ISO 9001 and Lean: Friends, Not Foes, For Providing Efficiency and Customer Value

ISO 9000 is a comprehensive set of international standards for quality management and quality assurance. These standards ensure that companies effectively document all aspects of their quality management to show transparency and efficiency within all processes. They are not industry specific and pertain to organizations of any size.

Continuous improvement is a key facet of the ISO 9001 standard (the particular standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system), but it doe...