ISO 9001:2008 is the most widely applied international standard. It strength lies in the fact that the same standard can be used in any organisation in any industry, of any size, anywhere in the world. Registration to ISO 9001:2008 by a UKAS accredited body provides objective proof that a business has implemented an effective quality management system, and that it satisfies all of the requirements of the applicable standard.

The standard is based upon eight management principles. These are:

• Customer focus
• Leadership
• The involvement of people
• Process approach
• System approach to management
• Continual improvement
• A factual approach to decision making
• Mutually beneficial supplier relationships

Based originally on lessons learned during the Second World War, basic principles of product specifications were developed, leading to the application of specified requirements applied across industry. This resulted in a variety of different standards, which only served to confuse suppliers.

In an effort to harmonise the Quality Standards a guidance document, BS 4891, A Guide to Quality Assurance, was published in 1972. This was replicated in the USA and further improved with the introduction of BS 5179 in 1975. Other major industrial countries developed their own versions of BS 5179, but the introduction of BS 5750 in the UK in 1979 meant for the first time that there was a standard adopted by industry in general

Following its own philosophy of continual improvement, the series was revised in 1994/2000 and 2008 and is now viewed by many companies as the framework for best practice across the business, not just in quality.