ISO, standing for International Organization for Standardization is a worldwide federation, which promotes the developments of International manufacturing, trade and communication standards.

ISO 9001:2000 is the third edition of ISO 9001 standards, which cancels and replaces the ISO 9001:1994 together with ISO 9002:1994 and 9003:1994.

Why become ISO certified?
Key reasons are

• To enable an organization meet its set business objectives
  
• To meet and improve upon customer satisfaction
  
• To be competitive in the global marketplace
  
• To improve the quality of the organization's internal processes

• It enables them to identify and plan tasks and their method of performance in order to yield the right results.
  
• Provides a means for identifying and resolving problems and preventing their recurrence, thereby improving conformance.
  
• It generates objective evidence to demonstrate the quality of production and product and thus helps to build confidence among customers.
  
• Provides a means for documenting the company's experience. This can serve as a basis for training the present staff.
  
• It provides a platform for Continuous Improvement within the organization

• Simplified format, which addresses small, medium and large organizations
  
• Amount and detail of document required is relevant to the desired results of process activities
  
• Less prescriptive than the 1994 version
  
• Increased flexibility for the organization to choose its Quality Management System documentation
  
• Process Approach for developing, implementing and improving the effectiveness of the quality management system
  
• Process model is based on Deming's PDCA cycle