Abstract

One of the most important aspects of the year 2000 revisions of ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 was the adoption of the process approach to quality management systems (QMS). A strong consensus for adopting the process approach formed very early in the revision cycle. This approach improves on that of the previous standard by providing a much more generic structure readily applicable to all sectors of the economy and sizes of organization. At the same time, it allows the requirements to be stated in language more familiar to line managers and less encumbered by quality jargon.