ISO 9001:2000 the evolution continues

摘要

Some four years after its most recent release, the ISO 9001:2000 Standard is enjoying popularity in a whole new role: as the basis of sector-specific 'hybrid' Standards crafted to suit the very particular needs of specialised industries and professions. The advent of the ISO 9001:2000 Standard has been well recognised as the evolutionary point at which the Standard traversed the dividing line between manufacturers and hard industry across to service industries. Advocates of the' new' Standard claimed at its release that it was applicable to all industries and sectors, a concept which those who were familiar with the more manufacturing-oriented, prescriptive structure of the previous 1994 Standard at first found difficult to credit. Since that time, however, the proof has most certainly been in the pudding. The rise and rise of the service industry has failed to put the merest dent in the popularity of ISO 9001, which can be found in action across all manner of research, consulting and marketing firms, right through to professions such as accounting and law.