ISO 9001:2000 - Reaping the business benefits
For those organisations that wish to maintain ISO 9000 certification, the deadline for compliance to the new 2000 version of the ISO 9001 Quality Management System Standard is 15 December 2003.
For those Australian organisations yet to make it to the new Standard, transition planning will be top of mind. Some two years since the first release of the radically revamped Standard, The Australian Standard, offers some insider views into how it measures up – including the benefits the Standard can deliver to business and industry and the most recent developments on the transition front.
Most would agree that when it comes to management systems Standards, the ISO 9000 series are the world’s best known, and the release of the revised 2000 version shows every sign of turning the quality world on its head.
“The quality movement in general, and this Standard in particular, has undergone significant evolution since the release of the first international quality management Standard in 1987,” says Mr Alex Ezrakhovich, a long term member of the ISO Technical Committee, Quality Management and Quality Assurance [TC 176], which has been integrally involved in the crafting and development of the quality management Standards for many years.
As Mr Ezrakhovich points out, no Standard of management practice can be immune from the radical changes which have characterised the international business environment in recent decades. The changes and revisions that have occurred since the Standard’s initial release, he says, have been designed to help organisations effectively accommodate and capitalise on these changes.
“Globalisation, the expansion of service industries, and of course, the impact of technology, have significantly altered the way business is done, the nature of customer and other stakeholder expectations, and the general pressures and dynamics of both commercial and public sector enterprise,” says Mr Ezrakhovich.
“I think the new ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 9004:2000 Standards, more than any other, offer an appropriate vehicle for successfully traversing this terrain.”
Revealed: the myth of the quality manual
Certainly, many commentators agree that the “Process Approach” espoused by the new Standard offers greater flexibility than the more prescriptive “20 elements” structure of the 1987 and 1994 Standards.
The previous structure enabled some organisations to “shoehorn” their operations [or documentation of them, at least] into each of the 20 elements – no matter how ill-fitting – in the name of compliance. It was this practice which gave rise to the dreaded “doorstop” Quality Manuals of the eighties and nineties. These Manuals were rarely used and have never reflected the way organisations were conducting their business. For many, the word “quality” still conjures images of these hefty tomes, wheeled out annually to demonstrate the existence of a mythical “quality” system that bore no resemblance to that which existed in practice, before being returned to the shelves where they gathered dust for the rest of the year. Mr Ezrakhovich is the first to admit that this image and practice is one which ISO 9000:2000 has set out to overcome.
Business will benefit from correctly implemented quality management Standards and this will depend entirely on whether the organisation pays more attention to the words in the Standard or to the business’s processes.
“Companies that implement the Standard correctly, using their in-house knowledge and experience, while reflecting their well established and successful practices, can reap the benefits.
“Those that are simply trying to meet the Standard, and pinch the words from the Standard without applying Quality Management Principles – the basis for the ISO 9000 series, won’t see any benefits.,” says Mr Ezrakhovich.
And conversations with today’s quality professionals indicate that it is well on the way to succeeding.
“With the new Standard, you develop a system that reflects the true processes of your business, not one that meets a set of elements that may bear no relevance to it,” says Mr Steven Reeve, a 15-year quality veteran with extensive experience working with ISO and related quality systems in both the UK and Australia.
Quality and Management Systems Technical Officer at Boral C & C [Concrete and Clay], Mr Reeve has successfully overseen the certification of two major Boral Roofing sites to ISO 9001:2000, and is currently involved in the certification of a third.
Having seen many a quality system fall by the wayside in the past, Mr Reeve says that a more sophisticated generation of quality professionals and CEOs are now demanding tangible bottom line benefits from their ISO outlay – and that the new Standard is leading them to these benefits.
“In the past, many companies just complied and didn’t take the steps to derive the benefit that the systems offered.
“These days I have to front to my CEO and the first thing he is going to say is, “where’s the bottom line benefit”?
“Our priority these days is making sure it works for us, it’s not just a matter of ticking the boxes. We are now looking at more mature systems and a more mature Standard that takes a realistic approach and enables businesses to gain genuine returns.”
Mr Robert Woodcock is another seasoned quality professional, who, in his capacity as CDO Quality & Systems Development, Metallurgical Technology, Port Kembla Steelworks at BHP Steel, has been involved in quality management since its infancy.
“Although the original motivation for us to become certified back in the late 1980s was to participate in tenders, we recognised the benefits of the work we did to achieve that and began to work toward certification to what, at that time, was just the Australian Standard,” explains Mr Woodcock.
“This was a huge undertaking as we had something like 15,000 employees. When the ISO 9000 family essentially replaced the previous Standard, it conferred the added benefit of the international recognition factor which is very important for our business, with more than half of our product going overseas. We’ve been involved with the refinements and upgrades that have been taking place ever since.
“Looking at it now I suppose you would say that some of our previous systems were a bit convoluted.
“Certainly the new Standard is a lot better. It has a logical structure and is easy to follow. However, in a sense it is a moot point because we get so many benefits from our management system both internally and externally – we review it annually and there’s never been an occasion when we’ve even considered walking away.”
Further testimony to the accessibility and acceptance of the new Standard can be found in the results of a recent survey of 227 US firms. Conducted by a US advisory group to ISO, the findings have been published in the ISO magazine, ISO Management Systems.
Survey findings, which were also recently published in The Business Improver newsletter included:
- eight out of 10 surveyed companies reported that transition and implementation costs were at least covered by savings
- most companies seeking certification to ISO 9001 for the first time needed no more than two days’ auditing for certification
- 56 per cent reported better use of data in management following certification
- 54 per cent reported improved customer satisfaction
- 51 per cent reported more effective management reviews
- 41 per cent reported improved customer communication
Training and education - the way forward for ISO 9001:2000
The release and transition requirements of the new Standard has also highlighted the growing importance of investing in specialised staff training to assist with the implementation and maintenance of management systems.
The new requirements for monitoring customer satisfaction, for example, have opened new territory for a number of organisations. Many are for the first time focusing on establishing effective ways to gather meaningful customer data and feedback.
The Standard’s requirement for continual improvement – and associated necessity for data analysis, measuring output and so forth in order to assess it – has also encouraged increased attention on this area.
“Our client organisations are seeing the value in having across-the-board internal expertise when it comes to their management systems, and we are seeing this with ISO 9001:2000 in particular,” says Director, SAI Global, Education and Training Division, Mr Martin Searle.
Seminars, workshops and courses covering the precepts of the new Standard have been available from SAI Global [formerly QAS] since its pre-release days, and have been well attended throughout.
“We’ve experienced considerable growth in our Training and Education Division, and are expecting a lot more in the 9001:2000 area as 2003 – the deadline year – unfolds,” says Mr Searle.
“Perhaps a fair indicator of the value of training is our level of repeat business, which is extremely high. Time and again our clients are reporting significant savings in terms of time, effort, mistakes with help from properly trained staff. Appropriate training also goes a long way toward promoting the efficacy and general buy-in of the management system among key staff and I don’t think the benefit of that can be underestimated.”
The US survey bears out the SAI Global experience, with some two thirds of companies surveyed providing training for internal auditors of ISO 9001:2000; while a heightened interest in general quality management courses was also reported.
Background to ISO 9001:2000 – what is it?
- Based on a “process approach”, in which the organisation’s key activities are divided into their logical interacting or interrelated groups [processes]. These processes, and the way they are organised and documented, then form the starting point of the management system. This is unlike previous versions of the Standard [1987 and 1994], which led too many organisations to [mistakenly] take the Standard as the starting point and attempt to change their activities to meet it.
- Customer satisfaction, its measurement and achievement is a key requirement.
- A further central requirement is that the quality management system has a built-in facility to demonstrably promote continual improvement.
- There is greater flexibility when it comes to documentation, which can be by way of conventional written manuals, graphics, representations and diagrams, electronic means, photographs etc. What is essential is that they work and are genuinely representative of the management system.
- The deadline for those wishing to maintain ISO 9001 certification compliance to the new Standard is 15 December 2003.
When the ISO/TC 176 Committee met in Acapulco in October 2002 to assess the performance, ongoing transition and other issues relating to the new Standard, over 300 delegates and 16 liaisons from 41 countries attended.
Some of the issues identified for further enhancement included increased attention on those components of the Standard relating to customer feedback; promotion of the “Process Approach”; promotion of ISO 9004 as a path to Business Excellence; technical support for Sector Application and revision to some of the ISO guidance and support materials relating to the Standard’s application.
Resolutions relating to joint participation between the International Accreditation Forum and the ISO 9000 Advisory Group in the development of guidance on Best Practice for auditing quality management systems were also passed.
“From an ISO perspective, issues of credibility, assessment of user satisfaction, early identification of issues that may impede acceptance and the widespread promotion of expertise where the new Standard is concerned are all core to the successful completion of the transition,” says Mr Ezrakhovich.
“Considerable work is taking place every day to ensure that all of these matters are addressed and that the Standard continues to meet and even exceed user needs.”
And what advice does Mr Ezrakhovich offer those 14,000 Australian and New Zealand organisations who are yet to make the move to ISO 9000:2000?
“It would be unrealistic based on today’s figures to expect that there won’t be a certification backlog, which could seriously impair many businesses’ operations. So get started today.”
Support for the transition
Organisations embarking on the transition process will find many sources of help and support, including:
- CB1152002 ISO 9000 Guidance Notes are available for free download from Standards Australia’s website: www.standards.com.au
- A list of SAI publications and Handbooks on quality can be found at www.standards.com.au, under Shortcuts to Hot topics
- training and education through SAI Global – call 1300 727 444, email: training@sai-global.com
- visit: www.sai-global.com
SAI Global