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ISO 9000 - QS-9000 Information Exchange
The Mobil Survey: More than 127 000 ISO 9000 certificates
The following article appears in the November/December 1996
edition of ISO 9000 News.At least 127 389 ISO 9000 certificates had been issued in 99 countries worldwide up to the end of December 1995. This was an increase of 32 163 certificates over the end of March 1995 when the total was 95 266 in 89 countries. The figures come from the latest Mobil Survey which, for the first time, also includes environmental certificates. A country-by-country breakdown of the certificates issued appears in the November/December 1996 edition of ISO 9000 News.
The information contained in the survey is gathered from certification bodies, and a number of other organizations, by Mobil personnel based at the multinational oil corporation's offices around the world. The data is collated and analyzed by Dr. John Symonds1), Technical Advisor - TQM, at Mobil Europe, in London, who was responsible for launching the survey in 1993.
Primarily intended to provide information for Mobil managers, the survey has become something of an institution following publication of the results of the first cycles in the January/February 1994 edition of ISO 9000 News, which brought Mobil's initiative to the attention of a wider public. As ISO 9000 certificates are issued in the different countries by independent quality system certification bodies, there is no “official” centralized record of certificates from which an overall picture of ISO 9000 implementation could be drawn. The Mobil Survey has therefore become an eagerly awaited event in the quality community worldwide for whom it is a widely quoted reference source.
“The analysis of ISO 9000 certification data collected from registration bodies worldwide by Mobil people remains a unique information source,” Dr. Symonds commented.
“It is intended to be used freely and widely in order to assist in the promotion of international good quality and is provided free of charge on request.” Use of the survey is governed by a number of conditions which are given on the cover page of the survey.
This latest edition of The Mobil Survey covers the fifth cycle of data collection with a cut-off date of 31 December 1995. Earlier cycles had cut-off dates of January 1993, September 1993, June 1994, March 1995. Some of the previously published figures relating to the earlier cycles have been corrected as a result of feedback from readers of the survey.
“The original and continuing purpose of the survey is for internal use in Mobil, so the scope and detail have some constraints consistent with this aim”, Dr. Symonds states.
In highlighting the key findings of the survey, he says that “great caution in interpretation should be made in line with the various notes (see below) attached to the survey.
“In particular,” he notes, “it is not exhaustive. Efforts were made to contact most bodies in the ISO publication Directory of Quality System Registration Bodies (third edition), but for a whole range of reasons, not all are represented.”
Key findings
The key findings of The Mobil Survey (fifth cycle) of ISO 9000 and Environmental Certificates Awarded Worldwide follow with explanatory notes.
1. Up to the end of December 1995, at least 127 389 ISO 9000 certificates had been awarded in 99 countries worldwide. This is an increase of 32 163 over the end of March 1995 when the total was 95 266. See Notes e) and f) concerning changes in earlier figures.
2. The number of countries with certification activity has shown a net increase over the five cycles through 48, 60, 76, 89 to the present 99. Overall, 101 countries have shown certification activity although the Bahamas and Yugoslavia are not now seen.
3. The geographical distribution and changes are shown in the table below.
Regional share (%) Jan 93 Sept 93 June 94 March 95 Dec 95 United Kingdom 66,8 60,3 52,3 46,3 41.3 Rest of Europe 16,2 20,8 26,4 29,2 31,4 North America 4,3 5,6 6,9 7,6 8,0 Australia/New Zealand 6,7 6,8 6,6 6,8 8,3 Far East 2,4 3,4 4,4 6,3 7,2 Rest of the World 3,6 3,1 3,4 3,7 3,8 Unallocated 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,1 0,04. The United Kingdom still shows the highest growth with 8 484 new certificates since the previous survey. Germany shows high growth to give the next highest total although data collection was better this time compared to that during the previous cycle, when the total was known at the time to be an underestimate.
5. Key certificate milestones passed over the survey period were:
10 000 1 000 100 Germany India Indonesia Spain Philippines Sweden Poland Thailand United Arab Emirates 6. The following countries appear in the survey for the first time:Europe Americas Far East Mid. East Africa Lithuania Barbados Viet Nam Afghanistan Kenya Macedonia Curaçao Iran Nigeria Ecuador Yemen Jamaica Uruguay7. Certification bodies are continuing to increase operations on a global scale. 20 have been identified who have awarded certificates in at least 10 countries including their home base and they have awarded 75,5 % of all certificates. Details are shown in the table:
Number of countries Number of bodies 60-69 1 50-59 4 40-49 1 30-39 2 20-29 6 10-19 6The 20 certification bodies which have awarded certificates in 10 or more countries are, in alphabetical order of the countries where they have their head office (and not according to the number of certificates awarded):
ÖQS (Austria), AIB-Vinçotte (Belgium), AFAQ (France), BVQI (France), DQS (Germany), GLQZ (Germany), TÜV (Germany), TÜV Product Service (Germany), NSAI (Ireland), KEMA (Netherlands), DNV (Norway), SISIR (Singapore), SQS (Switzerland), BSI QA (United Kingdom), CICS (United Kingdom), LRQA (United Kingdom), NQA (United Kingdom), SGS (United Kingdom), ABS (United States), Underwriters Laboratories (United States).
8. There are two international certification body groupings. EQNet is a network of 16 “not-for-profit” bodies who are generally related to national standards bodies. The IIOC (Independent International Organization for Certification) is made up of seven international bodies with their roots in independent testing or marine classification. The respective percentage share of certificates issued and number of countries in which these certificates have been issued are as follows:
Group Certificate share (0 %) Countries of issue EQNet 37,2 70 IIOC 33,5 869. An attempt was made to apportion certification against the three assessment model standards. Data representing 74,9 % of all valid certificates was analyzed and the following table shows some results in percentages (Austria/Germany/Switzerland refers to bodies with mainly local operations):
0 % Overall Japan USA Aust./Germ./Switz. ISO 9001 33,1 47,0 39,0 65,2 ISO 9002 66,0 53,0 60,2 34,1 ISO 9003 0,9 0,0 0,8 0,710. As time progresses, certificates are withdrawn for a variety of reasons. Withdrawal of certificates was not analyzed in this fifth cycle. In the fourth cycle, the 26 bodies who were prepared to provide data for this section accounted for 13,8 % of all certificates issued and they showed a mean withdrawal rate of 5,2 % with a median figure of 1,5%. Reasons stated included consolidation of certificates, company mergers and takeovers, bankruptcy and, least common of all, withdrawal by the issuing body.
11. The number of certificates associated with QS-9000, the ISO 9001-based automotive industry supplier assessment scheme published in 1994 by Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, was beyond the scope of this survey.
12. An attempt was made to collect data based on market sectors; however, until standardized coding is more widely implemented, this proved too complex to analyze within the context of this survey cycle.
Environmental certificates
The raw data is shown in the accompanying table. It is immediately clear that a number of different standards are currently in use, including the draft version of ISO 14001. It should also be noted that EMAS, the European Union's “Eco Management and Audit Scheme”, is an assessment of environmental performance rather than of deployment of a management system, although it is generally seen in conjunction with such a system.
13. At the survey cut-off date, 257 environmental certificates were held in 19 countries which represent all parts of the world except Africa and the Middle East. The Netherlands shows the most at 74, followed by the United Kingdom and Germany.
14. Information was not provided for the basis of more than half the certificates. Over 100 that are known are based on the British standard, BS 7750. Known EMAS certificates totalled seven.
Environmental certificates worldwide on 1995-12-31
Argentina 1
Australia 1
Austria 11
Brazil 2
Denmark 21
Finland 10
France 3
Germany 35
India 1
Ireland 3
Japan 4
Netherlands 74
Norway 3
Korea 19
Sweden 2
Taiwan 2
Turkey 3
United Kingdom 61
USA 1
Total 257Assessment standard/model
Unspecified 127
ISO/DIS 14001 16
BS 7750 104
EMAS 7
Irish Standard 310 3
Total 257
Notes
The Mobil Survey results are accompanied by the following explanatory notes:
a) It has been difficult to obtain a sharp cut-off date in all the data cycles. This means that the increase figures should only be used to indicate order of magnitude and not to make interpretations about increasing or decreasing rates of growth.
b) A number of joint assessment arrangements are in operation and these have been taken into account where known, but a small amount of double counting may have occurred.
c) Certification bodies are increasing rapidly in number worldwide. It was beyond the scope of this survey to contact them all. Efforts have been made to maintain consistency between approaches for all five cycles and in some cases, estimates have been made. However, it is most likely that undercounting has occurred.
d) No attempt has been made to distinguish between accredited and non-accredited certificates. An accredited certificate is one awarded by a certification body approved by an appropriate national accreditation body to operate in the industry sector concerned.
e) As time progresses, certificates are withdrawn or allowed to lapse. In this cycle, an attempt was made to show valid certificates only. Finding 9 above attempts to give a measure of their impact on the total figures.
f) Since the various cycles have been reported in ISO 9000 News, more certificates have been identified through corrective feedback from various bodies. Appropriate updates have been made as the cycles progressed. Small discrepancies may continue to be expected.
1) Dr John Symonds, Technical Advisor - TQM, Mobil Europe, Mobil Court, 3 Clements Inn, London WC2A 2EB, United Kingdom. Tel. + 44 171 412 4897. Fax 44 171 412 2549.
Also see the9th Cycle Survey at the ISO Site
2000-12-20
This page last reviewed or edited: Sun, 2007-02-04 16:59 (Coordinated Universal Time [ZULU] -5 hours)
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