ISO-9000: what is it? And how do I prepare for it?

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9000 is a series of standards that outline minimum requirements for organizations to follow for quality management systems. Preparing for ISO 9000 begins with documenting the quality system of a company using the requirements of ISO 9000. In most cases, this starts with the quality manual, and then leads to procedures and work instructions. Once the documentation is completed, records are needed to show that the quality system is being used and is effective. Deciding to register the quality system to ISO 9000 is the final step in the process. This requires selecting a registrar organization and preparing for an audit. Because the registration to ISO 9000 is certifying the quality system, the registrar organization will perform an initial compliance audit and then monitor the quality system through surveillance audits. This helps ensure that the quality system initially certified complies with the requirements of the ISO 9000 standards