I would like your help with some data for a research paper.

The topic of the paper is "the importance of quality management systems for new companies"

Your comments are welcome, but don't forget to vote!

thanks,
:cool:

I'm curious about the planned scope of "new companies" for your research. My primary experience with ISO compliance/registration with my own company, suppliers, and customers is that ISO registration is almost always a "retrofit" for an existing company which is driven by customer or regulatory requirement.

How did you happen to settle on "new companies" for your topic? Am I misinterpreting what you mean by "new companies?"

I hesitate voting in your poll because none of the choices seems to fit my own experience. Any "competitive advantage" is only short term until the competitors also register/comply. In many cases, "competitve advantage" for the later registrants is merely "catch up to where we were before the requirement from customer or regulator."

I would like your help with some data for a research paper.

The topic of the paper is "the importance of quality management systems for new companies"

Your comments are welcome, but don't forget to vote!

thanks,
:cool:
I voted for "no improvement" but mainly because you specified ISO 9001 as opposed to quality systems in general. I see no specific advantage in ISO 9000, but there's nothing particularly negative about it either, in a generic sense. Your paper's topic addresses "the importance of quality management systems..." which is a little like asking if we think having a roof on the building is a good idea.:D

Wes,

I chose "new" companies, because I have been involved in a startup company for the last year and a half.

Most of my experience also has been with established companies, where management support was lacking. It seems that in existing companies that implement formal quality management systems to satisfy a market requirement are too guarded about objectives, and it can be difficult to measure improvement.

The paper will include existing companies as well.

As for the poll, I should have just specified quality management systems instead of a specific standard.

Either way the results will be helpful to me, and I thank all for participating.

As far as competitive advantage goes, I was thinking more in terms of the PDCA or PDSA cycle actually producing results.

Improvements should help gain competitive advantage if we apply knowledge gained from the system, to make the system better.

thanks,

When you finish your paper, can you post it here???

The last company I worked for decided to go ISO, not because of any customer or regulatory requirements. We just needed a system management.

We started seeing improvements and benefits after 3 years of hard work.
I truely think ISO will help you if everyone in your organization trusts its power, and commits to it.

ISO 9001:2000

Novel Precision Machining understands that sound Quality Management
Systems are necessary for continuous improvement in today's market place.
Novel Precisions management have extensive experience in Quality
Management Systems such as ISO 9001 and QS 9000.

Novel Precision's Quality Management Systems are modeled to comply with
ISO 9001:2000. We are in the process of completing our documentation and
will be seeking ISO 9001:2000 in Mid 2005.

Where do you guys stand?

I will gladly post the paper here when I'm finished, and again I thank you all for the feedback.

Where we stand? Still working towards compliance. We are running a little behind schedule for good reasons (if there is such a thing). I will be updating our website shortly.

We started the QMS a year after the laboratory was founded. The lab was a management buyout and had existed for a number of years.

We definately saw process improvements, increased productivity, and lower costs with respect to purchasing. The QMS also allowed a natural upgrade to accreditation as well as environmental integration.

I also have a client that has been in transportation business for about 100 years. They let it be known that they only wanted the QMS because it was a customer requirement (according to a competitor at a trade show).

During the opening meeting of the initial audit, I told them that I was sure that they had a very fine productive company and that given their history, I was sure that the certification audit would be a success. That they should simply explain what and how they did their business. I also mentioned that there are many very good companies that don't have nor believe in having a certificate on the wall.

At the end of the audit, the entire management expressed astonishment in just how much control they have over the company using the QMS as a minimum standard for quality and standardization of their quality among 56 branch offices.

The have continued to be my best client.