ISO 9000

[omar12]

How many of you think that companies get their "bang" for their money with ISO programs? and why? is ISO Programs the answer to retaining customers? Like to hear your thoughts?

thanks

 

[PSE]

I'm not sure what you are meaning by the term "bang". ISO compliance does not retain customers. Good product retains customers. ISO is merely a framework from which to document and monitor the quality system that a company has in place. It has no impact on the quality of product produced. It should (if adhered to) help you to produce that product consistently.

The above being a "minimalist" approach, a "good" quality system (ISO compliant or otherwise) should be providing useful feedback so that the product may be actually improved.

Regards,

 

[BML]

As PSE said, ISO registration doesn't retain your customers (except in the rare event that an existing customer requires you to get it). What I've seen more of is that it's a box to check-off for potential customers during a screening process. But beyond that, being ISO (or QS) 9000 registered only gets you as much "bang" as you put into it.

 

[25362]

One result I've seen taking place was a reduction of lab re-testing work by customers purchasing goods from an ISO 9000 accredited supplier who provided quality reports with every batch.

 

[IRstuff]

As has been discussed here and other places, ISO certification simply means:
> You have a written process
> You follow it

Beyond that, it's marketing hype. If your management is a bunch of schmucks who don't really give a hoot about quality, then the cert means nothing.

TTFN

 

[rhodie]

Yes, I concur.

If your quality manual says you make crappy products, and if you do indeed make crappy products like the manual describes, then you have every justification needed to retain or achieve ISO certification... as long as you follow ISO procedures in producing it.

There is no correlation between good quality and ISO certification.

 

[adrianviorel]

I would go further to IRstuff's ideas and say that:
- The written process is NEVER perfect , being permanently PERFECTIBLE.Therefore, is QUESTIONABLE.
- trying to follow it does not, necessarily, mean that you succeed.
- If a client asks you if you are ISO certified, try to avoid him. He knows only rumours about it, and will give you more headache then worth the orders you'll get. Only if he will go deeper into details you must consider him.

 

[Nate101]

The quality system costs us about $60k a year, in maintaining a quality person to keep the audits and us updated and the recertification process. This hasn’t stopped our customer from moving the product we make for them to “other parts of the world. The system does show you your shortcomings and it looks to me our company is producing less discrepant hardware. At least our "specail shlf" had less parts on it last year.

 

[25362]

There is a common misconception regarding the purpose of these standards. They are meant to achieve quality assurance meaning they provide a framework for ensuring consistency of quality, not (repeat not) quality level, which is a negotiable item.

As said above, the ISO 9000 standards do not address the quality of the product produced by a company. Instead they address the quality of the process used by the company to make a product. They don't require from a company to improve product quality; in this respect these standards have only marginal usefulness.

Once the quality of the product has been established by negotiation between the customer and the company, the customer would expect some kind of assurance that the process that makes the product is reliable and that it can consistently turn out products of the specified quality.

To that end organizations registered as having implemented the ISO 9000 standards are regularly audited by local standards institutes.

 

[AuditKen]

ISO certification mean nothing if there is not "buy-in" and backing from top management. As stated above the standards refer to the quality managment system and the processess and procedures used.

Our company initially was a little hestitant in becoming certified. Once certified, it was only maintained for that purpose. Recently we have been implementing numerous "six signa" approaches to quality and take the ISo certification pretty seriously. This is referring to our company, suppliers and customers. These are all interrelated in overall quality of the product. There must be an open communication loop and follow through to make the system beneficial and successful