The Final Inspector

John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene, in Megatrends 2000, sum up what they found in seven years of research with this statement: “Recognition of the individual is the thread connecting every trend described in the book”.  They talk of “the age of the individual” and tell us that “when the focus was on the institution, individuals got what suited the institutions; everyone got the same thing.  No more.  With the rise of the individual has come the primacy of the consumer”.

There is an urgency to graduate from mass marketing to database marketing....getting close to the customer.  After all, the basic quality mission of a company is to make products (goods and services) which meet the needs of the users.  Such products can create sales while avoiding damage to society.  This mission of satisfying the needs of the users provides the basic definition of quality: quality means fitness for use.

Response-driven
Mass marketing is synonymous with creativity-driven products, passive consumers, advertising monologue and conformance to specifications.  On the other hand, database marketing is response-driven, involves active participation of the consumers, requires continuous consumer dialogue and is based on “fitness for use” quality.

Indian companies wishing to export need to build their strategies around fitness for use and capable processes, as opposed to the restricted strategy of quality standards such as the ISO 9000.  ISO 9000, while excellent for conformance to standards, does not address the subjects of customer-driven quality and continuous quality improvement.  In the final analysis, the latter achieves sales.

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

ISO 9004 contains guidance on the technical, administrative and human factors affecting the quality of products and services.  This standard is for internal use only and is not to be used in contractual situations.

Essentially, the objective of ISO 9000 is to provide a customer an assurance that an appropriate management system is in place.  However, the adoption of a standard does not change the contractual requirements, to produce a product or provide a service of the required quality.  It only assures the customer that the supplier is following certain guidelines supported by documentary evidence that the quality requirements are being met, provided that all the rules are well implemented.

Also, the standards are common to all suppliers regardless of their industry base, their company size and what portion of the company is being registered.  They are essentially generic in nature and represent the minimum requirements for an effective quality system to assure that the product will meet customer requirements.  Therefore, are the standards a remedy for poor quality?  Do they ensure that customer needs are being satisfied?

Unfortunately, the answer to both questions is no.  This is because, as mentioned earlier, the standards are only guidelines to industry to follow a certain documentation methodology.  They also do not specify how to document a quality system.  In effect, the system does not ensure that its adherence will lead to quality leadership.

Trendy thing to do
In fact, many Indian companies would very easily qualify for the ISO 9000 accreditation as they already conform to nearly 75 per cent of the requirements.  The only difficult part is getting the documentation right.  It seems many companies are going in for the ISO 9000 accreditation because it is the trendy thing to do.  In reality, there is no evidence to show that any company has achieved world-class quality simply through the application of these concepts.  The accent is on ISO 9002 in India.  Globally it is ISO 9001 and 9003.

Unfortunately, there is a widely-held belief amongst engineering industries, in particular, that all that is necessary to boost exports is to achieve ISO 9000 accreditation.  Actually, the achievement of these standards should be seen as the minimum requirement to be successful globally.  If a company is not capable of getting an accreditation relatively easily, then it is in serious trouble with regard to exports.

In sum, all the rhetoric of the ISO 9000 has to be seen in the right perspective.  Quality standards can never be static if they are to be effective.  Customer preferences and quality goals are constantly changing.  Therefore, a company hoping to be best-in-class with regard to exports cannot pin its hopes only on the ISO 9000.  It will have to address issues that pertain to continuous quality improvement and customer-driven quality planning in order to be really successful in a competitive changing world.  Companies must realize that the final inspector is the customer.