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1. Scope

This part of ISO 9004 gives guidance for establishing and implementing a quality system within an organization. It is based on the generic principles of internal quality management described in ISO 9004:1987 and provides a comprehensive overview of a quality system specifically for services.

This part of ISO 9004 can be applied in the context of developing a quality system for a newly offered or modified service. It can also be applied directly when implementing a quality system for an existing service. The quality system embraces all the processes needed to provide an effective service, from marketing to delivery, and includes the analysis of service provided to customers.

The concepts, principles and quality system elements described are applicable to all forms of service, whether solely of a service character or in combination with the manufacture and supply of a product. This can be shown as a continuum ranging from a sit uation where the service is directly related to a product to a situation where there is little product involved. Figure 1 illustrates this concept for three types of service.

NOTE 1 - Equipment or facilities may also be directly involved in providing a service, for example, vending machines or automatic banking machines.

The concepts and principles in this part of ISO 9004 are appropriate to large and small organizations. Although the small service organization will not have, nor need, the complex structure necessary in the larger enterprise, the same principles apply. The difference is simply one of scale.

Primarily, the customer will be the ultimate recipient of the service external to the organization. Frequently though, the customer can be internal within the organization; this is especially so in larger organizations where the customer can be at a subsequent stage in the provisioning process. While this part of ISO 9004 is written principally with respect to external customers, it can also apply to internal customers for overall achievement of the required quality.

The selection of operational elements and the extent to which they are applied depends on such factors as the market being served, the options of the organization, the nature of the service, the service processes and the customer needs.

Annex A is for information only, and gives examples of services to which this part of ISO 9004 may be applied. The examples include service activities inherently performed in product manufacturing industries.