| 1. Backgrounds of “Super ISO” movement
In Japan one of the top topics among ISO9001 interested parties is
about “Super ISO” movement. Intention of the movement is to recover
from bad influences which the registrants have had, such as no contribution
to quality improvement, wasteful heavy documentation and low morale,
so and so.
The registrants have taken the trouble to keep their certifications,
so the movement aims to make effective use of ISO9001 contributing
to improvement of their performance.
The movement clearly shows that the actual status of ISO9001 registrations
in Japan is almost ineffective to quality improvement of registrants.
2. ISO9000 problems in England described in Mr. Seddon’s books
Mr. Seddon issued the book called “In Pursuit of Quality; the case
against ISO9000” in 1997, which describes actual bad situations of
ISO9000 in England.
With the revision of the Standards he published the second edition
in 2000.
As for ISO9000, England is an advanced country and Japan is a developing
country.
Therefore, all the problems referred in the book have happened in
Japan then after.
3. Mr. Seddon’s comments for the defenders of ISO9001
I summarize the defenders sayings referring in his book as the following
table.
No. |
Defenders sayings |
Mr. Seddon’s comments |
1 |
It’s OK if you do it right. |
Why do good ways and bad ones occur?No guidance
to do good ways and avoid bad ways. |
2 |
It is a minimum standard or a ‘first step’ on
the quality journey to TQM. |
There is no basic connection between ISO9001
and effective TQM. |
3 |
No more than basic good management |
Actually certification cannot be relied upon
to assure much. |
4 |
It is a requirement for doing business. There
is no choice. |
The few that have not succumbed to coercion have
not lost out. In fact, they have won. |
5 |
It must be good, many world wide companies can’t
be wrong. |
It is only a reflection of marketplace coercion. |
6 |
It is being improved. |
If you recognize needs of improvement, you have
to specify true causes to eliminate. But the causes are not
clear.Thus effective improvement will not be anticipated. |
4. The ISO9001 defenders’ sayings in “Super ISO” movement
In order to limit ISO9001:2000’s role for improvement, they have shown
negative attitudes to “customer satisfaction”, “continuous improvement”
and “process approach”, which are added in 2000 revision aimed to
enhance customer satisfaction.
And the main purpose of the certification is quality assurance of
required product quality, not to enhance quality improvement which
is essential for sustainable supply for good products.
The role of enhancing quality improvement or to connect to TQM is
now up to “Super ISO” systems.
Referring to the table, they admit the Standard’s limitations, like
the case of No.5, but at the same time they also emphasis to add something
to improve quality, like the case of No.2. Therefore, comments for
“Super ISO” movement are already included in the above table.
What customers want is good quality and therefore they require ISO9001
registrations.
But the question that the certification of ISO9001 contributes to
such requirements still is answered positively after almost twenty
years worldwide experiments. |