by Sandra L. Martin

Created on: July 12, 2008

ISO 9001:2000, a Quality Management System

Typically referred to as ISO 9000, this management system is often the cause of office jokes and averted eyes when the "ISO Police" walk by.

In its simplest form, ISO 9000 is a way you "walk the talk" and prove to other companies that your business is organized and focused on improving customer service. That's a good thing. And many businesses require their vendors to be ISO Certified.

In its most bizarre form ISO 9000 is the cause for endless, mind-numbing meetings about well, no one's really sure. The ISO Police seem to talk in an incomprehensible language that only they "get." On occasion, they use this ISO-speak among themselves, look at a non-ISO person and laugh hysterically.
This doesn't help the cause.

Having lived the ISO-life for several years, I've broken the code and now offer a short story of sorts to help you survive ISO Police, ISO Meetings and the most feared of all, ISO Audits.

ISO translates to International Standards Organization. It involves companies around the world. Being ISO Certified shows other companies that you're one of the ISO Good Guys.

ISO Certification simply means that another ISO company, one licensed to Police the ISO Police, has verified that you do, in fact, adhere to their standards.

Becoming ISO Certified can be a confusing, arduous and quite expensive process. But it doesn't have to be.

Start with the ISO Standard. Since ISO 9001:2000 is meant to be a generic set of rules, you may not even need to comply with certain areas. So begin by determining which sections you can avoid like the plague, then explain why. For example, if you're a Call Center, you don't make anything tangible. So there's no need to show how you manufacture products.

After eliminating the sections you don't have to deal with, you will create a Quality Manual, listing all the sections you DO deal with, and including the explanations for those you're ignoring.

After the ISO Standard and the Quality Manual, you'll create a Process for each section you feel your company needs to document. A Process is like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. How does it do that? You have to explain how your caterpillar turns into a butterfly and include examples of what happens if it turns into a moth, this is called an exception. One of the requirements for ISO 9000 is that you prove what you're doing works. This is called providing objective evidence. A lot of people get stuck on this one.

After the general Process is done, you

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