ISO international standards

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Increases in international trade during the 1980s created a need for the development of universal standards of quality. In 1987, the International Organisation for Standardisation, ISO, published its first set of standards for quality management called ISO 9,000. ISO is a standard document that provides requirements, specifications, guidelines, or characteristics that can be used consistently to ensure that materials, products, processes, and services are fit for their purpose. ISO 9000 is a series of Quality Management Systems, QMS, standards.

The ISO 9000 QMS standards are not specific to products or services, but applied to the processes that create them. The standards are generic in nature so that they can be used by manufacturing and service industries.