What is ISO 9000?

ISO 9000 is a family of standards for quality management systems. Pioneer is registered to ISO 9001:2000 which affirms that a company meets a series of requirements as confirmed by an independent, third-party auditor. The ISO 9000 family is primarily concerned with making sure organizations fulfill:

• Customer quality requirements
• Applicable regulatory requirements
• Aim to enhance customer satisfaction
• Achieve continual improvement of its performance

ISO 9000 is maintained by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization and is administered by accreditation and certification bodies. ISO is not an acronym, its origin is from the Greek work isos, meaning "equal", which in and of itself reflects the aims of the organization - to equalize or standardize across cutures.

What are the ISO 9000 standards?

ISO 9000 includes the following standards:

• ISO 9000:2005, Quality Management Systems - Fundamentals and vocabulary - covers the basics of what quality management systems are and also contains the core language of the ISO 9000 series of standards.
  
  
• ISO 9001:2000 Quality management systems - Requirements - is intended for use in any organization which designs, develops, manufactures, installs and/or services any product or provides any form of service. It provides a number of requirements which an organization needs to fulfill if it is to achieve customer satisfaction through consistent products and services which meet customer expectations. This is the only standard for which third-party auditors may grant certifications.
  
  
• ISO 9004:2000 Quality management systems - Guidelines for performance improvements - covers continual improvement. The guidelines gives you advice on what you could do to enhance a mature system.