ISO stands for International Standardization for Organization and is responsible for establishing standards for the well-being of the organizations. These International Standards provide economical, technological and societal benefits. These standards help to specify the technical requirements in order to standardize the products and services which open up the doors for international trade. By adopting the International Standards, the companies reassure consumers that products are efficient, safe to use and good for the environment. However, as there are many ISO titles it is important to know the difference between ISO 9001 and 9002.
What is ISO 9001?
It is a standard which outlines the requirements of quality management system which needs to be achieved when providing a product or service to its customers. The latest standard is the ISO 9001:2008, which indicates a process-focused framework for organizations to develop their processes and achieve organizational success.
ISO 9001:2008 quality standard contains four basic components; i.e. management responsibility, resource management, product realization and measurement, analysis and design. Management responsibility explains that the managers should have the responsibility towards improving commitment of workforce, focusing more on customers, implementing the quality policy, effective planning and should ensure responsibilities and authority.
ISO 9001:2008 is the most widely used standard and is based on the following elements.
- Customer Focus
- Leadership
- People Involvement
- Process Approach
- System Approach to Management
- Continual Improvement
- Factual Approach to Decision Making
- Mutual relationship with the Suppliers
The intention of ISO 9001:2008 is to facilitate international trade by providing a standard which is globally recognized. It is a general standard and is applicable in all the areas of work in an organization. Either the base of the organization is service or manufacturing QMS is widely applicable. Manufacturing, commercial and service organizations can achieve many benefits from QMS. Quality management provides a framework which assures products and services that satisfy the customer’s quality requirements and meets the terms with all the regulations relevant to those products or services. ISO 9001 prevents the risk to customers indicating the adherence to quality management practices. At the same time, this certification gives an international recognition to the organization. There are many benefits following QMS: it provides a framework for improvement, improves process control and reliability, better documentation is enhanced, greater awareness of quality in the workforce and better understanding of customer requirements.
What is ISO 9002?
ISO 9002 was revised in 1994 and was titled as Model for quality assurance in production, installation, and servicing. However, it has covered almost all the concepts of ISO 9001, but does not include the creation of new products. It was directly related with the contract manufacturing. In year 2000, all these three standards ISO 9001,9002,9003 were combined and revised into ISO 9001 (ISO 9001:2000) again revised by ISO 9001:2008. Most of the organizations have adopted ISO9001:2008 and therefore ISO 9002 standard was outdated .
What is the difference between ISO 9001 and ISO 9002?
• ISO 9001 standard is the most updated version of the international standards compared to ISO 9002.
• The major difference between ISO 9001 and ISO 9002 is that ISO 9001 is a model for quality assurance in design, development, production, installation while ISO 9002 is a model for quality assurance in production, installation and servicing.
• Therefore, ISO 9001 sets out the requirements for an organization where the business processes range from design and development, to production, installation and servicing and ISO 9002 is appropriate for organizations where they do not concern on designing and developing the products, as it does not include the design control requirements of ISO 9001.
Further Reading:
- Difference Between ISO 17025 and 9001