Last week, again Mr. K called to me on phone. This time he referred to a committee of a Japanese certification body, which decides a registration referring to reports submitted from a lead assessor.

The committee often has not done right decisions, Mr. K said, because some members of the committee require the lead assessor to add documentations not required by ISO9001: 2000 to the assessed company.

If a lead assessor reports that there are a few non-conformities in his assessment, the committee warns and urges him to find more non-conformity. Among the member of the committee, a professor has more of voice to decide registration of submitted companies. May be he has more authority than ISO! It is one of the main causes of heavy documentation of ISO9001 in Japan.

Hearing the case made me think of the novel called " Deming Prize" published last year. In the book there appeared a professor who was a powerful man to decide to give a company Deming Prize. His nickname in the novel was Rasputin.

Another book called " Devil's management terminology" defines Deming Prize as a prize awarded to a company a year before it breaks down.

But I said to Mr. K that I have had no such experiences. Then he said to me that it has only occurred in some Japanese certification bodies, not in foreign affiliated certification bodies. My clients in these several years have selected foreign affiliated certification bodies, according to my advice. Therefore I have had no such experiences.

Some Japanese small and intermediate companies have to select a Japanese certification body, because customer companies (generally big companies) lean on them to select specified Japanese certification bodies.

Japanese small and intermediate industries, which are now under economical recession, are facing another unwelcome problem related to ISO9001 registrations.