The term "ISO" stand for International Organization for Standardization. It is a common misconception that ISO stands for "International Standards Organization", or something similar. Actually, the term ISO was chosen (instead of IOS), because ISO in Greek means equal, and ISO wanted to convey the idea of equality.

Achieving certification can seem a bit overwhelming. Like most larger-scale initiatives, there are a number of steps to take prior to the certification to minimize cost, reduce risk of failure and maximize value. You need to work with a certifying organization that understands your business and mirrors your commitment to quality and continual improvement. We recommend that you become ISO 9001 certified if you meet at least one of the following conditions:

• Your customers want you to become certified.
• Your markets expect you to be certified.
• Your competitors are already certified.
• You need to control the quality of your products and services.
• You need to reduce the costs associated with poor quality.

ISO 9001 can improve your company's financial performance if it is properly implemented. An ISO 9001 Quality Management System can help you to improve your bottom line because it can reduce the costs associated with poor quality such as the cost of repairs, rework, complaints, returns, warranty work, law suits, etc.. And, of course, if ISO 9001 helps you keep your old customers and attract new ones, it will certainly improve your financial performance.

ISO does not issue certificates; Registrars of the certification program issue them once they have completed the final audits of the company seeking ISO 9000 registration. For a partial list of registrars.

There are types of costs that you need to consider; Cost of the Registrar; Internal costs: employee time; Costs of Documentation and Training tools or consulting. The cost of the Registrar will depend on how big and how complex your organization is. The Registrar will charge you depending on how many audit days they spend at your organization. There will be travel costs if the Registrar is not local and there are administrative and accreditation fees as well. The next cost to consider is the time your employees will need to spend building and implementing the system. We will help you estimate the time needed from employees throughout the project. The last cost to consider is the cost of consulting or of purchasing tools to help you with the project

Revisions to the ISO 9000 standard are reviewed every every 5 years. The latest revision is ISO 9001:2008. ISO 9001:2008 does not contain any new requirements. ISO 9001:2008 only introduces clarifications to the existing requirements of ISO 9001:2000 based on eight years of experience of implementing the standard world wide with about one million certificates issued in 170 countries to date. It also introduces changes intended to improve consistency with ISO 14001:2004.

Only authorized Certification Body can issue a certificate in your Organization and who has already certified other Organization. They carry out Surveillance audit and they have capable auditors to do the audits (capable in terms of Knowledge of your industry, trained auditors etc.). They check individual auditors' Qualifications before or while auditing. They always see that there should no complaints about their service, as you are their customer. There are several degrees of nonconformance's which are typically, minor and major, are observed. Most Registrars will not issue a Registration Certificate until any major nonconformances have been acceptably corrected. They have full right to withdraw your certificate if you fail to meet the requirements.

Generally it depends on the size, complexity of the organization and lot of factors, including how many people work on the project, how knowledgeable they are. It can take 2 months or more than that. Once the Quality Management System is fully implemented and developed, the certifier want you to wait for more time till you able to prove that your quality system is actually implemented and working and it will take more time to develop an adequate record of performance.

ISO 9000 is often used to refer to the set of ISO Quality Management System documents. ISO 9001 is the document that contains the requirements for the Quality Management System. You will register to ISO 9001. ISO 9000 is a guidance document on the fundamentals and vocabulary for quality management systems. ISO 9002 and ISO 9003 are no longer in use. All companies register to ISO 9001.

Yes it does. It is applicable to all types of Organization. As it is a general standard, it doesn't matter how big or small the organization is and what they produce or what service they provide. The standard works the same in all cases.

None. There is no difference, as both have a same meaning. In some countries companies say they're certified, and in others they say they're registered.

Registrars audit and certify organizations who wish to become ISO 9000 registered or certified. Professional certification is a voluntary process that recognizes an individual who has met specific qualifications. Accreditation Bodies, on the other hand, evaluate and accredit registrars. In effect, accreditation bodies audit the auditors. Accreditation bodies certify that registrars are competent and authorized to issue ISO 9000 certificates in specified business sectors.

Arborist certification is a process by which individual practitioners are tested to demonstrate a certain standard of tree care knowledge. It is important to remember that certification only sets a threshold of required knowledge, not the ceiling, and that professionals can practice tree care without being certified. Some states require licensing of arborists, which is not the same as certification and is not voluntary. TCIA Accreditation checks to see that businesses in these states hold the proper licenses. TCIA Accreditation is also a voluntary process, but it evaluates entire businesses to ensure that professional practices and standards are met by all employees that work on your property. While certification attests to the fact that an individual practitioner has an acceptable level of skill or proficiency, only the process of accreditation looks at the overall manner in which a company conducts business

Quality Manual and Quality system have two different meanings. Quality Manual is a document and a quality system is a network of processes. Quality manual is not a Quality system but Quality system is documented in the form of Quality Manual. Quality Manual is all about paper work and quality system is network of actual and interrelated processes. A process is made up of people, work, activities, tasks, records, documents, forms, resources, rules, regulations, reports, materials, supplies, tools, equipment, and so on - all the things that are needed to transform inputs into outputs. One important point to be keep in a mind that Quality Manual is not a Quality system nor is it a computer program but there is no wrong in writing the Manual or using Computer to manage or document the Quality system.

A procedure describes how a process is performed and Work instructions describe how tasks should be done. Procedures and work instructions can take any suitable form as long as the result is effective. Process map, Flow chart or any suitable form is a Procedure. Work instruction can also take any suitable form. By using forms you can document work instructions. A form becomes useful once it is filled in, as it becomes records.

Work instructions illustrate how tasks should be done, while records document how tasks were actually done. Work instructions come before the fiction and records come after the fiction. Work instructions are used before the task is performed, while records are used after the task has been performed.

The differences between the two, and the supporting procedures, are often not clearly understood. Corrective actions address actual problems, ones that have already occurred, while preventive actions address potential problems, ones that have not yet occurred. Corrective actions require only one step, sometimes it may be necessary to apply the same action to similar situations while this is interpreted by many as a preventive action component of a corrective action system. Corrective actions are, by design, reactive, and preventive actions are proactive. In general, the corrective action process is a problem solving process, while the preventive action process is a risk analysis process.

Design verification is a process whose purpose is to examine design outputs and to use objective evidence to confirm that outputs meet design input requirements. Your purpose here is to see whether your design outputs meet your organization's design goals.

Design validation is a process whose purpose is to examine products and to use objective evidence to confirm that these products meet customers' needs and expectations. Your purpose here is to see whether your product does what your customer or user wants it to do under real-world conditions.