Last updated on January 28th, 2026 at 11:50 am
The development of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) followed the devastation wrought by World War II in Europe. The organization was an offshoot of the earlier International Federation of National Standardizing Associations (ISA), which was founded in 1926 to develop a set of mechanical engineering standards. During rebuilding efforts, it was found that business standards across countries often weren’t compatible.
As the largest organization responsible for developing voluntary standards, the ISO considers issues such as compatibility, interoperability, and terminology, as well as environmental, health, and safety matters. Of these, the ISO 9001 principles were specifically developed for companies involved in design, production, and servicing.
Why Do ISO 9001 Principles Matter?
As an international standard, the ISO 9001 principles were developed by quality management experts worldwide. The current set of ISO 9001 principles was outlined in 2015, and those organizations that follow these standards are referred to as ISO 9001:2015 certified.
The most recent ISO 9001 principles promote:
- A focus on customer satisfaction.
- Adaptation to and adoption of ISO structures to align with other ISO standards.
- An approach that results in better quality outcomes.
- Emphasis on upper-level management regarding quality management system (QMS) ownership.
- Expanded connections between organizations and the QMS.
- Less complex terminology.
- More flexibility regarding requirements.
- Obligations regarding quality performance.
ISO 9001 sets out conditions for businesses and other organizations to create an efficient quality management system, helping increase efficiency while improving customer satisfaction. With ISO 9001, seven principles are used as a measure to drive better performance and improvements within an organization
7 ISO 9001 Principles
There are seven basic ISO 9001 principles that guide a QMS, all of which are considered equally important. These can be applied to businesses that provide either products or services, and these ideals are key to a modern QMS. While their comparative significance varies, depending upon the organization, the actual focus of these standards will likely change over time. A brief description of the seven ISO 9001 principles and how they can be applied:
1. Customer Focus
Focusing on customers demonstrates a company’s commitment to quality. To facilitate this, it’s important to collect both positive and negative customer feedback. This helps businesses meet and exceed expectations by identifying ways in which to improve processes that strengthen performance.
Actions Organizations Can Take:
- Identifying the customer base in order to understand both current and future expectations and needs, while linking these to the company’s objectives.
- Designing, developing, delivering, planning, and producing goods and services that meet customer expectations and needs.
- Measuring and monitoring customer satisfaction and responding appropriately to findings.
- Acting upon determinations regarding expectations and needs to improve customer satisfaction.
- Managing customer relationships to achieve success.
These actions look to promote customer satisfaction and loyalty, enhance an organization’s reputation, increase value, and expand the customer base while growing revenue and market share.
2. Engagement of People
ISO 9001 principles apply to all levels of an organization. Applying these standards appropriately involves open discussion about experience and knowledge across a company’s teams. This will improve quality while helping an organization achieve certification.
Actions Organizations Can Take:
- Internally promoting the performance of individual contributions as well as collaboration between teams.
- Sharing of expertise via open discussions.
- Encouraging employees at all levels to take initiative and act upon performance constraints.
- Acknowledging contributions that lead to improvements.
- Enabling workers to self-evaluate performance through surveys to assess employee satisfaction, communicate results, and apply these appropriately.
- Cultivating an understanding of quality objectives among employees in order to increase motivation.
This looks to enhance collaboration and satisfaction in an organization by focusing on personal development with an impetus to drive creativity. By involving employees in activities that create better work environments, organizations also foster a mutually beneficial culture that promotes shared values.
3. Evidence-Based Decision Making
All businesses require accurate and trustworthy data to make informed decisions. This involves ensuring that all relevant information is made available to decision-makers by keeping communication channels open across all levels of an organization.
Actions Organizations Can Take:
- Measuring and monitoring key performance indicators (KPI) to determine business performance.
- Making relevant data and information available to all stakeholders while ensuring the accuracy, reliability, and security of the shared information.
- Using appropriate methods for analyzing and evaluating data and information, while ensuring those tasked with this are properly trained.
- Deciding upon what actions to take based on the evidence, while also considering expertise and insight from decision-makers.
By improving decision-making, assessments can be made of how the organization performs relative to its objectives. This allows a company to improve efficiency by creating capabilities that allow stakeholders to review and challenge the effectiveness of past decisions.
4. Improvement
Continuous improvement is a theme found throughout all seven ISO 9001 principles. In this case, improvement refers to making constant progress towards a prime objective. By implementing procedures that identify opportunities and risks, especially when tracking their efforts, companies can identify and resolve differences that enable them to improve.
Actions Organizations Can Take:
- Establishing objectives for improvement at all levels of an organization, then training them how to apply these methods and tools to improve performance.
- Ensuring all those who promote improvement projects are knowledgeable by developing methods that support implementation throughout a business.
- Tracking, reviewing, and auditing projects through each stage in order to recognize any improvements made.
- Incorporate any considerations for improvement when developing products, services, and procedures.
When an organization seeks to improve its capabilities, customer satisfaction typically improves. To make meaningful improvements, however, the focus should be on preventing and correcting the root causes of problems. This enhances a company’s ability to respond to internal and external risks and opportunities. Further, both incremental and breakthrough improvements should be considered, with training used to augment innovation.
5. Leadership
It’s important for business leaders to have a clear vision of their company’s future. Conveying this vision entails working as a team toward a common objective, which will give employees a collective sense of purpose. This, in turn, heightens productivity and improves motivation.
Actions Organizations Can Take:
- Conveying an overall business strategy and how to achieve it solidifies a sense of shared values that are reflected in the behavior of the company’s workforce at all levels.
- Establishing trust and integrity as part of organizational culture encourages commitment to quality.
- Making sure business leaders set positive examples and recognize contributions helps inspire and encourage employees.
- Providing workers with the resources and training they need, along with the authority to use them, will lead to greater accountability within an organization.
Quality objectives become more effective when an organization’s processes are coordinated. This improves communication across all levels of a business, enabling employees to deliver the desired outcomes.
6. Process Approach
As one of the ISO 9001 principles, the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) policy helps promote a culture driven by following established processes. This enables businesses to achieve predictable results by considering activities holistically as a function within a consistent system of rules and procedures.
Actions Organizations Can Take:
- Defining what processes are necessary to achieve business objectives by establishing management processes that promote accountability, authority and responsibility.
- Understanding organizational capabilities by determining constraints on resources before acting.
- Determining the interdependencies involved in processes by analyzing how individual process modifications affect the entire system.
- Managing how processes relate to the rest of the system in order to achieve quality objectives.
- Making essential information available for monitoring and analyzing performance across a system.
- Managing risk to impact the production processes and outcomes of a QMS.
For companies that focus on key processes to enable improvement, having these processes aligned systemically yields more predictable, consistent results. Effective process management optimizes performance, enabling more efficient resource use while breaking down functional barriers within an organization. This enables businesses to give stakeholders more confidence.
7. Relationship Management
While suppliers can offer advantages to businesses, this requires that a sufficient rapport has been developed. Trust developed through long-lasting relationships with third-party vendors and other stakeholders ensures short-term financial gains can be balanced against longer-term strategies, enabling mutually advantageous relationships.
Actions Organizations Can Take:
- Determining which stakeholders are most relevant to a business and prioritizing relationships with them.
- Establishing relationships that balance gains in the short term against longer-term planning.
- Amalgamating expertise, information, and other relationship-centered resources with stakeholders in order to measure performance and provide feedback to augment progress.
- Collaborating on developing and improving stakeholder relationships, including recognizing achievements made that improve the organization.
Through relationship-building, companies can respond to opportunities and limitations affecting their performance. Knowing the goals and values of suppliers, business partners and others boosts an organization’s ability to create value. Sharing resources and competencies helps them manage risks related to quality, including supply chains that enable the stable exchange of merchandise and services.
Why Choose M.M. Newman Corporation?
Choosing an ISO 9001:2015 certified manufacturer means partnering with a company that prioritizes quality, consistency, and continuous improvement. At M.M. Newman Corporation, ISO 9001 principles are not just a certification—they are embedded into our daily operations, decision-making, and customer relationships.
- ISO 9001:2015 Certified Quality Systems: Our quality management system follows internationally recognized standards, ensuring consistent processes, reliable products, and measurable performance improvements.
- Customer-Focused Manufacturing: We design and produce spiral wrap solutions with customer requirements in mind, focusing on performance, reliability, and long-term value.
- Process-Driven Consistency: By applying a process-based approach and evidence-based decision-making, we deliver repeatable quality and dependable lead times for every order.
- Commitment to Continuous Improvement: From leadership involvement to workforce engagement, we continually evaluate and refine our processes to better serve our customers and adapt to evolving industry needs.
M.M. Newman Corporation: ISO 9001:2015 Certified
The M.M. Newman Corporation is an ISO 9001:2015 certified manufacturer of spiral wrap used to bundle and protect cabling, hoses, tubing, and wiring. M.M. Newman implements the seven ISO 9001 quality principles throughout our company. We take great pride in our focus on customer needs and put customer satisfaction first. M.M. Newman Corporation also seeks engagement with all levels of our workforce to increase our company’s productivity for the benefit of our customers. As an enterprise, we make decisions based on established facts and continually improve our processes. Through our relationships with suppliers, we aim to become a leader consumers can count on. To learn more about what our company can do for you, contact our team today.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does ISO 9001:2015 certification mean for customers?
ISO 9001:2015 certification demonstrates that a company follows internationally recognized quality management standards. For customers, this means consistent product quality, reliable processes, and a strong focus on customer satisfaction.
How does ISO 9001 impact product quality at M.M. Newman Corporation?
ISO 9001 principles guide every stage of our manufacturing process, from design and production to inspection and customer service. This ensures our spiral wrap products meet defined quality requirements and perform consistently.
Is ISO 9001 certification only about manufacturing?
No. While manufacturing is a key component, ISO 9001 also applies to leadership, employee engagement, supplier relationships, documentation, and continuous improvement across the entire organization.
How does M.M. Newman Corporation maintain ISO 9001 compliance?
We maintain compliance through regular audits, documented processes, employee training, and ongoing evaluation of performance metrics to identify opportunities for improvement.