Content area
Full Text
Keywords ISO 9000 series, Quality management techniques, Standards, Process management, North America
Abstract Presents the findings of an empirical study conducted on Canadian firms on the latest version of the ISO 9000 standard, 1309001:2000, which takes a process-based approach to quality management systems. The study focuses on the difficulties faced by firms and attempts to determine the characteristics affirms that face difficulties. Results show that: large companies faced fewer difficulties; the number of years that companies were in operation had no effect on the difficulties they faced; companies serving markets outside of North America, mainly in Europe, faced fewer difficulties than those that serve North American markets only.
Introduction
The most recent version of the ISO 9000 standard is ISO 9001:2000 (ISO, 2000). This new standard promotes a process-based approach to the development of quality management systems. The approach is built on the belief that a desired result is achieved more efficiently when activities and related resources are thought of as a process. For those companies that are currently registered under the ISO 9001:1994 standard, the deadline for them to upgrade to the latest version is December 2003, a mandatory requirement.
The process-based model defines a quality management system as a single large process which links sub-processes in a continuous improvement cycle. Each process is built on input-output relationships. The output of one process almost always affects the input of another, as these processes are inter-related. Customer requirements and customer satisfaction play a significant role in defining input and output relationships, respectively. In addition, the standard promotes the application of the continuous improvement methodology, the PDCA cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) to all of the processes, which consists of the following steps: define; develop and document each process; implement documented procedure; monitor implemented procedure; and improve the procedure.
While many studies have investigated the issues involved with ISO 9000 implementation around the world (Carlsson and Carlsson, 1996; Lipovatz et al., 1999; Yahya and Goh, 2001; Santos and Escanciano, 2002), no empirical study, to our knowledge, has examined the issues associated with the most recent version, 1509001:2000, in North America. In this paper, we study the perceived degree of difficulty that organizations face in the registration process, with a special focus on the new version. We try to...