012, and ISO 10013. But most of these standards
are changing as well. ISO 8402 1994 and ISO 9000 1994 have been replaced
by ISO 9000 2005. And ISO 9004 2000 has become ISO 9004 2009, while
the ISO 10011 series will be turned into ISO 19011.