2004-11-09

In the November issue of Quality World, John Seddon attacks the quality standard ISO 9000 as 'an economic desease across the world'."It is no more than a bad theory for the control of output. It is about as far from the 'Japanese miracle' as it is possible to get." The article follows a news item in October showing that although the global total for certificates was up 332,915 at the end of December 2003, the figure for the UK was down by 18,000. Quality World is published by the Institute of Quality Assurance, one of the leading UK training organisations connected with ISO 9000. There are IRCA certified courses for internal auditors in November and December. So it is significant that they publish an article proposing that ISO 9000 should 'wither away' as 'it would have done long ago without market coercian'.

The statistics used are based on rates of change and are therefore more dramatic than actual numbers. Between 93 and last December the rate of growth for the UK, France and Germany turned negative from above 40%. The growth is coming from Russia, Romania, China and Japan. John Seddon believes the Romanian figures depend on a percieved obligation to certificate to ISO 9000 for exports within the European Union. Generally he sees this coercian by international organisations as the main reason why new countries have adopted the standard.

In my previous post on this ( China leads ISO 9000 transition 2004-09-04 ) I suggested that a possible explanation for the success of ISO 9000 in Asia is that the 2000 revision is based on ideas such as Deming's Plan-Do-Study-Act approach that have some connection with Asian values. From this point on, this text will contain much more speculation and unanswered questions. So far I think the Quality World article qualifies as news but what follows is mostly in 'chat' mode, looking for new contributions from other people.

John Seddon's story starts with Margaret Thatcher's support for BS5750 in 1979, 'persuaded that it contained something of the Japanese miracle'. In the US and UK there was alarm at the manufacturing problems caused by product quality. Deming and Juran had a ready audience as it was claimed that they contributed to quality ideas in Japan. In my opinion there are questions as to how their ideas took form in Japan and whether they have ever been actually followed in the US or UK. Maybe this is history anyway so we should concentrate on what is possible now.

The 2000 revision of ISO 9000 was intended to make it possible for senior management to engage with system review for strategic change. It is a problem that the main standard remains objective in approach to evidence, while more subjective factors are condsidered as 'guidance'. However the 'Plan-Do-Study-Act' cycle is part of the main document. For this to work requires an appreciation of a system as a whole. Possibly this is difficult for some managers in the west. There was an article in Quality Management Journal in September 1995 by Kosaku Yoshida, looking at Japanese business practice and Deming's fourteen points. This is on the web but you may have to join ASQ to download it http://www.asq.org/pub/qmj/past/backissues/1995/september.html. From the article it seems there are two main headings for the fourteen points - those founded on desirability, and those founded on holistic thinking. Conformance minded quality stops when the target is reached. Desirability supports a continuous process.

So I think it is possible there are managers in Asia who are actually using the new version of ISO 9000 and finding it either supports a quality approach or at least is not a major hindrance. I realise I have no reliable information on management attitudes to ISO 9000 either in Asia or the UK. Also I don't understand the cultures I am writing about. But I think there is a basis for further discussion. Do people reading this think that the growth in ISO 9000 sites is only because of constraints from trading requirements? Is it possible to use ISO 9000 and make quality improvements?

One interesting aspect is that Korea seems to be one of the few countries in Asia where the adoption of ISO 9000 has slowed down. Could this be because there is no longer any block on exports? Why is Japan continuing to show interest?

Maybe ISO 9000 is best suited to manufacturing and is too cumbersome for services. The UK decline could be the consequence of the number of manufacturing companies that have ceased trading anyway. The new manufacturing sites in China could find ISO 9000 is a suitable standard for current activity. Again I am speculating here but hope others will add comments.

I don't think ISO 9000 will go away, or that quality assurance will cease to be an issue even at the level of product conformance. My impression is that UK managers have not been that interested in the possibilities of the new standard. I base that on attending a couple of briefings from the British Standards Institute. In a room of mostly quality managers tasked to come up with some new documentation, the number of people identified as senior management might add up to one or two. John Seddon writes about a responsibility to 'get quality back on the management agenda'. I think it is still worth looking at how ISO 9000 could be part of that.

I have more on this at my website on 'learning with ISO 9000' - www.learn9.net

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I would like to know more about quality in Korea.

There seems to be a lot of support for ISO 9000 but also developmentggg of new ideas. The Telecoms companies have their own quality approach.

There will be a conference on Quality Circles later in 2005. This is interesting as the 'corrective action' part of ISO 9000 is sometimes not effective.

Any suggestions on sources welcome. Possibly the Korean growth in ISO 9000 numbers is low because other approaches to quality are being tried. No evidence for that idea at the moment.

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China leads ISO transition