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Origins and ISO/TC 176

This section describes the origins of the ISO 9000 family and introduces the ISO technical committee responsible for these standards

ISO/TC 176

ISO standards are developed by technical committees comprising national delegations of experts from business, government and other relevant organizations. They are chosen by the ISO members – the national standards institutes participating in the technical committee concerned – and are required to present a national consensus position based on the views of stakeholders in their country.

In 1979, a new ISO technical committee was approved: ISO/TC 176, Quality management and quality assurance. Initially, 20 member countries decided to become active participants (P-members) in the work of this new committee and another 14 countries opted to follow the work as observers (O-members).

Today, 78 countries participate in ISO/TC 176, while another 20 are observers. The committee published its first standards in the early part of 1987.

Why 'ISO 9000' was the number chosen

ISO standards are usually assigned a catalogue number automatically. When the first output of ISO/TC 176 was nearing completion, ISO was already approaching a total of some 9 000 published standards. ISO realized even then that ISO/TC 176's standards would have a significant impact and so decided to give the series the next available round figure - 9000 - as a designation because round figures are more memorable.

What already existed

When ISO/TC 176 embarked on the development of generic quality management standards for worldwide application, it was able to take advantage of a substantial base of national experience, notably in the United Kingdom and in Canada.

In the United Kingdom, the BS 5750 standards were well on their way to broad acceptance and, in Canada, a series of national standards known as CSA Z299 were also widely used.

Other countries with well developed quality management practices, such as Japan, also took a keen interest in the work of the new committee. In addition, experience of military quality assurance specifications, such as the NATO AQAP series and US MIL-SPEC, enriched the sources from which ISO/TC 176 was able to draw.