What is the Future of Quality Consulting?

[Sebastian Szymanski]

Hello all,

Currently in Poland there are 5 000 certified companies, and another 7 000 are on their way to the certification. The whole market is estimated on 20 000, including SME's.

The market is shrinking every day.

Recently I was asked about the future of quality consultants, that specialized in ISO 9000 implementation, and I pass this question to you - how it looks like in more mature countries. What quality consultants do ? What is the market? What kind of products they offer? What is the demand for their products?

Regards
Sebastian Szymanski

 

[Randy]

Diversification is the answer. Be able to provide services beyond Quality. Things like :
*Project Management
*Safety
*Environmental
*Human Resources
*Finance (in the news a little right now)
*Process improvement
*Security (another biggy right now)
*Human factors engineering

and others.

Consultants need to be a "Jack of all trades" to make it.

 

[M Greenaway]

I think if the quality consulants keep harping on that we dont have to do anything for ISO9001 certification, which may well be true, and that we only have to do things that suit us, then they may well shoot themselves in the foot as they obviously therefore have no service to offer us.

 

[Sebastian Szymanski]

Thanks,
I think the same. For me , ISO 9k is only the first step to the ;real quality', but sometimes I wonder if it is not the last one for most of the polish companies.

Very often (especially in SME's) I feel that my solutions are far beyond what they really want to do. They want only certification nothing more.


Regards
Sebastian

 

[M Greenaway]

Nope.

But are we trying to inflict 'big company' systems on SME's ?

Bearing in mind that lines of communication are often far better the smaller the company, often formal systems are really unnecessary arent they ?

 

[db]

It it weren't for changes

One thing that helps are the changes and upgrades to registrations. Unfortunately for me, most of the companies I worked with for 1994, decided they could go to 2K without my assistance. I think Martin said once that we (consultants) need to be constantly working our selves out of a job. That is very true. Then, as the market shrinks the consultant pool will also shrink because prices will drop and those that are in it for the buck will go elsewhere.

Bearing in mind that lines of communication are often far better the smaller the company, often formal systems are really unnecessary arent they ?

Martin, we shouldn’t go around giving too many secrets away. As the market shrinks, we want to keep your comments to ourselves. That way, we can better meet the needs of our clients and we can stick around.

Each company I work with will have a completely different look and feel to the QMS or EMS. Although I use templates, I do so with the concept the client might be able to glean some information from the template. One company I worked with had over 150 separate procedures. One had less than one inch of total documentation (including work instructions).

 

[Marc]

Current comments???

 

[amanbhai]

future of Quality consulting

Most companies are ISO 9000 certified (those which needs or wants to). For ISO 9001:2000 most of the companies don't need any substantial consultant help. Almost the same story is ISO 14000 certification. There are more consultants than needed in the market & because its not a rocket science, specially for ISO 9001, that's why companies feel they can do that easily. I agree with Randy that you have be jack in other fields too to stay in the business.

 

[RoxaneB]

Coach, Facilitator, Mentor

I think that the future of quality or Business Management System consulting will be more along the lines of the consultant being a coach / facilitator / mentor. Don't get me wrong, the "Do" factor will still be there..."Do get us registered to XXXXX", but a successful consultant will be one that can start the play and then pass the ball. The effectiveness of the consultant will be measured in the client's ability to run with the ball.

If a system falls apart because the consultant is no longer there, then the person was really an employee in consultant's clothing.

 

[Steve Prevette]

Seems like it is a good market. Of course, it depends upon what you are offering. Los Alamos National Laboratory just paid my employer (Fluor) to send me down there to give SPC training. I've often mulled over if I should branch out on my own, but so far Fluor has been a good place to base operations out of. I've got a fair amount of flexibility to take on new tasks and provide training within Fluor so it seems to be the best of both worlds.