What is the ISO?
The ISO (International Standards Organisation) is the biggest worldwide producer and publisher of International Standards. The ISO was established in 23 February 1947.
The ISO is a network of national standardisation institutes of over 150 countries, including the Central Secretariat located in Geneva, Switzerland, which assures the overall coordination. Over 100 members of the ISO come from developing countries.
The ISO has a collection of over 17,000 International Standards.
What is the 9001:2000 standard?
The ISO 9001 standard forms part of the series of ISO 9000 standards relative to quality management systems. The requirements are relative to four major fields:
- Management responsibility;
- Quality system;
- Processes;
- Continuing improvement.
Total Quality
The aim of the ISO certification is to strive for Total Quality of service.
Far from an “administrative” approach, version 2000 of the ISO standard in force within Ulys is oriented towards end user satisfaction: the client is placed at the top of the pyramid.
The Quality System puts in place an organisation, a structure and procedures with the aim of guaranteeing:
- Listening to the client;
- Quality of service;
- Transparency;
- Feedback of information;
- Reactivity.
Audits and certification
Respect for the ISO standards is verified regularly by audits, both internal and external. These audits verify the teams’ knowledge of and respect for the standards.
The dynamism of the Total Quality is measured on a monthly basis by “intensity indicators” which integrate the new ideas, the corrective actions, the non-conformities observed or suspected, the corrective actions underway, etc.
At regular intervals (at least once a year) a certification company performs a general audit, at the end of which it decides on whether or not to maintain the certification.
Priority objectives and corporate plan
Each year in January the firm adopts for the coming year:
- One or more priority objective(s);
- A corporate plan.
Together these documents constitute the firm’s strategy plan with regard to improvement of quality.