ISO 9000

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ISO 9000

Nowadays, the quality standards play a very important role in the international business. The movement towards standardization began changing the whole concept of managing business. The importance of quality awareness is accepted by a great number of companies in Europe and in the United States. It is recognized as an essential criteria for the sale of products and services all over the world.
What should be remembered is that most companies will benefit from becoming registered to an ISO 9000 standard both in the short and long terms. In the short term, it will give companies a competitive edge because of the positive impact the quality assurance system will have on product/service quality, cost savings, access to markets, and overall efficiency of operations. In the longer term, ISO registration will increasingly become a requirement to do business in areas such as the European Community, as well as other vital markets. (www.xanedu.com).
The global market becomes more competitive every day. Companies are looking for ways to obtain advantages over the competitors. One of the brilliant solutions to this situation is gaining ISO 9000 certification. ISO 9000 standards are international quality standards. They are universal in the sense that they can be adopted to any kind of business. The ISO 9000 series is designed to be applicable to any manufacturing or service process. The series is revised and controlled by Technical Committee (TC) 176. It consists of international members from many areas of industry and science. (Avery, 1995).
The need to be ISO 9000 certified becomes so attractive that it captures the minds of all the levels of corporate management. It influences the organization from the top executives to clerks and process operators. The movement to the quality management transforms businesses. Why is ISO 9000 so important? At some point, it is a matter of resource allocation. How does management allocate scarce resource such as time, energy and money? ISO 9000 becomes a marketing tool which shows customers that the company offers high quality products. While other companies do not have the certification, it is one step further to be more competitive at the market. (www.xanedu.com)
We can find out why the standardization is so important, if we look back to the history. During the 1970s and 1980s, the science of quality control changed fro...

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...roven quality tools are essential in the improvement of the processes of an organization. Every day we are discovering ways to apply these tools and educate more people to improve individual processes. What is more important for an organization than producing high quality products. Any approach to improvement of processes is expected to be part of a functioning quality management. The system must be designed in the way that any improvement could make the organization successful and meet customers' needs.

Bibliography:

Bodinson, G. W. "Warning: Ignoring ISO Standards May Be Harmful to Your Company's Future." Industrial Management, 1991.

Brown, J. Achieving Peak to Peak Performance Using QS 9000. IIE Solutions, 1997.

Burrows, P. "Behind the Facade of ISO 9000." Electronic Business, 1998.

Craft, V. "Quality Improvements Come Slower after ISO." Electronic Business Buyer, Special Report, 1994.

Greene, A. H. "Globalizing Quality Standards." Production and Inventory Management (September 1991).

James Harrington, "Managing Resistance to Change," Quality Digest, September 2002.

www.asq.org

www.iso.org

www.xanedu.com

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