Company continues to meet recognized international quality standard
CALGARY, Alberta --- July 08, 2009 --- SMART Technologies announces it has renewed its ISO registration and received ISO 9001:2008 certification, an international benchmark of quality management in manufacturing. ISO 9001:2008 registration signifies that SMART’s quality management system (QMS) adheres to the rigorous standards outlined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the largest developer and publisher of international standards in the world. ISO 9001 requires a QMS that meets customer and regulatory requirements, aims to enhance customer satisfaction and outlines processes for continual improvement. The 2008 standard supersedes the previous certification, defined in 2001, which SMART also held.
ISO 9001:2008 criteria regulate design and development of new products, manufacturing, procurement and customer-related processes such as order management and customer communication. To meet eligibility requirements, organizations must control critical business documents and have procedures for continuous improvement and internal audits in place. ISO 9001:2008 requires that an organization’s employees meet necessary competency levels. It stipulates controls of post-delivery systems such as warranties, maintenance and recycling policies. Having strong operational processes in place often reduces financial and environmental waste while increasing productivity, efficiency and customer satisfaction. Since SMART first received ISO registration in 1998, its business processes and QMS have been periodically reviewed and audited by a third-party registrar to ensure compliance with the evolving ISO criteria.
“Our continuing ISO 9001 registration signifies that we are committed not only to upholding a strict, documented quality system, but to continually improving on that system,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s CEO. “Our processes and their continuous improvement are targeted at providing quality products, enhancing customer satisfaction, reducing costs and optimizing our operations.”
About the ISO 9001 standard
The ISO 9001 standard was developed by the International Organization for Standardization, an impartial, non-governmental agency based in Geneva, Switzerland that develops and publishes industrial and commercial standards in more than 160 countries. ISO 9001:2008 is the latest version of the world’s most widely used standard for quality management. It defines a number of requirements an organization must fulfill in order to achieve customer satisfaction through consistent products and services and requires that a company maintains a strategy for continual improvement. The standard covers all aspects of business activity including identifying key processes, policies and objectives, documentation requirements, monitoring and measurement of products, internal communication and audit, understanding and meeting customer requirements, management review, customer satisfaction and employee training. Registration to the ISO 9001 quality standard is an international benchmark of quality management in manufacturing.
