BS EN ISO 9000 can be accused of reducing quality rather than improving it. By constraining creativity and innovation, conformance to standards means that companies are process focused rather than people focused.
Introduction
Different companies around the world are trying to initiate approach that would enable them to ensure quality and effective product or service giver. One of the approaches that they used is the quality management approach. Accordingly, Quality Management is a principle of management that is driven by the constant attainment of clients or target markets satisfaction though the continuous enhance and develop more of all business firms or companies processes (1998). It is a management principles that tries to integrate all business firms or companies functions such as marketing, finance, design, engineering, production, clients or target markets service, and others to focus on meeting clients or target markets needs and business firms or companies objectives (2000).
Winning business strategies such as the utilization of quality management are grounded in sustainable competitive advantage. It is said that an organisation has competitive advantage whenever such organisation has an edge over its competitors in attracting clients or target markets and defending against competitive forces. Competitive advantage is derived from external factors or positional advantage and internal factors or resources and assets used. The latter is the effect of the competencies of the firm (1991). Any firm is interested in competitive advantage; actually it may be said to be the very purpose of quality management especially if the advantage proves to be sustainable. With the increasing needs of a quality products and service deliveries, quality management adheres to different principles and one of these is the BS EN ISO 9000. Although these quality management system standards have some advantages, there are some critics that consider BS EN ISO 9000 to reduce quality rather than improve it. Primarily, the goal of this paper is to analyse the statement:
“BS EN ISO 9000 can be accused of reducing quality rather than improving it. By constraining creativity and innovation, conformance to standards means that companies are process focused rather than people focused”
Overview of ISO Quality Management Standards
During these times of continuous change and global competition, several factors such as leanness, flexibility, adaptability and a capacity for differentiation are deemed necessary for business survival but companies are restricted by the need to conform by the sanctions of standards such as ISO standards (1999). Thus, in such situations, standard bodies (or those who regulate companies by applying standards) should accordingly use extreme caution and deal with specific problems that emerge daily and with increasing frequency in this constantly changing world ( 1999).
There are many standards that can affect quality and these include the ISO standards, specifically BS EN ISO 9000 formerly known as UK BS5750 because these standards helps in the process control of the conduct through the documentation or “feedback” that it generates to keep the process in control (1995). (2004) explained that the key elements in ISO’s definition include: that standard prescribes behaviour or characteristics of people or inanimate objects - yet, it does not in itself mandate compliance; a standard is an instrument of governance, but it is more explicit than most social norms; and it differs from a governmental regulation in that the use of, or compliance with, a standard is by definition not mandatory.
Included in the ISO 9001:2000 are standard quality requirements composed of the quality system management system, management responsibility, resource management, product realization, and measurement analysis and improvement The program could be utilized by any organization regardless of their size and industry specializations. Consumer goods manufactures and service giver organizations are encouraged to adapt this management program in order to achieve quality standards to be able to compete in the international business environment ( 2008).
Quality has burst upon the corporate scene. Very few major firms have
not invested in it by now. The nature of this investment, however, has
varied greatly. Many boards of directors, CEOs, and quality improvement departments still think of quality mainly in terms of quality control--inspection, standards, and statistics. A growing number is realizing the challenge to be much more complex than first believed. They have begun trying to
define and to develop what is necessary for success. A few have reached the point at which they understand the need for a systemic perspective.
The ISO 9001:2000 in particular constitutes quality management principles that focus on the organizations’ customers while ensuring that the organizations give leadership and participation of people, process and system-oriented approaches, continuous improvement as well as objective ideas and good business relations ( 2008). ISO 9001:2000 makes sure that the organization understands the needs of the customers through studies that sought to answer issues which deal with customer satisfaction. In this manner, the organization will have a greater chance to meet the requirements and exceed the expectations of the clients. The program also ensure that leadership within the organization is established for a unity of purpose so as to set the direction of the company and at the same time give an environment that motivates the people to work out the goals of the company. This is accomplished through the immersion of the people within the organization, proper distribution of responsibilities, and more decision-making on the part of the employees so as to involve them with the issues that concern the company. It will also develop their skills which they can use in order to help the company achieve its objectives.
Statement Analysis
BS EN ISO 9000 has been described as the fundamentals of quality management system. The principal philosophy of BS EN ISO 9000 is to give a standardized approach that global company should follow and use. The 2000 versions of the standard quality management give emphasis on, the clients, management, and the continuous improvement of the company. In addition, this version has been able to establish a management system framework which is intended to continually enhance the satisfaction of the clients and the efficacy of the management system. In BS EN ISO 9000 describe the basic fundamentals of QMS. BS EN ISO 9000 is composed of different programs which vary according to the functions in order to give a structure on which a quality management program system can be efficiently used for the development of the operations of business organizations ( 2008) guidelines for improving performance) (2008). However, there are some issues which have been attributed with BS EN ISO 9000. And this is attributed to the process and the people involved.
Eventually, stakeholders, especially employees and customers satisfaction has always been regarded as the driving force behind quality improvement; others suggest quality management is achieved by internal productivity or cost improvement programs. In other applications, Quality management system is regarded as a technique to introduce the context of participative type of management (1998). Thus, the management should be more straightforward to provide the potential role of applying the Quality management system to their operations and services.
In addition, since Quality management system is based on internal or self-control, which is embedded in every element of the work system (technology and people), the employees, or the people behind the operation and services must be able to determine the problems beforehand, to anticipate its occurrences. Pushing problem solving and decision-making down in the Industries especially to their operations and services may allow people who do the work to both assess and take remedial action in order to deliver an operation or service that meets the needs of their stakeholders, especially employees and customers. In applying quality management system to industrial operations, they must be able to combine it with the core strategy of the industries; this does not mean that such industries must have total changes. It is important that in application of the Quality management system to the industrial operations and services they must also consider that an appropriate strategy should be used in order to employ a total quality operations and services that would satisfy all stakeholders.
As the statement mentioned, BS EN ISO 9000 is sometimes perceived to hinder quality improvement or reduce it rather than achieve it. This notion arises because quality management systems focus more on the process on how quality can be achieved and not the people who will do the process. Some industries have been concerned that BS EN ISO 9000 standards have not been able to adhere to the ability of the industries to control production, especially the people who are involved in it (1985). It has also been mentioned that conforming strictly to the standards is also ignoring some of the aspects of the company.
Some companies have seen this area of contribution to quality; however, most of them did not see it as part of the ideas in the BS EN ISO 9000 quality management systems. For instance, in the organizational setting of large industries which have different management, they need to have a production control approach than any other production oriented organisations. However, such aspect is not seen within BS EN ISO 9000 descriptions and most of the large industries mislead these standards to be a Quality management system that ignores production control, which affects the overall quality deliverance of the company.
Some authors have been able to detail several points which explain the statement. BS EN ISO 9000 can be accused of reducing quality rather than improving it. By constraining creativity and innovation, conformance to standards means that companies are process focused rather than people focused. For instance, by constraining innovation and creativity, the management has not been able to see the needs of their people. It can be seen that BS EN ISO 9000 is lacking the requirement for having an extensive motivation or process involvement. Some argues that this is because there are some parts of the Standards which are very hard or complex to interpret and understood.
One of the objectives of the standard is to conform to the quality standards by enhancing the moral of the industry through the quality promotion of life which leads to a motivated human capital. However, since more companies interpret these standards as to adhere to innovation and creativity in quality manner, they are forgetting some aspects and that is the human resources.
In addition, BS EN ISO 9000 also demands systems to be documented. Accordingly, it is important that the management should consider the involvement of the employees or human resources when writing work instructions or production process. However, some authors have noted that since companies are trying to comply with these standards, they tend to leave their employees behind and do all the works. the statement just indicate that while adhering to the context of quality by considering creativity and innovation as part of the production process, the value of the employees are being ignored because the management would think that they have nothing to do with the production process.
Furthermore, it has been also considered that some critics seen BS EN ISO 9000 to lack some provisions in terms of the execution of cost-effective management of product control, employee trainings, planning, quality cost management and market research. The inability of the management to interpret well the meaning of the context of BS EN ISO 9000 also leads to its incorrect and inappropriate implementation.
The statement can also be viewed in a cognitive approach of decision making. Herein, it can be perceived that the quality management system standard should not only consider production process but consider the people who will be involved in the said production. In this regard, the management should not only note the training needs but they should also go on to explain further how these needs can be provided. This can be attributed to personal factors, which indicates that the quality management standard should be an all encompassing approach which will ensure total quality rather than just quality assurance.
Companies who cannot adhere to the needs of their employees are those industries who company who do not give the required training standards. this inability can also be related to the statement as the management who are more focus on innovating to achieve quality standards do not able to give proper training to their employees. Some views, that the quality management system provided with the BS EN ISO 9000 replaces the present system which affects the entire operations of the company.
Employees often aggravate the difficulties of implementing the standard. This is due to their personal and situational factors of uncertainty, reluctance to adopt new systems, potential job insecurity through improved systems, and the natural resentment of change. It can be argued that the implementation of quality management can boost organisation to gain competitive advantage may it be on the national an international level. Business firms or companies that implement total quality management are constant with the founders’ ideas in developing means for assessing their clients or target markets’ preferences, altering relationships with suppliers, using teams to solve problem, investing in training in problem-solving tools and, to a lesser degree, teaching statistical analysis to front-line employees (1995).
It can be said that the context of BS EN ISO 9000 is complex that most of the management are not able to adhere to what is really the message. Misinterpretations of the quality management system lead to several problems and in this way, some are forgetting the importance of employees. In order to adhere to their needs and to be able to make sure that the company will be more people oriented than process oriented, employees that do not meet the standards of the company and, proper assessment of their skills and knowledge as well as their previous contributions to the company should be facilitated and reviewed. Training should be provided for such employees particularly those who are willing to learn and be trained not just for the employment but for individual professional growth. Such organization members, if properly educated will be the future assets of the company. Proper communication should be considered and taken into account in which the company must employ certain measures in order to ensure its good relationship with the labor units. Moreover, there should be increased formality in terms of recruitment and selection procedures for more systematic and objective hiring as well as to avoid wasted labor costs and employee turnover. Strategic training and learning approaches meanwhile should be able to create staff and employees that are dependable and flexible. In this regard, contemporary Human Resources approaches should be integrated to optimize the employment outcomes of the company. Competitive advantage can be achieved through the use the BS EN ISO 9000, if the management are able to follow what it really implies.
Conclusion
Companies especially those large industries and other multinational companies, can be considered as a strong industry because of their adherence to different quality standards. However, it is undeniable that quality management systems will have some flaws which should be given attention. In order for industries to continuously grow in the marketing place and to gain competitive advantage, it is important that they will be able to learn from their mistakes and open their minds about considering not only the process of adhering to the quality standards but also the people who are involved in it to ensure that the quality delivery of services and products is met. The company must be able to let each employee be a part of the company so that the employees in return will tend to give their best for company’s success. And one of the best ways to achieve such objective is the implementation of the Quality Management and the consideration of the principles and philosophies of BS EN ISO 9000 Quality management system.
BS EN ISO 9000 QMS, is a structured system for satisfying internal and external clients or target markets and suppliers by integrating the business environment, continuous enhance and develop more, and breakthroughs with development, enhance and develop more, and maintenance cycles while changing business firms or companies culture. Furthermore, these approaches are a set of management practices throughout the business firms or companies, geared to ensure the business firms or companies constantly meets or exceeds clients or target markets requirements. ISO 9000 Quality management system places strong focus on process measurement and controls as means of continuous enhance and develop more.
The BS EN ISO 9000 philosophy of management is customer-oriented. Hence, the airline operations must be developed in order to steadily deal with the improvement of their operation through the ongoing participation of all employees in problem solving efforts across functional and hierarchical boundaries. BS EN ISO 9000 incorporates the concepts of service quality, process management, quality assertion, and quality perfection. Consequently, the industries must be able to control all transformation processes with regards to their operations and services to better satisfy customer needs in the most economical way.
In order to apply the BS EN ISO 9000 and to avoid the problems of not becoming people oriented, , the management of the industries must be able to accept the whole concept of the improvement, which means that all the people of the industries must agree that there is a need for a total transformation especially for the quality of operations and services that the industry will be offered. Furthermore, the management should be willing to participate to all the improvement, value each and every ones opinion in order to achieve BS EN ISO 9000 and provide a total quality operations and services to satisfy their customers. Managers and experts disagree about how to effectively implement BS EN ISO 9000 to their organizations.
In general, the success of any industry attributes to how well the management carries all its responsibilities and how well the mission, vision, and goal are being set along with the corporate approach imposed within an industry may it be non-profit or profit organisation . .
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