ISO 9000 and Localization

What is ISO 9000?
ISO 9000 is a family of international standards for quality management. These standards are developed to provide a framework for building a quality management system (QMS) which ensures that consistent working processes and practices are used in the production of goods and services. A QMS contains a set of rules and standards which specify the best procedure for achieving effective, quality work for each production step. ISO 9000 is the most commonly used international standard for quality management systems.

The ISO 9000 standards include the following main components:

• Quality Management System
• Management Responsibility
• Resource Management
• Product Realization
• Measurement Analysis and Improvement

Because of the diversity of the various industries using ISO 9000 standards, specific quality elements have been grouped into distinct models that are based on the functional or organizational capacity of the supplier and its' product or service. Listed below are the models that make up the ISO 9000 family of standards.

• ISO 9001 Quality Systems - Model for quality assurance in design/development, production, installation, and servicing.
• ISO 9002 Quality Systems - Model for quality assurance in production and installation.
• ISO 9003 Quality Systems - Model for quality assurance in final inspection and test.

How does ISO 9000 apply to localization?
With ever increasing product complexity in the global marketplace, product localization is no longer a simple process of translation. Instead, quality localization projects are increasingly dependent on well defined processes and workflow to ensure consistent and quality results. Because ISO 9000 has already included many of the procedures that are applicable to localization production, these standards can be a very effective tool for regulating and ensuring a quality localization output.

For each production step in the localization cycle, CSOFT follows well developed procedures based on both the LISA and the ISO guidelines enriched futher with our own experiences in the L10N industry. Each production procedure is consistently documented in our knowledge base which contains background information, requirements, and specific steps needed for a quality project execution. To complement the procedural documentation, we have also developed comprehensive checklists and desk edit reports to record PASS or FAIL rates and to monitor our performance in terms of quality and continuous improvement.

Do What You Say You Do
Instead of developing the quality procedures so that we can say we have them on file, CSOFT makes every effort to enforce the adoption of these rules in our daily production for each of our projects in order to deliver consistent and quality service to our clients project after project. CSOFT is proud that the overwhelming majority of our clients are repeat customers. One of the reasons are able to maintain continued, positive relationships with our clients is our ability to provide consistent and quality work for all projects regardless of size and time.

One way to ensure compliance with quality standards is through the issuance of NCPs, or Non-Compliant Products, which are then reflected in each individual's financial incentives. Another approach that has proven very effective is our regularly held trainings and quality assurance seminars. These internal reviews constantly reinforce the importance of quality and the adoption of approved procedures throughout the localization lifecycle. Using a combination of NCP and positive reinforcement, CSOFT has been able to achieve exceptional performance and localization quality.

For more information about CSOFT's multilingual localization solutions, please send an inquiry to info@csoftintl.com or click here.