As mentioned in the earlier section, ISO 9001:2000 aims at guaranteeing the effectiveness of the organization. However, this need not necessarily guarantee the efficiency of the organisation.
One way to improve organisational efficiency is to use the new ISO 9004:2000 in addition to ISO 9001:2000. 9 The principles are intended to assist an organization in continual improvement, which should then eventually lead to efficiency throughout the organization. 'Continual improvement' requires an organization to focus on repeatedly increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of its processes, to fulfil its policies and objectives.10 These progressive consolidation steps responds to the growing needs and expectations of customers and ensures a dynamic evolution of the quality management system. As management, your responsibility already acquires special weight when introducing a quality management system.
There is, in fact, a risk that once introduced and certified, a quality management system continues to exist only on paper during the post-certification phase and is ignored by the company and its employees. 11 You must, therefore, from the beginning communicate your dedication to quality, quality management and quality culture in the company and set a good example.You have quite effectively built up a quality management system without actual certification. While this has helped keep a tight harness on the costs, please consider that it may be considered foolish to lie low and do nothing when all your competitors are moving towards proper certification. One may even suggest a bold proactiveness by improving on the current standards to implement both a higher standard such as ISO 9004:2000 and maybe even progress to obtaining a national business excellence award.Before deciding to implement to such a higher standard one must first fully comprehend the scope and application of the ISO 9004:2000.
The ISO 9004:2000 is only a guidance standard and it is by no means an added certification. 12 The certification and registration ends with the ISO 9001:2000 which is a consolidation of ISO 9001, 9002, and 9003 standards. The new ISO 9004 is all about the firm's ability to perform self-evaluation. This gives the management of the firm a better idea of the effectiveness and efficiency of the firm and the extent of success of its quality management system.This is because, in spite of the many external audits, the one accurate method of assessment is when it is done from within the company itself. The intent of this type of assessment is to provide an actual fact-based direction to the firm regarding where to invest resources for its development.
As mentioned in the earlier section, ISO 9001:2000 aims at guaranteeing the effectiveness of the organization. However, this need not necessarily guarantee the efficiency of the organisation. One way to improve organisational efficiency is to use the new ISO 9004:2000 in addition to ISO 9001:2000.9 The principles are intended to assist an organization in continual improvement, which should then eventually lead to efficiency throughout the organization. 'Continual improvement' requires an organization to focus on repeatedly increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of its processes, to fulfil its policies and objectives.
10 These progressive consolidation steps responds to the growing needs and expectations of customers and ensures a dynamic evolution of the quality management system.As management, your responsibility already acquires special weight when introducing a quality management system. There is, in fact, a risk that once introduced and certified, a quality management system continues to exist only on paper during the post-certification phase and is ignored by the company and its employees. 11 You must, therefore, from the beginning communicate your dedication to quality, quality management and quality culture in the company and set a good example. You have quite effectively built up a quality management system without actual certification.
While this has helped keep a tight harness on the costs, please consider that it may be considered foolish to lie low and do nothing when all your competitors are moving towards proper certification. One may even suggest a bold proactiveness by improving on the current standards to implement both a higher standard such as ISO 9004:2000 and maybe even progress to obtaining a national business excellence award. Before deciding to implement to such a higher standard one must first fully comprehend the scope and application of the ISO 9004:2000.The ISO 9004:2000 is only a guidance standard and it is by no means an added certification. 12 The certification and registration ends with the ISO 9001:2000 which is a consolidation of ISO 9001, 9002, and 9003 standards.
The new ISO 9004 is all about the firm's ability to perform self-evaluation. This gives the management of the firm a better idea of the effectiveness and efficiency of the firm and the extent of success of its quality management system. This is because, in spite of the many external audits, the one accurate method of assessment is when it is done from within the company itself.The intent of this type of assessment is to provide an actual fact-based direction to the firm regarding where to invest resources for its development. The actual benefit of implementing the process of continual improvement through self-assessment is fairly evident. This approach actually serves to enable an organisation to identify and initiate improvement projects that would potentially provide the best benefits based on the needs of the organisation.
Benefits can be found in each of the four major sections of the standard. Take for example, section 5. 2 with regards to the needs and expectations of interested parties.The ISO 9004:2000 continual improvement process ensures that the quality management system considers the needs and expectations of all stakeholders of the firm. For the management, monitoring the changing needs of their external and internal customers is very important and this continuous attempt to learn and understand more about the needs of these parties is bound to prove beneficial for them.
Section 6. 8 concentrates on the financial resources within the firm. The continual improvement process helps to provide a better understanding of the costs and benefits associated with different processes.It also encourages improvement towards effective and efficient achievement of the organisation's objectives. Leaving room for continual improvement within the fixed standards ensures the existence of a certain amount of flexibility within the process.
This may prove necessary to stimulate for efficient means of doing things within the company, especially with regards to innovative ways of managing finance. The best advantage of accrediting to a higher level of standard is the strategic benefit it provides in enhancing organisational performance.As managers, you must realise that people in the organisation are the best source of ideas for ongoing process improvement. 13 They are the ones that take part in implementing the process and hence, they are the ones that know best how and what they are doing and the changes they would like to implement.
Corbett, et al. 14 (2002) were able to show, quantitatively, that implementing higher ISO standards leads to improved financial performance against competitors. This study looked at return on assets (ROA) to support these conclusions.
