DQS

DQS Holding GmbH based in Frankfurt am Main is the holding company of the worldwide DQS Group. The group provides assessments and certifications of management systems and processes of any type.

History

DQS was founded in 1985 in Frankfurt am Main and was the first German certification body. The aim of the founding partners, DGQ (German Society for Quality) and DIN (German Institute for Standardization), was mainly to promote the German economy. The foundation overlapped with the publication of the first drafts of the ISO 9000 series of standards, which also include the most important quality standard worldwide today: ISO 9001.

In 1986 DQS became the first certification body in Germany to issue a certificate according to ISO 9001.

After the merger of DQS with the Management Systems Solutions (MSS) division of the American product certification body Underwriters Laboratories Inc. in March 2008, DQS-UL Group is currently one of the world's largest system certification bodies. Since June 2015 the company changed its name to DQS Group.