The TL 9000 Quality Management System (QMS) was created by QuEST (Quality Excellence for Suppliers of Telecommunications) Forum to meet the quality requirements of the worldwide telecommunications industry. TL 9000 certification helps assure buyers of consistent quality across all products and services. It helps to drive supply chain efficiencies. By selecting TL9000-certified suppliers, companies are assured that they have a QMS that has been systematically audited by an independent TL 9000 registrar. Furthermore, the unique measurement system facilitates data analysis against industry benchmark. It provides the basis for objective product or supplier evaluations to make fully informed supply decisions.

Improvement in the industry

The TL 9000 quality management standard has been most widely deployed in the “ landline ” or traditional service
provider supply chain. Improvement in critical key performance indicators for participating organizations has been real.
For instance, one problem that plagued the industry for many years was nonconforming installations (those with sufficient installation defects for them to fail a standardized quality audit).This issue, together with others such as on time delivery, became a focus for QuEST Forum.Certifying installation companies are required to report measurementsin these categories.

Adding industry-specific
value to ISO 9001 TL 9000 is, and will continue to be, tightly linked to ISO 9001:2000. Infact, QuEST Forum members recognize that the ISO 9001 standard brings intrinsic value by establishing a solid framework for quality management based on leadership, management commitment, fact-based decision-making and other basic principles.In order to address issues specific to the telecommunications supply chain, QuEST Forum work groups have over time added to TL 9000 a further 90 requirements called “ adders ”. Adders are designed to add value by addressing historically-critical industry issues not included in the more generic ISO 9001.For instance, to ensure that organizations can continue to meet customer needs during a network interruption or facilities damage, a requirement for a documented disaster recovery was added. Work teams also felt the need to add specific training requirements to help prevent problems during the introduction of new products and services. One such requirement is to train employees to properly handle electrostatic sensitive devices (ESD). The idea is that this will help prevent latent damage to ESD as they are introduced into the field.Finally, TL 9000 places huge emphasis on a formal product life cycle.The life cycle model ensures that organizations establish and maintain the methods, processes and procedures necessary to make sure that products are designed,developed, tested, released and maintained according to specific customer and regulatory requirements.

Article source: http://www.nevilleclarke.com/article.php?aid=8&cid=6
Article source: http://www.questforum.org/qf_resources/documents/ISO_TL_0308.pdf