ISO 9000

[Damien Braniff <Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

The big thing with a lot of companies is that they go down the ISO 9000
route because they "have to" - customers saying why aren't you accreditted
etc.  They then (sometimes/often?) get a consultant in to "do it" for them
instead of doing it themselves.  THe big thing is, I feel, "ownership".
Any procedures etc should be written by the people who use them (maybe
tidied up later) as they KNOW what they're doing.  Document what you DO,
not what you feel you should be doing.  Procedures will then tie in with
practice giving the consistency etc.  You can then look at the procedures
(again with the people who use them) and review. What if we did it this
way?  Why don't we try this etc. But LISTEN to the people using the system!
You may occasionally need to TELL people we're going to do it like this but
my experience has been that, if they're fully involved, people WILL take
changes on board and indeed help improve them dramatically.

This review procedure is what will lead to improved quality - doing things
better.  As someone else said, quality is relative and can involve many
things.  If you're not rich and simply wnat get from A to B a bicycle is
probably "better quality" than a Rolls Royce.  However, if money's no
object, comfort/prestige etc may play a bigger role in your definition of
quality.  The aim is to provide the customer what they want and to do it
consistently.  ISO 9000 isn't about quality in the sense of some standards
(eg Standards for steel will relate to hardness etc) but it helps you to
control your production process and should, if used properly, improve your
quality (however you've defined it!!).

Damien Braniff
Technical Author
PAC International

	http://www.documentation.com/, or http://www.dejanews.com/