• Customer focus, leadership, involvement of people (all levels of the organization)
  
• Process approach, system approach to management, continual improvement
  
• Factual approach to decision making (base decisions on data), mutually beneficial supplier relationships
  

Achieving customer satisfaction is the goal of the international quality standards. The focus has moved away from quality through controlling nonconformity to address the need to manage all aspects of quality from customer requirements to customer satisfaction.

ISO refers to the methodology known as "Plan-Do-Check-Act" (PDCA) continuous improvement cycle that can be applied to any process.

• Plan - Define the purpose and objectives of the change and then formulate a plan to meet the objectives.
  
• Do - Implement the plan and train employees to understand the changes made.
  
• Check - Verify that the objective was reached and check periodically to assure the change is stable.
  
• Act - Define opportunities to improve further and return to ‘Plan’.
  
  

The PDCA model takes the objectives through a series of steps in an approach to get processes to operate in a manner that delivers predictable outcomes. The PDCA cycle requires review of resources and measurable targets to achieve the desired outcome.

The management review process falls within the act phase of the cycle. Inputs to management review include the objectives and targets of the original plan, along with data gathered at the check phase. Management review should evaluate the effectiveness of the plan in enabling goals to be achieved.