ISO 9001:2000 based quality management system via ABET-based accreditation

Abstract

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) brought out the ISO 9000 series Quality Management System (QMS) standards in 1987. Thereafter, ISO also revised the ISO 9000 series standards in 1994 and 2000. Today, it is very difficult to see an industrial organisation which has not obtained ISO 9001:2000 certification. However, the Engineering Educational Institutions (EEIs) which provide human resources under the name 'engineers' to the industrial organisations are sluggish in implementing ISO 9001:2000 based QMS. Meanwhile, engineering educational leaders are envisaging the modern EEIs to get accredited to the stipulations of various national and international agencies. This situation warrants an EEI to accredit its programmes with Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and then implement ISO 9001:2000 standard. However, this task will consume unaffordably high amount of time and money. To overcome this hurdle, in this paper, a methodology for implementing ISO 9001:2000 standard via ABET-based accreditation in EEIs has been described by presenting an implementation study.