[The following article appears in the May 1995 edition of _Quality_Progress_, pages 23-28.] THE FUTURE OF ISO 9000 With ongoing-and sometimes contradictory-messages emanating from multinationals and some standards institutions, many business owners have been left wondering which standard to follow. by Amy Zuckerman Claude Hetu is mighty relieved that his Ontario forging company can switch from ISO 9000 to QS-9000 registration with ease and at no extra cost. On the other hand, Robert Peuperbaugh, president of a small Michigan cutting-tool company, finds the emergence of the Big Three's QS-9000 quality program "frustrating" at best. What Hetu and Peuperbaugh, both auto industry suppliers, are reacting to is the hybridization of the ISO 9000 international quality management program. Multinationals like the Big Three have created an industry- specific version of ISO 9000 called QS-9000. Major truck manufacturers like Freightliner, Mack, Navistar, Paccar and Volvo/GM have adopted QS-9000. Other industries, specifically steel and metal tooling, are reportedly spinning off their own versions of QS-9000. But the changes on the ISO 9000 and related quality fronts don't stop with the automotive, steel or metal-tooling industries. In electronics, both Motorola and Hewlett-Packard are waging a worldwide campaign for reform of the ISO 9000 registration system. Mobil Oil's quality staff has raised alarms publicly that international standards development is becoming increasingly political, with some multinationals apparently hitting at their competition through the International Organization for Standardization technical committees. And McDonnell Douglas has questioned using ISO 9000 in lieu of military specifications. Curt Reimann, director for quality programs at the government-sponsored Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, says the 1995 Baldrige Criteria are further than ever from the ISO 9000 approach. The intent, he says, is not to purposely differentiate the Baldrige from ISO 9000 but to offer companies what the Baldrige committee believes they need to create a full quality process. This includes more emphasis on strategic business issues, high performance and business results. The European Union, in the meantime, is moving ahead with plans to create its own European quality program that will be based more on a Baldrige than an ISO 9000 approach. ISO 9000 methodology will be included in the EU plan, but the ISO 9000 certificates may be abolished or downplayed. EU officials expect to have a proposal before the European Commission sometime this spring. There are ongoing efforts within the ISO to better administer the standard on a worldwide basis. The ISO recently authorized a memorandum of understanding to the International Accreditation Forum giving that organization the green light to create international rules binding accreditation bodies. These are only a handful of the developments worldwide in the international standards arena. Since the ratification of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, new programs and mandates come to the fore almost daily. For example, the Japanese plan to make ISO 9000 registration mandatory for all software manufacturers planning to do business in Japan. Of more immediate concern to American small-businesspeople is how to cope with developments on the automotive, electronics and European fronts. The following summarizes what is taking place: ISO 9000 vs. QS-9000 In September, the Big Three unveiled their first-ever common quality program, QS-9000. The program utilizes an ISO 9000 quality assurance base coupled with industry-specific guidelines drawn from the auto industry's former quality programs: GM's North American Operations Targets for Excellence, Ford's Q-101 Quality System Standard, Chrysler's Supplier Quality Assurance Manual and GM Europe's General Quality Standard for Purchased Materials. General Motors was the first to mandate QS-9000 for its North American suppliers, Chrysler followed suit, and only Ford is holding back until QS-9000 is more established. General Motors and Chrysler have plans to introduce QS-9000 to their European suppliers this winter and to the worldwide operations down the line. Ford is also looking into introducing QS-9000 to its European suppliers. Because QS-9000 is still very much in its infancy, the rules governing the program are in constant flux. So much flux, in fact, that the editor of a major automotive trade magazine has trouble keeping QS-9000 stories current. Any auto supplier or related industry supplier should be aware of a number of factors when pursuing QS-9000: * New GM North American suppliers have until Jan. 1, 1996, to comply with QS-9000, while long-time suppliers have a deadline of Dec. 31, 1997. Chrysler suppliers have until July 31, 1997, to earn QS-9000 certificates. * ISO 9000 certificates, alone, will not be accepted. * The Big Three are pursuing acceptance for QS-9000 outside of the United States. To date, Great Britain and the Netherlands have given their approval. Blanket European acceptance of the certificates (in lieu of ISO 9000 certificates) is expected. * ISO 9000 registrars must earn the Big Three Code of Practice of Quality Systems Registrars to issue QS-9000 certificates. Training of registrars is ongoing, and Big Three representatives have been in Europe scouting reinforcements. Only registrars that have earned the Code of Practice can issue QS-9000 certificates. * So-called hybrid or transplant companies--specifically Honda North American and Nissan North American--are not adopting QS-9000 for their suppliers. Electronics In a joint effort, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard have gathered the support of 37 major electronics companies worldwide to push streamlining of the ISO 9000 registration process. Companies include AT&T, Xerox, Digital Equipment, Microsoft, Matsushita Electric Corp. of America, Philips Electronics, Whirlpool, Bausch & Lomb, Stala Oy (Finland) and many others. Richard Buetow, quality chief at Motorola, explains that his company and Hewlett-Packard have formed "a marriage of convenience" to push for creating a new system that would cut back on the amount of work ISO 9000 registrars perform in a major corporation. The companies that have signed the so-called "supplier's declaration of conformity" are seeking approval from the European Union, the ISO and other major international standards institutions to eliminate plant-by-plant ISO 9000 registration. They want one-stop registration based on internal manufacturer certification. Although loathe to criticize the Big Three's efforts, Buetow says he is concerned with the decision to continue with an altered version of the ISO 9000 registrar system. Because so many electronics companies supply the Big Three, he says they will have to earn QS-9000- and work within that registrar system-at the very time so many electronics giants are trying to alter it, he says. Europe In a series of reports issued throughout 1994, EU standards officials announced their intent to downplay the for-profit aspect of European quality and re-emphasize the quality process. To this end, they intend to reinforce the fairly new European Quality Award. If all goes as planned, national accreditation bodies will operate under the jurisdiction of Jacques McMillan, chief of the Senior Standards Policy Group for Directorate- General III for Industry. They will no longer operate for profit or compete with each other. In a fall interview in Brussels and in subsequent interviews, McMillan and quality associate Antonio Silva Mendes insist the EU does not intend to "kill" ISO 9000. Their concern has been the rampant commercialization of the international quality program and the fact that many European companies have complained that ISO 9000 hasn't lived up to its advertising hype as a quality tool. McMillan and Mendes consider the standard a good quality base but not adequate as a total quality process. "A lot of people thought we were trying to kill ISO 9000," says McMillan. "Now people are understanding the message. We're not trying to kill it; we're trying to save it. "One problem industry faces is that they shouldn't do things that don't give them added value. They shouldn't pay for things that don't give added value. I get into fights with certifiers and consultants who have found a good market [in ISO 9000]. But if industry pays for services that provide no added value, then that's not a good quality market." Because of such issues, McMillan has found multinationals "fed up with having to face different [ISO 9000] regimes from different organizations. Insofar as their internal audits are as good as any others, they're not prepared to play ball with the [ISO 9000] registrars." ISO officials react Although QS-9000 has the ISO's support and EU officials' backing, there are those in the ISO 9000 "community" watching the hybridization of the international standards program with some concern. These experts include Willen Deken, deputy director of the Dutch Council for Certification (RvC); Reg Shaughnessy, international chairman of the ISO TC-176 committee that creates the ISO 9000 series; and Peter Ford, secretary of TC- 176. They all concur that ISO 9000 is, and should be, a living and evolving standard that meets industry needs. On the other hand, they worry that the trend toward a more industry-specific approach may lead to ISO 9000 dissolving as an international standard. Of QS-9000, Deken said the RvC was "glad to follow their rules" if the U.S. car companies wanted to add industry-specific guidelines to an ISO 9000 base. But he also worried that the industry-specific approach would "splinter the [ISO 9000] program. That will mean higher costs. But it's up to the market to decide." Shaughnessy, who is based in Toronto, admits there is "pressure worldwide" to make the ISO 9000 series more "industry-specific and more prescriptive." However, he feels "the standard's strength has been to hold the line at a minimum number of practices. If decentralization continues, it will undermine the international [approach]." Shaughnessy's not as concerned about QS-9000 as long as they retain third-party auditing. "QS-9000 is more product-specific," he says. "But they've built in [that aspect] as supplementary. If the supplementary were to become dominant, that would take away from a generic system." Citing the example of medical devices--an industry with very specific product needs and requirements--he says TC-176 has struggled to keep this grouping under the ISO 9000 standards umbrella. If this industry and others start forming separate versions of ISO 9000, he argues, we would be back to the same pre-ISO 9000 picture. "There's no question that if we decentralize, we've lost it," Shaughnessy explains. On the other hand, Shaughnessy says it will take solid leadership to keep ISO 9000 centralized. He points out that ISO Secretary General Larry Eicher has assigned Christian Fabre to oversee the ISO system. "He's there to do the job effectively," says Shaughnessy. As things now stand, member countries advise the Geneva- based ISO about their preferences vis-a-vis the standards series. These issues come before the ISO council, and amendments and revisions eventually eke their way into the world. For instance, it took seven years for the 1994 revisions to be made public, with many more revisions to the standards series in the works. This laborious process has not always suited industry groups, hence the creation of QS-9000 and possible QS-9000 spin-offs. Shaughnessy says he does see the need for more emphasis on employee involvement--a total quality management approach--to be included in the ISO 9000 process. However, he does not see the standards "going the way of the awards for excellence." As for revisions to the actual standard, Peter Ford of TC- 176 says there is an ongoing effort to harmonize the vocabulary document-what he calls 8402. There will be more "support technology," including development of standards for auditing and how to write a manual. Ford is witnessing increased sales in the 9004-1 (formerly 9004) document, the support document that explains the ISO 9000 process. "That's a significant shift," he says, explaining that 9004 used to be 5 percent to 10 percent of series sales. "Now 9004-1 sales are almost equal to 9001." Like Deken and Shaughnessy, Ford hopes the answer won't amount to the dismantling of the ISO 9000 system. "There's a difference between using the standard as a base and translating it into the vernacular," he explains. "If we lose the global aspects, maybe we've created more of a monster than an asset." Some prefer a change Motorola's Buetow, a long-time critic of ISO 9000, says his company is a firm believer that one's future should be determined by the marketplace, not by some bureaucratic process. "The bureaucratic process gets life because people get scared that if they don't have it, they don't do business," he explains. "People have used the word "blackmail" [in reference to companies being coerced into earning ISO 9000 certificates]." Quality expert Pat Townsend considers ISO 9000 the baby of old-line quality types with slide rules in hand, who are mostly interested in conformance to specifications. "They've taken good, simple tools like statistical process control--which mainly involves the ability to do arithmetic--and made them mysterious, mechanical and expensive," he says. These so-called old-liners were left out in the cold by the quality revolution of the 1980s, which went far beyond simple conformance to spec, says Townsend. "When ISO 9000 came down the pike, these guys saw it as a safe refuge from the far-reaching and really interesting quality efforts that had left them behind," he explains. "Suddenly there was a new, numbers-driven bandwagon that looked a lot like their old, familiar bandwagon." As far as Townsend is concerned, ISO 9000 would not have been created if the Europeans didn't need a means of slowing down the Japanese and American quality juggernaut. "The Europeans, who were lagging behind Japan and the United States in the quality movement, saw ISO 9000 as a way to catch up with their global competitors," Townsend explains. "It buys them some time to get their products into the world market and establish product standards. And-though this may not have been the intent-in effect, it imposes barriers on North Americans and Asians seeking entry into the European market." In terms of the future, Townsend has long predicted the eventual disintegration of ISO 9000 as currently constructed. He agrees with Buetow's now-famous criticism that ISO 9000 as a quality process breeds consistency, not quality. That, in effect, someone can create cement life preservers and still earn an ISO 9000 certificate if the manufacturing process is a consistent one. Industry reaction With these ongoing--and sometimes contradictory--messages emanating from multinationals and some standards institutions, it's no wonder that business owners are sometimes left scratching their heads. Robert Peuperbaugh, president of the 30-employee Joint Production Technology in Macomb, Michigan--a manufacturer of specialized cutting tools--feels caught in the middle between ISO 9000 and QS-9000. Highly frustrated that after his company earned Ford's original quality certificate Q-101, and then the successor Q-1, the Big Three, and Ford in particular, are again "changing everything." "We're floundering because there's no real guide [to QS-9000]," explains Peuperbaugh. On the other hand, he says he's been "too busy to worry about it." At Gananoque Steel Forging in Gananoque, Ontario, Canada, company president Claude Hetu is encouraging his 177 employees to complete QS-9000 registration by the end of 1996. Hetu says Gananoque Steel Forging is lucky to have embarked on ISO 9000 preliminaries--mainly preparing documentation of work procedures--without getting so far along in the registration process that a switch over to QS-9000 would prove costly. Many companies, especially companies unrelated to the Big Three, believe in ISO 9000 and will continue to pursue the quality process no matter what the European Union or multinationals decide. One such company is Yankee Environmental in Turners Falls, Massachusetts, an eight-employee manufacturer of computerized environmental instruments. Yankee General Manager Mark Beaubien, who has worked on streamlining ISO 9000 documentation methodology, says the company's primary interest in ISO 9000 "is to do it for our own quality. We believe in it. We're an instrument company, so quality is very important to us." And at Simplex Technologies in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where about 700 employees manufacture cables for the telecommunications industry and the U.S. government, Quality Manager Russell Miles believes that their ISO 9000 certification only improved a solid documentation system the company maintained for many years of meeting military and customer specifications. "We're very pleased with our quality system," says Miles. "We have to make sure our procedures are ISO and military compliant, but that's not a big deal for this company." About the author . . . Amy Zuckerman is author of ISO 9000 Made Easy: A Cost-Saving Guide to Documentation and Registration {AMACOM Books, 1995). _______________________________________________________________ This article originally appeared in the May 1995 issue of Quality Digest. Copyright 1995 by QCI International. All rights reserved. For information on subscribing to Quality Digest, call (800) 527-8875 or e-mail Qualitydig@aol.com.