0.1 Overview

Since the first oil well was drilled in 1859, oil production has evolved into a highly complex and detailed process.

ISO/TS 29001:2010 is a quality management system standard that outlines the requirements for the design, development, production, installation, and servicing of products in the petroleum, petrochemical, and natural gas industries. This standard is designed to help organizations in these sectors meet all customer and stakeholder requirements.

ISO/TS 29001:2010 is based on ISO 9001, with additional requirements focused on defect prevention and minimizing deviation and waste from service providers.

The standard was developed through collaboration between the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the ISO technical committee ISO/TC 67.

The adoption of a quality management system should be a strategic decision for an organization. The design and implementation of a quality management system are influenced by varying needs, specific objectives, the products provided, the processes used, and the size and structure of the organization. This International Standard does not intend to enforce uniformity in the structure of quality management systems or documentation.

The quality management system requirements specified in this standard complement product-specific requirements. Information labeled “Note” is provided to help clarify or explain the associated requirement.

This standard can be used by internal and external parties, including certification bodies, to assess an organization’s ability to meet customer, regulatory, and its own requirements.

The quality management principles outlined in ISO 9000 and ISO 9004 were considered during the development of this standard.

0.2 Process Approach

This standard encourages the adoption of a process-based approach when developing, implementing, and improving the effectiveness of a quality management system, with the goal of enhancing customer satisfaction by meeting customer requirements.

To function effectively, an organization must identify and manage various interrelated activities. An activity that uses resources and is managed to convert inputs into outputs can be considered a process. Often, the output from one process serves as the input for the next.

The application of a process system within an organization, along with the identification and management of these processes, is referred to as the “process approach.”

The benefit of this approach is the continuous control it provides over the connections between individual processes within the system, as well as their interaction and combination.

In the context of a quality management system, the process approach emphasizes:

• Understanding and fulfilling requirements,
• Considering processes in terms of the value they add,
• Obtaining results and assessing process performance and effectiveness, and
• Continuously improving processes through objective measurement.
  
  

The process-based quality management system model shown in Figure 1 illustrates the linkages between processes presented in clauses 4 to 8. It demonstrates that customers play a key role in defining requirements as inputs. Monitoring customer satisfaction involves evaluating information about customer perceptions and whether the organization has met their requirements. The model in Figure 1 covers all the requirements of this standard but does not present processes in detailed form.

Note: The “Plan – Do – Check – Act (PDCA)” methodology can be applied to all processes. PDCA is briefly described as follows:

• Plan: Establish objectives and processes to achieve results in line with requirements and organizational policies.
• Do: Implement the processes.
• Check: Monitor and measure processes and products against policies, objectives, and requirements, and report the results.
• Act: Take actions to continually improve process performance.