Russia’s GOST R ISO 9001 Standard

GOST R ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems lists the quality management requirements that should be used by companies themselves to certify their own product and when contracting with clients. The Standard aims to make the quality management system more efficient in terms of carrying out the clients’ requests. It was drawn up by the Russian Research Institute for Certification (VNIIS), formally proposed by the Certification Department of the Russian Federal Agency on Technical Regulation and Metrology (Gosstandart), and approved and enacted Order No. 334-st of Gosstandart on August 15, 2001. ISO 9001-2000 was subsequently superseded by GOST R ISO 9001-2008.

Many countries today use the ISO 9001 quality management system standard as the basic benchmark of a company’s competence on the national and international market. A general schematic of the system is shown in the figure below.

Voluntary certification of a company’s quality management system under ISO 9001 provides the client with additional confirmation of quality and a guarantee of the reliability of its services and products.

One interesting trend that has become evident in recent years is for ISO 9001 certification of a company’s quality management system to be regarded as a pre-requisite for obtaining certificates to perform certain kinds of commercial activities. This is all the more important as Russia prepares to join the World Trade Organization.