Editor’s note: Denise Robitaille is a member of the U.S. TAG to ISO/TC 176, the committee responsible for updating the ISO 9000 family of standards. She will be reporting on the revision progress to ISO 9001, which will be completed in 2015.

Editor’s note: Quality Digest hosted Morgan Palmer’s webinar, “

ISO 9001 is much more than a standard. It should be part of a company’s strategic plan rather than something to get certified to because customers require it. The guidelines and quality principles in ISO 9001 are just good business practices.

This article is about accreditation of conformity assessment bodies. Before proceeding further, however, it is important to provide some definitions in order for all of us to have the same understanding of key terms.

Got your attention by what seems a bizarre claim?

In July 2008, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament agreed to provide a legal framework that creates one monopoly in each member state o