When asked by Management to, “Make this a World Class NDE Organization,” a significant amount of thought went into what constituted a “World Class” NDE organization. What is a “World Class” NDE Organization? Is it having the best trained, best certified inspectors? Is it having state-of-the-art equipment? Is it having no audit findings? Is it having a satisfied customer? Is it having mistake-proof compliant processes and procedures that everyone understands and follows? The answer is potentially all of these or possibly only a few depending on the individual situation. World Class must be defined in terms of each organization, each organization’s customers and those customer’s requirements.Some possible terms applicable to “World Class” are; excellence, achievement, outstanding, unique, preferred, distinguished, premiere, superior and preeminent. Some possible attributes of a “World Class” organization are; ISO accreditation, Nadcap accreditation, benchmarking activities, continuous improvement provisions, lean manufacturing, 6 Sigma, achieving competitive excellence (ACE) and other customer based supplier recognition programs to name a few. Whatever the criteria an Organization chooses to define itself respective to “World Class” goals, those criteria need to be defined, the goals must be established, milestones determined and progress tracked. This paper provides one definition of the meaning of “World Class” as it applies to the nondestructive testing industry. The presentation also provides an overview of the signif cant attributes it is believed should be considered within each specif c organization to def ne and achieve “World Class” status as it relates to their individual industrial sector and customer base. “World Class” is defined and recognized within the specific context or industry segment where that distinction is pursued. Regardless of how an organization defines its self in terms of “World Class”, it is paramount to have customer and industry specific concurrence of that definition and achievement. It is desired that this paper presents a perspective that is applicable to both large and small NDE organizations and can be applied across all industry segments. In all cases, the only measures of achievement are accreditation from significant industry sector recognized authorities AND acknowledgement of these achievements by the organizations customers.