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ISO
9000 and ISO 14000 - a brief overview
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The
ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 families are among ISO's
most widely known
standards. ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 standards
are implemented by some 634,000 organisations in
152 countries. ISO 9000 has become an international
reference for quality management requirements in
business-to-business dealings, and ISO 14000 is
well on the way to achieving as much, if not more,
in enabling organisations to meet their environmental
challenges.
The ISO 9000 family is primarily concerned with "quality management".
This means what the organisation does to fulfil:
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the customer's quality requirements, |
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applicable regulatory requirements, |
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while aiming to enhance customer satisfaction, and |
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achieve continual improvement of its performance in pursuit of these
objectives. |
The ISO 14000 family is primarily concerned with "environmental management".
This means what the organisation does to:
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minimize harmful effects on the environment caused by its
activities, and |
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to achieve continual improvement of its environmental performance. |
The vast majority of ISO standards are highly specific to a particular product,
material, or process. However, the standards that have earned the ISO 9000 and
ISO 14000 families a worldwide reputation are known as "generic management
system standards".
"Generic" means that the same standards can be applied:
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to any organisation, large or small, whatever its product, |
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including whether it's "product" is actually a service, |
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in any sector of activity, and |
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whether it is a business enterprise, a public administration, or a government
department. |
"Generic" also signifies that no matter what the organisation's scope
of activity, if it wants to establish a quality management system or an environmental
management system, then such a system has a number of essential features for
which the relevant standards of the ISO 9000 or ISO 14000 families provide the
requirements.
"Management system" refers to the organisation's structure for managing
its processes - or activities - that transform inputs of resources into a product
or service which meet the organisation's objectives, such as satisfying the customer's
quality requirements, complying to regulations, or meeting environmental objectives. |
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