About TL 9000
In 1998, QuEST Forum developed the TL 9000 Quality Management System to meet the supply chain quality requirements of the worldwide telecommunications industry. Through TL 9000, it set out to achieve the following goals:
- Establish and maintain a common set of telecom QMS requirements, which reduces the number of standards for the industry
- Foster a system that protects the integrity and use of telecom products hardware, software and services
- Define effective cost and performance-based measurements to guide progress and evaluate the results of QMS implementation
- Drive continual improvement and enhance customer relationships
- Leverage the industry conformity assessment process
TL 9000: A Two-part Quality Management System
The TL 9000 standard is the telecom industry's unique extension to ISO 9001:2000 and includes supplemental requirements in the following areas:
- Performance measurements based on reliability of product
- Software development and life-cycle management
- Requirements for specialized service functions such as installation and engineering
- Requirements to address communications between telecom network operators and suppliers
- Reporting of quality measurement data to a central repository
As a result, the TL 9000 is a two-part quality system with significant management
and measurement components. In particular, TL 9000 registered organizations are required to comply with:
- All requirements clauses of the International Standards ISO 9001:2000
- Telecom-specific requirements that apply to all registrations
- Telecom-specific requirements that apply to hardware, software and/or service registrations
- Telecom industry measurements that apply in all product categories
- Telecom industry measurements that apply in certain product categories specific to hardware, software and/or services
