Firstly you should decide your own reasoning behind considering ISO 9001 2000 registration for your organization.

Is the number of registrations in your market sector increasing?

Are your competitors seeking registration?

Are your customers asking about registration?

Are registrations increasing in your industry?

Are your customers asking you to become registered?

Have your group HQ asked you to gain registration?

Do you want to reap the financial benefits of registration?

Have the number of customer or consumer complaints increased?

Do preventable errors keep occur again and again in your business?

It is not possible to state exactly what benefits will your organization will gain by having a formal quality system, primarily because each organization is different. However, I think it is fair to say that most organisations will benefit from having a formalized Quality Management system where:

Work proceeds in an orderly and predictable way.

The same old preventable errors stop occurring.

Customer and consumer complaints fall dramatically.

Your Management System improves.

Internal communication within your organization improves.

Returned product from customers reduces week on week.

The quality of your product and or service improves.

The level of customer and employee satisfaction improves.

Your organization produces quality data to improve your business.

By now you should have a reasonable idea of whether or not ISO 9001 2000 registration is right for your organization and whether or not you will gain financially from adopting the ISO 9001 2000 standard as a method of running your business effectively and efficiently.

If you are now seriously considering seeking registration to the ISO 9001 2000 standard you must begin to understand what the standard requires of an organization. There are many books and resources available which discuss implementing the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard into an organization, including the documentation and resources to be found on this web site.

You may like to begin your ISO 9001 2000 education by reading the various articles and resources to be found on this web site. I would thoroughly recommend reading the Questions and Answers (Q&A) section of this web site as it will answer many of the initial questions that you might have about the ISO 9001 2000 registration process.

To begin to understand the requirements of the ISO 9001 2000 standard we recommend that you read Preparing For ISO 9001 2000 Registration. Alternatively you could take a training course which will teach you about the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard and the registration process.

To determine the amount of input required by your organization to comply with the requirements of the ISO 9001 2000 standard will require that you assess your existing management system. You could to fetch in a consultant at this stage because a consultant will be able to identify exactly what your organization needs to do in order to achieve the requirements of the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard.

Many organizations opt to carry out a gap analysis audit by themselves. However, this is such an important part of the ISO 9001 2000 registration process it is worth seeking professional help from a consultant. Many organizations who opt to jump straight into the gap analysis audit process themselves can often waste time, money and resources by not fully understanding the intent of the ISO 9001 2000 standard. Whereas seeking professional advice from a consultant will set your organization on the right path with clear instructions on who, what, where, why, when and how things should be done.

If on the other hand your organization already has a very good understanding of the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard and you have:

A documented Quality policy.

Been setting and using documented Quality objectives.

Documented Top management reviews of your Quality Management System.

Documented top level Quality Management System Manual.

Documented effective and efficient process procedures and or work instructions.

Documented employee skills and training records which are regularly reviewed.

Documented ISO 9001 2000 compliant Quality Management System Audits.

Documented an effective and compliant Customer complaint process.

Documented an effective corrective & preventive action process.

If you are doing all the above then you may be well on your way toward gaining ISO 9001 2000 registration. However, if your Quality Management System is incomplete or immature it will require much more effort to become compliant. You can continue to adjust your system, carry out internal quality audits to check for compliance, train employees etc. Until you reach a position where you feel you have done as much as you are able to do yourself. Once you have reached this stage you may be concerned that you have missed something important. It seems rather silly to embark on a full registration audit at great cost to your organization when you can hire a consultant to carry out a gap analysis audit for a relatively small sum of money to ensure that your quality management system is compliant with the requirements of ISO 9001 2000. If you fail the certification body initial assessment audit the cost of a full re-audit by a registration body can be prohibitively expensive.

A pre-assessment or gap analysis audit is survey carried out by a professional who compares what processes your organization has in place compared to those required by the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard. The consultant will report any deficiencies in your organizations processes, it is then up to you to decide if you want to tackle these deficiencies by yourself or to engage the professional services of consultant.