Quality Planning Holds The Key

A battery cell is usually available in four distinct sizes throughout the world. The variety of sizes should fit all equipment that require cells to operate. A company that produces cells which deviate from these standard sizes will probably find no takers (buyers) and would find itself out of business, no matter how good the quality is. But are standards a guarantee for quality? Certainly not. Standards are important and were developed to achieve, amongst others, uniformity, intercommunication and interchangeability.

Quality standards are documents that define the contractual, functional and technical requirements for all quality activities that will ensure that a product, a process, a service or a system is fit for its intended purpose. The achievement of such standards should be seen as the minimum requirement to be successful. In fact, to achieve world class quality, it is necessary to go beyond the standards and look at continuous quality improvement and customer satisfaction.

Written standards were first developed in the early years of this century. Large groups such as the defence organizations of Great Britain and America wrote standards for their ordnance products to ensure product interchangeability, to reduce manufacturing costs and to reduce inventories.  Soon after World War II, a large number of product standards became available. This process varied from country to country. In order to get some order and a uniformity of language, the International Standardization Organization (ISO), took upon the task to write a generic quality standard. The ISO, a specialized international agency for standardization, has its headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland, and comprises national standard bodies of 91 countries, India being one of them. It developed the ISO 9000 series in 1987, and this standard has gained unanimous acceptance worldwide, as a quality system standard. In India, the IS 10201 Parts 2-6 series is exactly the same as the ISO 9000 : 1987.

ISO 9000 Series
There are five standards in the ISO 9000 series. The ISO 9000 standard provides some basic definitions and concepts and summarizes how to select and use other standards in the series.

The ISO 9001, 9002 and 9003 standards are applicable for external quality assurance purposes for contractual situations. ISO 9001 is used to ensure conformance to specified requirements during design and development, production, installation and servicing. The ISO 9002 is used when only production and installation conformance are to be ensured. The ISO 9003 is the least detailed standard and requires that conformance in the final test and inspection be relative and human factors affecting the quality of products and services.  This standard is for internal use only

Exports
It is perceived that the ISO 9000 accreditation will be a requirement to do business with Europe after 1992. However, it is not a requirement unless the buyer company emphasizes it. The wider acceptability of the ISO 9000 in Europe, and other parts of the world, will make registration to the ISO 9000 a compulsory requirement for exporting to these countries.  But supplier surveillance will not be eliminated because manufacturers have special requirements not specifically called for by a general application of the standards.

A few Indian companies in the steel and tractor industries have already initiated steps to get an accreditation. Many other companies who are serious about exports will follow soon.  This is because there are several benefits of registration as it is one standard that has almost universal acceptance.  The supplier audits are fewer and have more focus. It makes easier, faster and more comprehensive learning, resulting in increased productivity and quality, caused by better systems. This gives rise to better sales in the European community, a recognizable logo that can be added to the sales literature and can be listed with registered supplies in a registry.

But there are certain shortcomings that the companies need. They represent the minimum requirements for an effective quality system to assure that the product will meet customer requirements. These standards define what must be in a quality system, but do not tell a company how to document the quality system. What is a quality manual?  What makes up an adequate quality plan? What makes up an adequate quality policy?  These questions are not answered.

These standards do not make provision for continuous improvement. This is a serious drawback that, perhaps, will be addressed in the future.  Until then, continuous improvement to lower costs, to improve product and service quality, and remain competitive in today’s world economy is still the responsibility of management.

The ISO 9000 series requires no evidence of a satisfactory track record of performance, eg. in product quality or delivery.