ISO 9001 is a family of standards for quality management systems. Some of the requirements in ISO 9001 include:
Six Sigma Certified Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business practices. It uses a set of quality management methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization ("Black Belts", "Green Belts", etc.) who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified financial targets (cost reduction).
The Caterpillar "Supplier Quality Excellence" award began in 2007 as recognition for its suppliers' efforts to provide the highest quality to Caterpillar.
Successful suppliers are selected by a global team made up of experts from purchasing, engineering, manufacturing and logistics who base their decisions on a supplier's performance in key areas such as quality, service, delivery performance, and Six Sigma Deployment