Achieving standards of quality, the ISO 9000 (2)

By Simon Potter

This is the second of three articles on ISO 9000, the international quality system standard. It looks at how to implement an ISO 9000 quality system in your facility.

JAKARTA (JP): You want to crack new markets in Europe, and ISO registration is mandatory for your product line.

There's a chance of a major new account, but the client has told you straight, "get certified, then we can talk."

Your biggest customer has just told you your main competitor has become ISO certified. Production, so he has heard, is up 200 percent.

Or -- your worst nightmare -- your main customer requires you to get ISO registration. "We're re-tooling our supplier network. Anyone who is not registered is out."

Whatever the rationale, whatever the motivation, when push comes to shove, ISO 9000 registration is not something that can be taken lightly, especially for firms facing the scenarios outlined above.

And even if your company has decided to implement ISO as part of a well thought out, long-term strategic plan, the implementation of an ISO system can often be long and far from painless.

The amount of pain, and time, and expense you'll need depends upon a number of factors:

The sophistication of your current quality program.

The size of your facility.

The complexity of your process.

The commitment (or otherwise) of management.

And if your current quality program is non-existent, your facility huge, your process as complex as the United States tax system and your top management are off playing golf, let's juxtapose this with a little list demonstrating just how easy ISO implementation can be. You'll need to:

Understand the ISO standard requirements.

Understand your firm and its methods.

Provide and commit adequate resources.

Plan ahead.

Stick with it.

Of course there will also have to be the usual tough sell, to employees and management alike. There will be the awkward, painful transition period. There will be many frustrations and disappointments. But there will also be profound impact.

If you go for it faithfully and consistently, ISO 9000 will revitalize your company. ISO 9000 firms have been described as lean, mean, sensitive and aggressive, highly efficient and pro-active. People talk of the `cultural transformation' to an atmosphere of continuous improvement, increased customer satisfaction, improved competitive strength, greater market share. The praise heaped upon ISO 9000 seems endless.

So how do we do it? How do we implement a ISO 9000 quality system?

The answer basically, is we do it carefully, step by step. The time to implement an ISO quality system is when you think you don't need one. When things are running smoothly, markets are expanding, profits are up and you have time to spend on the golf course, that is the time to get to work. Don't wait till the tide of competition is lapping about your ears and you find yourself flailing about for an ISO lifeline.

A planned, orderly implementation of ISO over a number of years as part of long term company strategy is the best bet. And the absolute prerequisite for this is, of course, real commitment from top management. Without this, even the best intentioned, best conceived quality system, including ISO, is doomed to failure.

Lorcan Mooney, an ISO 9000 consultant from Ireland, says `The most significant pitfall in ISO implementation is the CEO being uncommitted, or opting out, or standing on the sidelines and expecting other people to do it.' It is no accident that `Management Responsibility Guidelines' come first in the ISO standard.

Once the CEO is converted to the cause and has given his blessing, the next step is to form an implementation team. And the most important member of the team after the CEO is the `Management Representative'. He is the guy who acts as an interface between the company and the ISO registrar. Ideally he should be genuinely and passionately committed to quality in general and ISO in particular because when the going gets tough, it is he who should get things going. He should also have a detailed knowledge of ISO 9000.

The members of his team usually consist of the CEO, top managers, key functional managers and top union representatives (if applicable). These implementation teams are invariably given names such as `Quality Action Councils' or 'Quality Steering Committees', but in fact they are simply policy groups. They set objectives, approve plans, evaluate reports and prescribe changes.

Below the Quality Action Council, there should be a network of Quality Action Teams. They can be organized functionally or departmentally, and should be headed by a functional manager or department head. She in turn, sits on the Quality Action Council.

The Quality Action Teams are the `hands on' element of the ISO implementation effort. They carry out the policy devised by the council. Their first job of the action teams is to assess the existing quality system and procedures in their own functional areas and compare them to the ISO standard.

The council on the other hand, deals with the larger elements of the standard -- Management responsibility, Quality System, Quality Costs, Quality Audits and Personnel and Training.

Some firms find it useful to bring in outside consultants to help with these processes. Many find that this can pay handsome dividends in term of reducing implementation time and expense.

When it is clear how the company's quality system measures up to the ISO standard, all `non-conformities' must be addressed with a documented implementation plan. This plan details the procedures for making the facility's quality system fully compliant with the standard. These procedures should then be set out in a Gantt chart ready for implementation.

The plan will, of necessity, include provision for the training of employees. Specific training targets will often be dictated by those areas of the quality system which do not match up to the standard. Responsibility for providing specific training should lie with the action group which identified the need for training in the first place.

It is also a good idea to provide a basic ISO orientation program -- maybe in the form of a one day seminar -- for all employees of the facility. The seminar should emphasize the benefits expected to accrue through the adoption of ISO 9000, and also the higher levels of participation and self-direction expected of employees. Such a focus will go far to enlisting employee support and commitment.

One area which the standard demands and which might prove difficult in getting employee support for, is documentation. Writing down procedures, work instructions and the like might be anathema to many workers, but it is mandatory for ISO registration. Make sure that documentation is created by the people who actually do the work. This will save a lot of re-writing, re-working and revising later. Remember, however much you dislike paperwork, ISO 9000 only requires documentation where it's absence would adversely affect quality.

Indeed documentation has many positive consequences when handled appropriately:

It helps disseminate knowledge of the process.

It pools process knowledge and expertise.

It creates positive interfaces among individuals and process elements.

People learn how to work together better.

They learn what to reasonably expect of each other.

Communication channels are established which result in positive improvement.

Above all else, remember the two golden rules of ISO documentation:

Document what you do.

Do what you document.

Once the necessary documentation has been generated, it is important to create a system to control it. This system should be as simple and easy to operate as possible -- sufficient to meet ISO requirements and that is all.

With the preliminary procedures complete, you've reached ground zero; now all you have to do is put the quality system into effect. It is vital that management monitor all aspects of the system to make sure they are logical and effective.

Effective monitoring is what will make or break your ISO 9000 effort. Mooney reckons that one of the biggest threats to effective ISO 9000 implementation is `failure to monitor development as the process proceeds'.

Management monitoring functions are prescribed by the ISO standard and should be backed up by the firm's own documentation procedures. These activities should include:

Internal audits.

Formal corrective actions.

Management reviews.

And that, basically, is it. Doesn't sound too tough, does it? Especially if your company is already operating a quality system, ISO 9000 implementation is not going to be a labor of Hercules. What it does however require, are three things; commitment, absolute and long term, especially from top management; faith in the benefits of ISO 9000 among all members of the organization; and, last but not least, good, old-fashioned hard work.

The writer works at the Indonesian Institute for Productivity, Jakarta.

Window: It is also a good idea to provide a basic ISO orientation program for all employees of the facility.