Quality Management Standards - ISO 9000 (accountant, expenses, companies, money)

[pdca]

Quality management in ISO 9000 standards.

Just some businesses or companies in US get ISO 9000 certification. While a lot of companies in developing countries try to follow the ISO 9000 standards. Why?

Is it easy to find a job relating to quality management in ISO 9000 standard?

[Dd714]

Like you said, it seems to be a non-U.S. thing.

I think the thing is, most public companies in the U.S. already have standards that are followed and required by law, most for SOX. Those are financial but also relate to operational controls.

ISO9000 seems too limited in scope, mostly just for production companies, and takes alot of money to monitor. And most U.S. companies already have both internal and external audit staffs and expenses.

I've seen some jobs for it, doesn't seem to be too high paying because an ISO auditor is just a 'check this and check that' type of auditor, rather than a consolutant.

[QMbeauty]

Not every company applying for an ISO certification will be applying for the same standard. There are different standards in place, depending on the type of industry a company or organization belongs to and the kind of products or services it offers.

I've also seen some jobs relating to quality management in ISO 9000 standard.

[gardener34]

I think it is now ISO 9001 and the new thing I keep hearing tossed around is six sigma.

[evilnewbie]

Six sigma is what a lot of people like right now....

[BigJon3475]

Six sigma very simply put is a continual process improvement program aimed at maximum production with minimal defects. It's a business plan that can be used in many different areas. It was created by Motorola and has been adapted largely in companies now as a business practice. Before that were Kaizen Blitz, Khan Bahn, Point of Use...etc. All Japanese concepts that we adapted when we couldn't compete. It's a concept focused on always removing the bottleneck in your business plan with no prejudices as to what that bottle neck might be.

[sterlinggirl]

Originally Posted by pdca

Quality management in ISO 9000 standards.

Just some businesses or companies in US get ISO 9000 certification. While a lot of companies in developing countries try to follow the ISO 9000 standards. Why?

Is it easy to find a job relating to quality management in ISO 9000 standard?

Overall, ISO standards are good for the company, but it can be a real PITA for the management team to put it in place, and you need an incredibly anal-retentive task master to crack the whip and get people to fill out all the things they see as useless paperwork. The good part is that all the useless paperwork can literally save the company if you ever have a major problem like a recall.

An ISO auditor is a lot like an accountant that nags you to save and categorize every receipt until you can't stand to see the whites of their eyes. On a day to day basis, you may want to strangle them, but if the IRS ever comes knocking, you'll be glad they were there.

[Dd714]

Originally Posted by BigJon3475

Six sigma very simply put is a continual process improvement program aimed at maximum production with minimal defects. It's a business plan that can be used in many different areas. It was created by Motorola and has been adapted largely in companies now as a business practice. Before that were Kaizen Blitz, Khan Bahn, Point of Use...etc. All Japanese concepts that we adapted when we couldn't compete. It's a concept focused on always removing the bottleneck in your business plan with no prejudices as to what that bottle neck might be.

I think six sigma and black/green belts are on it's way out. I read some studies recently saying that all these companies that had six sigma programs - none of them benifited! With today's economic crises I suspect companies will retrench and concentrate on only definitive value added oppurtinities or those programs that are required by the government or customer.

Really - business fads - Kaizen, Hoshin, six sigma, they change like the wind. CEO's come and go, and the new one reads the books and gets tuned into a new business fad. Companies will stick to government or customer requirements - which now is Sarbenes-Oxley, which is not as much an improvement process as it is a control requirement for all US public companies. But it's very costly for an organization to be SOx compliant. For ISO 9001 it comes down to a customer requirement in some cases, which is a problem in itself. Businesses want that ISO 9001 certificate on the wall so they institute all the requirements without using or undertanding the benifits from it.

[QMbeauty]

Six Sigma techniques and methodologies are quite different from other quality improvement techniques because they are not self-sustaining in nature. Goals and objectives that can be derived through Six Sigma depend on a number of variable factors and inputs such as the quality of deployment and the existing organizational culture.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by Dd714

I think six sigma and black/green belts are on it's way out. I read some studies recently saying that all these companies that had six sigma programs - none of them benifited! With today's economic crises I suspect companies will retrench and concentrate on only definitive value added oppurtinities or those programs that are required by the government or customer.

Really - business fads - Kaizen, Hoshin, six sigma, they change like the wind. CEO's come and go, and the new one reads the books and gets tuned into a new business fad. Companies will stick to government or customer requirements - which now is Sarbenes-Oxley, which is not as much an improvement process as it is a control requirement for all US public companies. But it's very costly for an organization to be SOx compliant. For ISO 9001 it comes down to a customer requirement in some cases, which is a problem in itself. Businesses want that ISO 9001 certificate on the wall so they institute all the requirements without using or undertanding the benifits from it.

So true. I've been working in the Corporate world for 20 years now and have probably participated in all of the above. Once we understood, documented and started following "the fad" it went out of style and the next one came in on thundering horses. Total reset in some cases.
Do this over and over for a couple of years and you give up and just hope the next new fad doesn't put more documentation overhead on your job duties.

IMHO..all it did was add another 2 layers of paperwork to document your "stuff" which sometimes was done after the fact so the paperwork matched what you did