ISO 9000 : 2000 - a system of practical benefit

Older managers are often ambivalent towards ISO9000. On the one hand they know that quality is a " good thing" , and they would be an unusual manager if they thought quality in their business could not be improved. On the other hand, they remember BS5750, and even the early ISO9000 : and those memories are not good. They remember man months of work, huge manuals no one ever read or could work though and an obsession with documenting everything that happened good, bad or indifferent. For those of you who have not been following the saga, ISO 9000 : 2000, the new version of the quality standard could not possibly be more different to that memory borne from past systems.

Our resident quality expert, Bill Jones, offers the following assessment:

"The rewritten 2000 version of ISO 9001 only requires six items to be documented, and leaves it open to the business to add to the documentation if they feel it necessary. WARNING: It has been my experience that great care has to be exercised to control the documentation. Sometimes employees left to themselves, get carried away and will multiply the documentation created. This can be the result of enthusiasm, or if they are familiar with previous quality procedures, they automatically copy what they have seen before.

The 2000 version of ISO 9001 is based on the TQM Process Approach, where activities are linked via internal customer-supplier chains into processes, which receive information and materials and deliver goods and services.

The key advantage of this approach is that it considers the interfaces between activities as well as the activities themselves, and it is in the interfaces that waste, errors and loss generally occur. Additional advantages include the ability to identify processes and activities that are not adding value to the business, and the identification of measurement and control parameters. It has been said that " what we cannot measure we cannot control" , and while not absolutely true, this is good advice for running a business.

The contents of ISO 9001:2000 give some indication of the approach being taken. There are 5 main parts to the Standard addressing:

• The Quality Management System
• Management Responsibilities
• Resource Management
• Product/Service Realisation
• Measurement, Analysis and Improvement.

Within these sections the key issues addressed are:

• Planning
• Processes
• Customer focus
• Continual Improvement

All of these issues appear throughout the various sections of the Standard.

Why should a company take on ISO 9001?

Waste & inefficiency.

Businesses exist to make money. The more efficient they are at making money, the more likely they are to survive, develop, and grow. ISO 9001 provides an approach to managing a business that enables the business to identify and address areas where money is being lost through waste and inefficiency.

It has been estimated that most small to medium sized businesses waste between 10 & 30% of TURNOVER, much of which can be prevented. NOTE: Money retained from such efforts goes straight onto the bottom line! What is your Net Profit as a percentage of turnover? Small decreases in waste can have a big impact on profit.

Measure to manage.

Management needs to understand how its business operates, in order to get the best performance from the various activities that make up a business. ISO 9001 provides a framework for developing and using this understanding to best effect.

Supplying the majors

Certification to ISO 9001 provides access to some market areas where big companies do not want to undertake lengthy evaluation and monitoring of their suppliers. They want suppliers who they can trust, and who understand the rules by which they operate, and a number of them use Certification by an accredited third party agency as the first filter in selection of suppliers.

Status & differentiation

Certification to ISO 9001 by an accredited third party agency provides some status in the marketplace. It marks a clear separation between those who rely on one or two "expert" managers, and those who understand their business, are in business for the long term, and are intending and expecting to grow.

Want to know more, get a costing?

The new, customer focused, ISO 9000:2000 neither costs a huge amount nor takes a long time to introduce.

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