The ISO 9001 – process approach quality management model - has been rated as the most advanced model. The objective of this system is to provide the product / service with stable quality on the basis of meeting all legitimate requirements of customers.
The application of the quality management system according to ISO 9001 standard basically is to identify the needed processes for the operation of organizations, including the process of creating products/services. On the basis of the identified processes, managers need to identify the needed resources for each process. The resources include: people, equipments, implementation methods, materials and working environment which should be defined at a minimum level. After identifying the needed resources in each process, managers should appoint and arrange the interaction between processes so that the organization operate smoothly and efficiently.
In countries where employees have a sense of discipline and high level of self-awareness, the operation of the quality management system according to ISO 9001 is not difficult. And for many organizations and enterprises in our country, the discipline of employees is low, the maintenance of the quality management system according to ISO 9001 faces many difficulties. On the other hand, leaders of these organizations do not appreciate properly the role and significance of the quality management system for the organization's’ activities, especially the activities of product innovation. Therefore, in practice the application of ISO 9001 standard is just only formal. Many organizations in Vietnam do not get much revenue when applying ISO 9001, and they see it as a "jewelry". It should be understood that " the application of ISO 9001" that is not just "getting certified conforming with the ISO 9001" because ISO 9001 is the quality management tool.
For the application of ISO 9001 to be effective, organizations need to take measures to maintain the effectiveness of the management systems; it means to ensure the processes and regulations, work instructions, even the most simply work haves to be enforced when issued.
In an assessment by an American certification organization for the quality management system of Hoa Sen Group, an American auditor commented: "Under "no smoking" sign board, there is cigarette ash”. This is implicitly indicates that other regulations in such organizations are not complied. This suggests that, even ‘no smoking’ is not a requirements of ISO 9001, the organization applying the standard has to pay attention to seemingly minor details because these details may ruin the whole system. , Only then, the quality management system becomes meaningful. A valuable experience in applying ISO 9001 is "none aggressive actions lead to mediocre results".
Thus, the particularly important point in the application of ISO 9001 is to maintain the effectiveness of the quality management system which has been established. However, whether the application of ISO 9001 is effective or not is another story. The application of ISO 9001 is only effective for the organization when quality management systems have effect simultaneously with these quality management systems planned in accordance with the specific activities of the organization. If organizations meet two above requirements, the application of ISO 9001 would be a success basing on the foundation of the quality management system. From this foundation, depending on the type of activities that organizations can apply other specific quality management systems such as ISO 22000 - food safety, ISO 14000 - environmental management system or ISO 9004 - management organization for sustainable success.