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In our ongoing efforts to provide our customers and business partners with the highest quality,
products and services, we at Cards Aqua have developed a "Total Quality Plan" that includes achieving ISO 9001
certification in 2004.
ISO 9001 is concerned with "quality management". This means what the organization does to enhance
customer satisfaction by meeting customer and applicable regulatory requirements and continually to
improve its performance in this regard.
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What is ISO?
ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world's largest developer of
standards. Although ISO's principal activity is the development of technical standards, ISO
standards also have important economic and social repercussions. ISO standards make a positive
difference, not just to engineers and manufacturers for whom they solve basic problems in
production and distribution, but to society as a whole.
Why are standards so Important?
If there were no standards, we would soon notice. Standards make an enormous contribution to most
aspects of our lives - although very often, that contribution is invisible. It is when there is an
absence of standards that their importance is brought home. For example, as purchasers or users of
products, we soon notice when they turn out to be of poor quality, do not fit, are incompatible
with equipment we already have, are unreliable or dangerous. When products meet our expectations,
we tend to take this for granted. We are usually unaware of the role played by standards in raising
levels of quality, safety, reliability, efficiency and interchangeability - as well as in providing
such benefits at an economical cost.
The International Standards which ISO develops are very useful. They are useful to industrial and
business organizations of all types, to governments and other regulatory bodies, to trade
officials, to conformity assessment professionals, to suppliers and customers of products and
services in both public and private sectors, and, ultimately, to people in general in their roles
as consumers and end users.
ISO standards contribute to making the development, manufacturing and supply of products and
services more efficient, safer and cleaner. They make trade between countries easier and fairer.
They provide governments with a technical base for health, safety and environmental legislation.
They aid in transferring technology to developing countries. ISO standards also serve to safeguard
consumers, and users in general, of products and services - as well as to make their lives simpler.
When things go well - for example, when systems, machinery and devices work well and safely - then
often it is because they conform to standards. And the organization responsible for many thousands
of the standards which benefit society worldwide is ISO.
Voluntary
ISO standards are voluntary. As a non-governmental organization, ISO has no legal authority to
enforce their implementation. A certain percentage of ISO standards - mainly those concerned with
health, safety or the environment - has been adopted in some countries as part of their regulatory
framework, or is referred to in legislation for which it serves as the technical basis. Such
adoptions are sovereign decisions by the regulatory authorities or governments of the countries
concerned; ISO itself does not regulate or legislate. However, although ISO standards are
voluntary, they may become a market requirement, as has happened in the case of ISO 9000
quality management systems, or of dimensions of freight cotainers and bank cards.
Consensus
Although ISO standards are voluntary, the fact that they are developed in response to market
demand, and are based on consensus among the interested parties, ensures widespread applicability
of the standards. Consensus, like technology, evolves and ISO takes account both of evolving
technology and of evolving interests by requiring a review of its standards at least every five
years to decide whether they should be maintained, updated or withdrawn. In this way, ISO
standards retain their position as the state of the art, as agreed by an international
cross-section of experts in the field.
Worldwide
ISO standards are technical agreements which provide the framework for compatible technology
worldwide. Developing technical consensus on this international scale is a major operation.
In all, there are more than 2850 ISO technical groups (technical committees, subcommittees,
working groups etc.) in which some 30000 experts participate annually to develop ISO standards.
The ISO 9000 family is ISO's most widely known and successful standard ever.
ISO 9000 has become an international reference for quality requirements in business to business
dealings. The vast majority of ISO standards are highly specific to a particular product, material,
or process. However, the standards that have earned the ISO 9000 family a worldwide reputation known
as "generic management system standards". "Generic" means that the same standards can be applied to any organization,
large or small, whatever its product - including whether its "product" is actually a service -
in any sector of activity, and whether it is a business enterprise, a public administration, or
a government department. "Management system" refers to what the organization does to manage its
processes, or activities. "Generic" also signifies that no matter what the organization is or
does, if it wants to establish a quality management system, then such a system has a number of
essential features which are spelled out in the relevant standards of the ISO 9000 family.
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