ISO 9000

What is it and why use it?

What is ISO 9000?
Brief history of ISO
Why use ISO 9000?
How to implement ISO 9000
Drawbacks to ISO 9000
What is ISO?
 An internationally accepted management model
that makes a company document their
processes to maintain consistent practices
 Method that dictates how a company should
produce their products through a rigorous
documentation process
 This prevents repetitive errors from occurring and
allows for improvement
 Focuses on ensuring a quality product
ISO: A Brief History
 ISO 9000 created by the International Organization for
Standardization
 International standardization began with the International
Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 1906
 This led to the development of the International Federation of
National Standardizing Associations (ISA) in 1926
 The reasons for international standards are:
 a cheaper product
 less waste
 greater interoperability between products
 improved usability
 ease of maintenance
ISO: A Brief History
 But with the start of World War II
 ISA operations was put on hold in 1942
 After the war in 1946
 A delegation of 25 countries met in London and
decided to start over and form an organization "the
object of which would be to facilitate the international
coordination and unification of industrial standards"
 ISO was formed the following year in 1947 and
published its first standard in 1951
 ISO 9000 was conceived in 1987, updated in
1994, and again in 2000
Why use ISO 9000?
 Working for a company that does not have
a formalized method of management
creates a chaotic working environment
 Time, money, and work hours go into wasteful
utilization
 higher likelihood of errors and faults appearing
in a product
 ISO 9000 is a preventive measure so time,
money and work hours aren’t wasted
fixing those errors
Why use ISO 9000?
 Providesa highly organized structure of
operation
 An extensive documentation of processes
 Clearly defined responsibilities

 Offers a competitive edge for companies

 Companies with ISO certification are preferred
over ones that are not
 Sometimes is the main determinant for clients
Why use ISO 9000?
 Required for mere survival
 Clients may require that companies convert to ISO 9000
or lose their business
 Better to get certified before being forced to
 Customer satisfaction
 A more organized procedure adapts to last minute
changes better
 Confidence and trust is fostered with client
 Good relationship built with client means increased
business with referred customers as well as returning
ones
Why use ISO 9000?
 Employee confidence
 Employees are happier when they know exactly what
they should be doing and who to report to
 Increased communication allows an employee to be full
informed at all times during a project
 As a result, employees are more efficient in their work
 All previous points lead to one thing…
 …increased profits
 …and knowing that a product of higher
quality is being produced
How to implement ISO 9000

1. Decide whether to do it or not

 There are many success stories of companies
using ISO 9000
 But this does not mean its guaranteed to boost
profits
 An assessment of whether ISO will benefit a
company is required before proceeding
 If a company decides to do it they need to
commit to it
How to implement ISO 9000
 2. Select a quality manager
 Find someone to be in charge of quality control
 He/she should have an unbiased view of quality and the
ability to communicate problems to the chief executive

 3. Set up the ISO 9000 group

 Traditionally a committee of all the managers from every
department of the company
 grouped together to analyze processes, come up with
better solutions and document them
How to implement ISO 9000
 4. Foster employee confidence
 Very important to the success of ISO 9000
 Staff needs to be motivated to accept ISO otherwise it
won’t work
 Executives should set example by being excited about it

 5. Write a Quality Policy

 A mission statement stating the company’s commitment
to the ISO standard and signed by the chief executive
How to implement ISO 9000
 6. Define employee responsibilities
 Responsibilities must be clearly defined and
stated for each employee
 Employees that know exactly what they should
be doing reduces confusion and inefficiency

 7. Create a manual
A manual needs to be compiled of all the
company’s processes and contain the best
practices
How to implement ISO 9000
 8. Get audited
 A company’s procedures are checked and allows for
refinement and correction of errors
 Competent auditing firm is required so all problems can
be worked out

 9. Get certified
 Find an internationally well-known and credible group to
certify the company
 Allowed to announce certification to clients after this
step
How to implement ISO 9000
 10. Maintain certification
 ISO is not a one shot deal, it is a continuous
improvement program
 Maintain quality systems and gauge client
satisfaction
 Pursue continuous improvement and have an
ISO 9000 maintenance team
 Anticipate biyearly surveillance audits, there is
the possibility of losing certification
Drawbacks to ISO 9000
 No process is perfect and ISO does not
guarantee profitable results
 Bureaucratic processes
 Could require intensive documentation
 In addition, ISO is not cheap, in time and money
 Company time spent on projects need to be halted for
the implementation of ISO 9000
 Can take between 6 months to 2 years to reach
certification
 Costs can range between $3,000-$100,000
 The Market Impact of ISO 9000
Importance to Marketing and Sales
Reasons and Benefits
Examples
What we learned
Market Impact Of ISO 9000
 The customer is the focal point for all businesses
to survive in any market – locally, nationally, and
globally
 Customer’s needs and requirements are
important
 ISO 9000 establishes a set of rules and
regulations to avoid poor-quality products and
services for a variety of customers
 “Product" applies to services, processed material,
hardware and software intended for, or required by, your
customer
Importance to Marketing and Sales
 The degree of positive impact depends on the
degree of involvement in the certification
process
 Customers can be confident in a company that
knows the importance of quality assurance
 They can offer a good quality product and/or service
A stepping stone to improve quality products and
true customer focus
Reasons for Companies to Comply
 A study conducted by Rayner and Porter:

10% - Other reasons

10% - Improve quality 35% - Pressured by

customers

15% - Access new

markets

15% - Gain 15% - Need to

competitive anticipate
advantage registration

 80% of the firms considered marketing as the main

reason to be certified by ISO 9000
Other reasons:
 Complywith public projects
 Government requirements
 Some government organizations (Australia) require their
suppliers to be ISO 9000 compliant
 Overseas trade and market
 Pressure from larger businesses
 Reduce time failure
 Reduce costs of customers’ claims
 Improve customer service and customer loyalty
 To get things done right the first time
Benefits from Certification
A study conducted by McAdam and McKeown
 Northern Ireland/Europe

 37% - Increased productivity

 23% - Internal benefits (i.e. reduced cost)
 14% - Greater control

 37% of the businesses received benefits within the

first year of ISO 9000 Certification
Other benefits:
 Quality improvement
 Enhance competitiveness of company
 Cost reduction
 Sales increase
 More systematic record keeping
 Improved internal communication and
performance
 Continual improvement of operation
Here are two examples
Example 1

 A metal parts fabricating company used ISO 9000:2000

to develop a plan to implement their quality management
system.
 They prepared a quality manual and quality system
procedures, excluding the requirements covering product
design and development because their products are
designed by their customers.
 Later, in order to bid on the supply of parts to a major
automotive company, they adapted their quality system
to meet the sector of specific requirements
Example 2

 A welfare agency decided to establish a quality

improvement strategy.
 It adopted ISO 9004:2000 as the basis for planning and
implementing its system.
 The agency found that ISO 9000:2000 provided very
useful additional guidance and plans to seek certification
to ISO 9001:2000 to gain more credibility.
What we learned
 International Organization of Standardization
 ISO does not stand for International Standards
Organization as many believe
 ISO is the short form of the name - not IOS
 Derived from the Greek word isos, meaning “equal”
 The meaning of “equal” is similar to the word

“standard”
 Also, it is the same in all languages without

translating “International Organization of Standardization”

into an acronym
• e.g. IOS in English, OIN in French for Organisation
internationale de normalisation
What we learned
 ISO 9000 is not just for software that we
originally thought
 Itmore of a management model or plan that
ANY industry can use to improve quality
systems
 Motivation to strictly follow documented
processes should start from top management to
encourage employees to follow at every level
 more than 140 countries have adopted the ISO
9000 series as their national quality standard
ISO 9001
 generally stated
 deals with:
 design input and output
 verification

 changes

 development

 production

 installation

 servicing.

 does not deal with the design process

itself
ISO 9002
 primarily
deals with production operations
and assembly

ISO 9003
 primarily deals with final inspection and
testing to assure quality in the products
that the company receives from other
companies
ISO 9004
 gives guidance to organizations that
provide services to customers that may or
may not have a product to offer
 Some software organizations usually
support the products they supply instead
of designing or manufacturing the
products.
Differences
 Differences vary within individual
companies and the activities that they do
 The only differences between 9001 and
9003 is:
 9001 has twenty quality system requirements
and ISO 9003 only has twelve for
demonstrating compliance
ISO 9000:2000
 Revised from ISO 9000:1994
 Requires organizations that are already certified to
update their quality systems to comply with the new
standards
 Differs from ISO 9001:1994 in terms of quality models
(e.g. 20 elements are no longer required)
 Emphasizes continual improvement, management
responsibility, and resources management
 Is broader so that more industries can apply the quality
standards to their areas
 Not overwhelming who are already well organized and
managed after implementing the previous version