Our company got the ISO9001 quality management system certification on October 27, 2023.

ISO 9001 certification is an international standard for defining a quality management system (QMS). It outlines various criteria (or standards) to define quality management principles such as focusing on the customer, optimizing leadership and management within the organization, improving and fine-tuning internal processes, and general methods of continuous improvement.

ISO

ISO, or the International Organization for Standardization, is an international standard-setting body based in Geneva, Switzerland. It’s made up of a bunch of different representatives from a wide range of proprietary, industrial, and commercial standard organizations.

Basically, it’s the organization responsible for defining and implementing all of these standards.

The ISO itself doesn’t actually certify anything. Certifications are all done by third-party organizations.

9001

The number after ISO is the identifier of the standard. ISO 9001 is one of the most well-known ISO standards, defining criteria for general quality management systems.

ISO 9001 is part of the wider ISO 9000 family. All standards within ISO 9000 refer to quality management.

Essentially, this standard is designed to help organizations to be more efficient and more successfully meet the needs of their customers.

At least one million companies and organizations in 170+ countries are certified to ISO 9001.

Certification

ISO 9001 is also the only standard in the 9000 family that can be certified to. This certification is not a requirement, and organizations can still implement principles of ISO 9001 informally, without getting certified.

Technically, only organizations can “get certified”. However, individuals can become Certified Lead Auditors, or Registrars, in order to perform audits on organizations.

Certification will generally cover the entire organization, with focus on specific facilities or departments tailored to improve performance in that area.