ABSTRACT
Customers do not form their opinions on quality from marketing, they do not form their opinions on quality from who won the Deming Award or who won the Baldridge Award. They form their opinions on quality from their own experience with the products or the services. Many people have started their journey towards ISO 9001 certification by reading the standard and trying to understand the requirements. They get so far and then call for help, but they often have not learnt enough to ask the right questions. The helper might assume that the person already knows they are looking at ISO 9001 and therefore may not spend the necessary time for them to understand what it is all about, what pitfalls may lie ahead and whether, indeed, they need to make this journey at all. This chapter explores what ISO 9001 is intended to do, making the link between ISO 9000 and the fundamental basis for trade.
