ISO9001
Why is ISO9001 always mentioned when talking about standards?
The answer is in the standards origin.
The history goes back to World War Two in the United States. The world had low quality due to lack of control in production processes specially in the military. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, expanded in Europe. British forces adopted the standards for their products. Back then, the concept of quality meant conformity, not continuous improvement.
The United States adopted the standard MIL-Q-9858 (MILITARY SPECIFICATION) (QUALITY PROGRAMS REQUIREMENTS) for suppliers.
NASA would later adopted it too.
European companies needed standards but industries were so different nothing was working until the British Standard appeared and created the Standard BS5750 in 1979. It is considered the ancestor of the standard ISO9001. The ancestor was so successful than in 1987 it was launched globally as ISO9001 exactly as it was, with no changes.
There have been many revisions of the Standard ISO9001 since 1987. We refer to the Standard depending of the year of revision.
ISO 9001: 1987.- ORIGINAL VERSION
ISO 9001: 1994.- FIRST REVISION OF ORIGINAL MODEL
ISO 9001: 2000.- SECOND REVISION OF ORIGINAL MODEL
ISO 9001: 2008.- THIRD REVISION OF ORIGINAL MODEL
ISO 9001: 2015.- FOURTH REVISION OF ORIGINAL MODEL
As of now, the standard ISO 9001:2008 is accepted but will expire. Companies are transitioning to ISO 9001:2015 to maintain up-to-date their Quality Management System.
By Ruben Quiroz
STRATEGA Coach