Introduction
Perspective
Where next for ISO 9000
companies?
Shirley Coleman and
Alex Douglas
The authors
Shirley Coleman is Consultant Statistician at Industrial
Statistics Research Unit, University of Newcastle, UK.
Alex Douglas is Senior Lecturer at Liverpool Business
School, John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
Keywords
ISO 9000, Total quality management, Model
Abstract
Many organisations take their quality improvement
initiatives no further than ISO 9000. Others try to achieve
TQM and fail, while others successfully make the
transition. This may be because the requirements for TQM
are not clear. However, the requirements for
implementing the EFQM model criteria are clear and
therefore may allow an organisation’s senior
management to help drive their company towards
excellence, perhaps with some external assistance. This
paper investigates what happens with regard to quality
management after an organisation has achieved ISO
9000. In particular, the extent of adoption of the EFQM
excellence model is examined, as is the use of proven
quality improvement tools and techniques such as
statistical process control (SPC). Associated with these
improvement techniques, the importance and standard of
external assistance in implementing them are examined.
The paper concludes that training, the use of SPC and
working to the EFQM model criteria are all significant
factors if an organisation is to be perceived as successful.
Electronic access
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The TQM Magazine
Volume 15 . Number 2 . 2003 . pp. 88-92
# MCB UP Limited . ISSN 0954-478X
DOI 10.1108/09544780310461099
88
ISO 9000 has been around now for nearly 15
years in one or other of its revisions. For many
organisations embarking on quality
improvement, it has become the first choice
method. To date over 330,000 series
certificates have been awarded in nearly 150
countries worldwide (Stevenson and Barnes,
2001). Academics and practitioners have
reported research and experiences with ISO
9000 from around the world including
Turkey (Beskese and Cebeci, 2001), Greece
(Gotzamani and Tsiotras, 2001), India
(Gupta, 2000), Spain (Escanciano et al.,
2001), Hong Kong, China (Lee, 1998), the
UK (Chittenden et al., 1998), Sweden
(Poksinska et al., 2001), Russia (Ogvozin,
2001), Finland (Erkkila-Lehto et al., 1999),
Australia, (Rahman, 2001), Japan (Yamada,
2001) and the USA (Das, 1999). There have
also been a number of studies that have
crossed national boundaries (Withers and
Ebrahimpour, 2001; Sun, 1999). These
papers have covered such issues as whether or
not ISO 9000 provides a first step towards
total quality management (TQM), the
reasons for implementing it and the costs and
benefits of certification. Perhaps unfairly,
much of what has been written about ISO
9000 has been criticised as ‘‘speculative,
impressionistic, anecdotal and typically based
on the experiences of a single company’’
(Withers and Ebrahimpour, 2001). They rue
what they perceive as a lack of multi-
organisational writings on ISO 9000,
although much of the national and
international research cited above is indeed
multi-organisational. This paper aims to add
to the body of knowledge generated from such
multi-organisational studies.
The ISO 9000 2000 revision is much
improved on the 1994 version and it is alleged
to make integration with other standards such
as Health and Safety (OHSAS 18001) and
Environmental (ISO 14001) easier, as well as
having a requirement for continual
improvement. Achieving ISO 9000
demonstrates that an organisation has quality
processes and procedures in place, but what
happens after ISO 9000 certification is
achieved? The main thrust of this paper is to
discover to what extent ISO 9000 companies
are involved in quality improvement both to
meet the requirements of the year 2000
revision of the standard and beyond. What
 Where next for ISO 9000 companies?
Shirley Coleman and Alex Douglas
techniques do they employ and how are these
skills learned? In particular, what happens
after companies achieve ISO 9000? What are
the quality practices of ISO 9000 certified
companies?
ISO 9000 and TQM
The debate regarding ISO 9000’s place in the
quality improvement process and particularly
its position with regard to TQM was
instigated by Oakland and Mortiboys (1991),
when they proposed that a quality assurance
system was one of the three major
components of TQM. Ho (1994), on the
other hand, saw ISO 9000 more as a vehicle
to help implement TQM. Binney (1992)
disagreed, stating that ISO 9000 was not the
way to begin a TQM programme, advocating
instead the use of the then relatively new
EFQM excellence model. At that time,
almost a decade ago, his views were not
widely shared. Why was this debate causing
such interest among academics and quality
practitioners? The main reason was the widely
held belief that in order to compete in world
markets organisations had to go beyond ISO
9000 and implement TQM. ISO 9000 was
not TQM. Therefore, that standard was
considered by many to be a stepping-stone
towards TQM. The problem was that for
many companies achieving ISO 9000 was
considered to be akin to ‘‘having quality’’
which is definitely not the case. Sun’s (1999)
international survey of 600 companies from
20 countries found that implementing ISO
9000 alone did not contribute much to quality
improvement, while a combination of ISO
9000 and TQM contributed the most. The
two polarised positions are best summed up
by Gotzamani and Tsiotras (2001) who
labelled them the ‘‘optimistic view’’ and the
‘‘pessimistic view’’. The optimistic view saw
ISO 9000 as the first step to TQM for which
there are no clear requirements and
directions. The pessimistic view was that
companies focus mainly on quick and simple
certification with no real commitment to
quality. Over the years, some companies have
made the transition from ISO 9000, some did
not make any attempt and many others tried
and failed.
A survey of ISO 9000 certified
organisations by Taylor (1995) found that 32
per cent had also implemented TQM but 24
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The TQM Magazine
Volume 15 . Number 2 . 2003 . 88-92
per cent regarded ISO 9000 as the end of
their quality journey. Interestingly, he found
that small firms were less likely to go beyond
ISO 9000 than larger ones.
A further study by Lee et al. (1999) into
nearly 400 ISO 9000 certified companies
indicated that 70 per cent would like to move
beyond their ISO 9000 status but that 26 per
cent would maintain their ISO 9000
certificate with minimum changes. So how
does an organisation make the transition
beyond ISO 9000 successfully? Perhaps the
key is the very many definitions of what TQM
actually is and the lack of clear requirements
and directions. Van der Wiele et al. (2001)
suggest that this lack of clear requirements for
TQM is not mirrored by the EFQM
excellence model, which is itself a framework
for total quality and organisational excellence.
Van der Wiele et al. (2000) argue, rightly, that
there is a large gap between the requirements
of ISO 9000 and what is required to meet the
EFQM model criteria. They suggest that, in
order to better direct improvement activities,
organisations should focus their efforts on the
results categories of that or similar models.
Indeed, they argue that the EFQM model
‘‘defines and describes’’ TQM in a way that
can be more easily understood by senior
management. This would allow them to
accept ownership of any changes required and
be able to drive their organisations towards
excellence. It would also give a tangible
pathway to TQM with clearly defined
requirements.
The second half of this paper examines to
what extent (if any) ISO 9000 organisations
have progressed their quality management
practices since achieving ISO 9000. In
particular, the implementation of other
standards, the use of SPC and other quality
tools and techniques, and the adoption of the
EFQM excellence model criteria as a means
of attaining TQM are investigated.
Methodology
A postal questionnaire was designed and
piloted to survey quality development beyond
the requirements of ISO 9000. It was sent to
500 UK companies randomly selected from
the British Standards Institute’s (BSI) public
Web site. The questionnaire was specifically
directed at quality managers/representatives
within each company. A total of 80
 Where next for ISO 9000 companies?
Shirley Coleman and Alex Douglas
companies returned the questionnaire - a
response rate of 16 per cent. The
questionnaire contained 30 questions and was
divided into six sections:
(1) Company profile (four questions);
(2) The company and ISO 9000 (five
questions);
(3) About other standards, including Health
and Safety, Environmental and the
EFQM Excellence Model (five
questions);
(4) The use of quality tools; (three
questions);
(5) Training (five questions);
(6) ‘‘What-if’’ scenarios (eight questions).
The results were analysed using SPSS.
Conjoint analysis was used to analyse the
what-if scenarios. The advantage of this
analysis is that respondents were asked to
evaluate features in the same manner as
consumers, that is they trade off
characteristics against one another during the
evaluation process. Conjoint analysis aims to
evaluate product or service features and seek
out the desirable features by estimating the
structure of respondents’ preferences given
their overall evaluation of a set of alternatives
(www.marketstrategies.com/itmethod/
conjoint.htm).
Company survey results
Based on the number of employees as per the
DTI (1999) definitions, of the companies that
responded 4 per cent were micro (less than
ten employees), 32 per cent were mini (ten to
50), 40 per cent were medium (50-200) and
24 per cent were large (more than 200). All
respondents had achieved ISO 9000, with the
date when it was first achieved varying from
September 1984 to September 2001.
Companies ranged from being founded in
1759 to 1997. There were 55 single site
certifications and 25 multi-site certifications.
Most respondents (66 per cent) were quality
managers/representatives.
Most respondents (70 per cent) saw ISO
9000 as a stand-alone quality system with 18
per cent seeing it as a launch pad for TQM
and 10 per cent seeing it as a precursor of
some other quality initiative. This perception
was the same for small-to-medium sized
(SMEs) companies and large size
organisations.
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With regards to other standards, only 18
per cent had achieved ISO 14001, but a
further 30 per cent were planning to in the
future. Very few (8 per cent) had achieved
OHSAS 18001 but a further 21 per cent said
they were planning to in the future. Most (56
per cent) had heard of the EFQM excellence
model, with 20 per cent of these having
already begun to assess themselves against the
model’s criteria with 65 per cent having done
nothing but with 22 per cent planning to
begin assessment in the future. The
percentage of companies that had heard of the
EFQM model varied by size of company, with
micro and small companies being significantly
less aware than medium and large size
companies (p = 0.001), with only 29 per cent
of micro/small companies aware and 69 per
cent of medium sized companies and 79 per
cent of large companies.
With regards to statistical tools and other
quality techniques, a majority of respondents
(54 per cent) said they would use statistical
tools even if not required to by ISO 9000 (31
per cent said they would not and 15 per cent
had no opinion). These opinions were shared
by all sizes of organisation. Most (58 per cent)
thought the emphasis on statistical tools in
ISO 9000 was just right, with 24 per cent
saying there was not enough and 13 per cent
being negative and saying there was too
much. Again, these opinions were shared by
all sizes of organisation. With regard to the
availability of help with statistical quality tools
and various quality techniques, Table I shows
the perceived availability of effective training,
skilled consultants and relevant software.
Table I shows that the availability of
effective training is perceived as good or very
good, skilled consultants less good and of
relevant software satisfactory to poor.
Most respondents (55 per cent) liked the
idea of distance learning, with 27 per cent
saying no and 18 per cent undecided. These
opinions were shared by all sizes of
organisations.
When asked about the financial impact of
having ISO 9000 and the use of statistical
Table I Availability of effective help
Very good Good Satisfactory Poor
(%) (%) (%) (%)
Effective training 25 41 30 4
Skilled consultants 23 23 46 8
Relevant software 14 29 36 21
 Where next for ISO 9000 companies?
Shirley Coleman and Alex Douglas
quality tools the results were ambiguous,
suggesting that some respondents interpreted
the questions as the financial benefit and
some as the financial cost.
The ‘‘what-if’’ questions were designed to
allow subtle analysis of the perceived
importance of relevant factors. The factors
chosen in this survey were:
small-to-medium sized company or not;
statistical process control charts in use or
not;
training used a lot or not;
company working to EFQM criteria or
not.
The questions offered various statistically
efficient combinations of the factor
alternatives and asked how successful the
company was likely to be. These questions
referred to the EFQM model and yet only 45
out of the 80 respondents said that they had
heard of that model. The ‘‘what-ifs’’ were
answered by only 60 out of the 80
respondents. The others failed to answer
these questions (see Table II).
Analysis of the responses from just the 37
respondents who had heard of the EFQM
model showed that training is overwhelmingly
the most important factor for perceived
success. All three other factors are also
statistically significant. When the other 23
respondents who had not heard of the EFQM
model are included, there is a lot of
background noise, but the main factors are
still statistically significant. The significance
of training supports the response to the
availability of effective training mentioned
above, where 67 per cent of respondents felt it
was good or very good (i.e. 42 out of the 63
who answered that question). This positive
view is the same for all sizes of company.
It may be suspected that the returned
sample is biased towards companies who are
pleased with the external interference they
have received and that is why they were
willing to respond to the questionnaire. This
is difficult to check but may in fact not be the
case here. This position is supported by the
answers received to the following question on
the availability of skilled consultants. The
responses received fall very much in line with
Table II EFQM and ``What-if’’ respondents/non-respondents
Heard of EFQM Not heard of EFQM
Answered ‘‘what-ifs’’ 37 23
No answer to ‘‘what-ifs’’ 8 12
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the results of a telephone survey with over 90
per cent response rate, which asked a similar
question.
Conclusions
A large number of organisations still view ISO
9000 as the end of their quality journey. This
may be because they have been coerced into
getting certification in the first place or
because TQM is too abstract with very many
definitions and a lack of ‘‘hard’’ requirements.
For such organisations, as well as those that
struggle to make the transition from ISO 9000
to TQM, the answer may be the EFQM
excellence model with its nine criteria and
well-defined requirements. Management will
be able to understand and drive an EFQM
programme within their organisations. This,
together with appropriate training in quality
tools and techniques, is the best option for
business success.
The large percentage of companies
planning to implement either or both of the
Environmental and Health and Safety
standards probably reflects the better
opportunities for integration of these
standards and systems with the quality
management system in the revised version of
ISO 9000; only time and further research will
tell.
Encouragingly, most companies have
adopted some form of statistical control but
there is still much work to be done,
particularly among micro and small
companies, which are significantly less aware
of the EFQM model and have fewer resources
at their disposal for external assistance to help
in training and with the implementation of
tools and techniques for improvement.
Achieving ISO 9000 for many organisations
can involve major changes. Progressing
beyond the basic requirements of ISO 9000
means having to manage even more changes
and this implies having to invest in training.
External assistance is available in the form of
consultants in order that companies can learn
and use the quality improvement techniques
that can make the difference between success
and failure. This survey found that the quality
of consultants could be improved, as could
the quality of available software packages.
Overall, though, success was perceived to be
achieved through a combination of ISO 9000,
EFQM, statistical methods and training.
 Where next for ISO 9000 companies?
Shirley Coleman and Alex Douglas
Final thoughts
ISO 9000 and the EFQM model have evolved
over the years with the requirements for both
being enhanced. This is particularly true with
regard to the documents that make up the
2000 revision of the ISO 9000 suite of
standards. Adherence to its requirements is
no longer about compliance. It goes much
further along the TQM road with clauses on
continual improvement and customer
satisfaction. A whole new era of research into
the standard, its costs and benefits and, in
particular, how the transition can be made to
TQM and/or the EFQM excellence model
criteria has begun, and much of what has
gone before may not be as valid and reliable
given the revisions that have been made.
However, this does not mean that previous
research was ‘‘speculative, impressionistic,
anecdotal and typically based on the
experiences of a single company’’ as Withers
and Ebrahimpour (2001) maintained. In fact,
the opposite is probably closer to the truth as
many of the citations in this paper prove.
Much has been learned from previous
research studies that will allow more focused
research to take place on a multi-
organisational and international basis in the
future.
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