What is ISO 9001?
ISO 9001 is the international standard for a quality management system (“QMS”). In order to be certified to ISO 9001, a company must follow the requirements set forth in the ISO 9001 Standard. The standard is designed to help companies at many levels, including a focus on customer requirements, improving leadership within the company, finding ways to continually improve, and more.
There are several different documents in the ISO 9000 family of standards, but ISO 9001 is the only standard in the 9000 series that requires certification. Typically, an entire organization will seek certification, but the scope of the QMS can be tailored to improve performance at a particular facility or department. The current version is ISO 9001:2015, which was published in September of 2015 (thus the :2015).