Putting your ISO 9000 certificate to effective use

by Merrick Peiris

If your organisation uses a valuable ISO 9000 certificate simply as an advertising tool, it is losing out on 80% of its real value. Instead it should be used as the most powerful tool to turn your organisation into a dynamic system offering a higher valued service.

Finding new buyers in the international market for exports is both an expensive and difficult exercise. Yet many exporters can tell you that keeping buyers' trust, so that you get orders continually is also not an easy task. Many exporters find that after one or two export orders they tend to lose valuable buyers because of quality related problems.

Many small organisations find it difficult to maintain consistency in quality and value.

Industry must realise that to be competitive in the global markets, its product must be able to meet the quality standards prevailing in the international market. To your international buyer, quality means value, trust, safety and consistency. Consistent quality helps your buyer to:

a. Improve service value offered and reduce costs relating to rejects and reworks,

b. Build trust with the consumer or his buyer and enhance service image,

c. Reduce risk and safeguard the market and grow,

d. Be consistent in maintaining value and profitability.

Quality can be defined as fitness for purpose. Its measure can be combination of values that are real and perceived as well as tangible and intangible. Consistency, reliability, convenience, appearance, feel, confidence, integrity, character, availability an recognition are few of words or attributes that define quality and value.

When supplying products and services to international buyers and markets, it is important to understand what the buyer values as a 'measure of quality'. They could mean uniformity, durability, timely delivery and safety among others. And what gives the buyer the confidence that they will get a quality product is a reflection of the manufacturing process that includes both systems and people.

Industries in Europe and North America are setting up ISO 9000 quality assurance systems that are viewed as a powerful tool for effective management of product quality as well as business operations.

A well-implemented quality management system with a valuable ISO 9001:2000 certification will help the exporter to:

a. Reduce and eliminate quality related problems and costs,

b. Improve productivity and improve profitability,

c. Enjoy a competitive advantage by being a preferred supplier.

There is a common misconception or belief that just getting any ISO 9000 certificate solves all quality problems or that certification itself will find markets and buyers. Yet the reality is that getting a certificate of quality is as important as the quality of certification. ISO 9000 certification enables an organisation to adapt to a consistent system to maintain quality that leads towards customer satisfaction and continual improvement.

An internationally accepted quality system certificate will give your buyer confidence of your value. Therefore your certification of value also depends on the value of your certificate and the certifying body.

Can an organisation add value to its product or service offering by making its processors conform to international standards in quality as well as in health, safety, security, environment and social accountability? The answer is yes, since your organisation's commitment to the health and safety of its employees, its concern and protection of the environment through reduction of pollution and its corporate social accountability are all values that genuine buyers uphold.

Your people and their skills are part of your assets. Safeguarding and enhancing that asset value adds to the buyer confidence that of receiving a quality product.

Whether engaged in product manufacturing, international trade, services, or public utilities, the prime focus of any organisation in managing its process quality must be to add corporate value. In order to offer value, organisations cannot operate in isolation but through maintaining quality relationships along the process value chain.

Gaining an internationally recognised quality certification should be seen as an added advantage that gives customer confidence on value. The prime consideration in quality management should be the competitive advantage gained through increased productivity, lower wastage, improved product and service quality, safety and employee job satisfaction.

Therefore your organisation should aim to get the maximum advantage of the whole process of certification and compliance. Working closely with the certifying body will enable your organisation to a critical view of your system as well as a periodic health check.

Therefore it is to your advantage that you use both your organisation's quality systems and skills as well as the certifying bodies views and analysis.

The quality system auditors add value not by giving advise on how to carry out process improvements or on how to solve quality problems but by ensuring that by conducting a thorough audit, it highlights shortcomings and areas missed out by your internal system.

With the free flow of information and access to global media, more and more customers become aware and conscious about quality and value. Environmental protection, commitment to health and safety, social accountability are values that buyers have started to demand from suppliers.

What are quality costs?

When an exporter finds that due to product reworks the amount of manpower exceeds a norm, then the additional overhead charges incurred are quality costs. When higher rejects result in the shipment deadlines being missed and a whole consignment has to be air freighted at own cost, this is a quality cost. When a company losses a valuable buyer due to quality problems, this too is a quality cost.

Why conform to ISO 9001:2000 standard?

To be successful in the global market it is necessary to know the different processes of conformity assessment activities and to know how to establish and rate them in a manner not only according with regulations of the home country but also with your international trade partners.

Conformance to international standards such as ISO 9000 can give any organisation due recognition of commitment to quality standards. In keeping with market needs ISO 9001:2000 series now focuses the conformance to standard on two main factors, which are: Customer satisfaction and Continual improvement.

Historically ISO 9000 series adopted the BS5750 and evolved into the current ISO 9001:2000. This is not a set of rigid rule set for each industry sector to follow but rather a set of guidelines for a process to specify and follow and consistently implement.

This standard does not certify a product to meet a particular quality or safety standard but validates a process that an organisation follows to manufacture a product or provide a service. It is within the process of customer satisfaction and continual improvement that comes quality.

Markets change with people, attitude, styles, tastes, economics and technology. By conforming to the requirements specified in the standards, your organisation is forced to maintain focus on customer needs.

The organisation's commitment to continual improvement should be measurable, appropriate and targeted. For example an export manufacturing process that identifies the current level of wastage and makes a commitment to reduce wastage by say 1% may actually make saving in the region of tens of thousands of $s, while ensuring that your customer gets the quantities placed on order.

The ISO 9000 standards do not provide rigid rules to follow, nor do conformance mean purely generating documentation with no purpose. It is a systematic approach towards prevention of failure rather than detection. It is a system based on planning rather than firefighting.

It requires identifying the root cause and taking corrective action rather than mere correction of non-conformities.

Prevention saves money, reduces re-work, reduces waste, and creates job satisfaction. Gives customer confidence on continuous quality assurance with internationally recognised independent certification and assessment.