Precision Cut Industries is pleased to announce the successful completion of our ISO 9001:2000 certification audit. PCI’s quality systems were found to be in conformity with the ISO 9001:2000 standard by the HSB Registration Services, an ANAB accredited registrar.

The ISO 9001:2000 standard, published by the International Organization for Standardization, is an international reference for quality management requirements and continuous improvement of business-to-business interactions. The ISO 9001:2000 standard provides a tried and tested framework for taking a systematic approach to managing an organization's processes so that we may consistently turn out products and services that satisfy our customer’s expectations.

"Becoming certified to ISO 9001:2000 was an important goal for PCI this year and is another step in growing and improving our business. This achievement also provides further assurance to our customers and partners that we are able to better satisfy their quality requirements, as well as reflecting PCI’s commitment to continuous improvement," President and CEO, Brian Greenplate.

ISO 9000 is a family of standards for quality management systems. ISO 9000 is maintained by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization and is administered by accreditation and certification bodies. Some of the requirements in ISO 9001 (which is one of the standards in the ISO 9000 family) include

• a set of procedures that cover all key processes in the business;
• monitoring processes to ensure they are effective;
• keeping adequate records;
• checking output for defects, with appropriate and corrective action where necessary;
• regularly reviewing individual processes and the quality system itself for effectiveness; and
• facilitating continual improvement

A company or organization that has been independently audited and certified to be in conformance with ISO 9001 may publicly state that it is "ISO 9001 certified" or "ISO 9001 registered".

ISO 9000 includes standards:

• ISO 9000:2000, Quality management systems – Fundamentals and vocabulary. Covers the basics of what quality management systems are and also contains the core language of the ISO 9000 series of standards. A guidance document, not used for certification purposes, but important reference document to understand terms and vocabulary related to quality management systems. In the year 2005, revised ISO 9000:2005 standard has been published, so it is now advised to refer to ISO 9000:2005.
• ISO 9001:2000 Quality management systems – Requirements is intended for use in any organization which designs, develops, manufactures, installs and/or services any product or provides any form of service. It provides a number of requirements which an organization needs to fulfill if it is to achieve customer satisfaction through consistent products and services which meet customer expectations. It includes a requirement for the continual (i.e. planned) improvement of the Quality Management System, for which ISO 9004:2000 provides many hints.

This is the only implementation for which third-party auditors may grant certification.

Note that the previous members of the ISO 9000 family, 9001, 9002 and 9003, have all been integrated into 9001. In most cases, an organization claiming to be "ISO 9000 registered" is referring to ISO 9001.

ISO 9001:2000 Quality management systems — Requirements is a document of approximately 30 pages which is available from the national standards organization in each country.