ISO 9000
ISO 9000 is part of a very extensive line of management methods and control standards of quality. Quality standards are ancient concepts that have been utilized for centuries to validate compliance and to formalize working practices. Quality standards were manifested in the 20th century. These standards were created on the concept of scientific management by Frederick Winslow Taylor.
Shewhart and Deming assisted in pioneering some of the tools to further advance quality inspections and later quality control. Quality systems began to be set up during the 1950's. Universal standards were introduced and adopted in the 60's and 70's. The majority were designed by the United State defense industry. Mil-Q-9858 was the first and was adopted in 1968 as the basis for the NATO Allied Quality Assurance Publications. Canada developed and published the first quality standards for commercial use in 1975, The Canadian Standards Association's Z299 series. The International Organization of Standardization embarked on an International Standard for Quality Systems doing the mid 1980's.
Over 26 countries were involved in the process which later led to the publication of the world standard for quality management in 1987. The ISO 8402, ISO 900-1, ISO 9001, ISO 9002, ISO 9003, and ISO 9004-1 were the six set standards that made up the 1987 ISO 9000. Each participating country matched these national standards. These standards were created to only be used within the manufacturing sector for contractual situations, but as their use developed there were later transferred to the service sector. The initial plan was for the standards to be review every five years. In 1992 the first review was purely superficial. In 1994 the second edition to the standards were published and focused on facilitating mutual comprehension of quality management systems requirements in national and international trade. The certification format...