Evolving with time: Quality Management Systems

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 14001 has recently celebrated its 10th anniversary and this year the ISO 9000 series will be celebrating its 20th. These anniversaries are noteworthy because these standards, now implemented in at least 161 countries and the fore runners of the Management Systems Philosophy, have transformed the way we look at business today.

When ISO 9001 first came into existence, it was rated as the ultimate an organization could aspire to reach in its quest for quality. With more than 1 million certificates issued globally, today, it presents the first step of the ladder to excellence. Yet, even today, all emerging models of governing organizations are firmly entrenched in the familiar roots of the objectives based, process driven and continuously improving management systems.

A worldwide debate is on, on whether ISO 9001 has served its utility and whether it continues to give the competitive edge to business. As usual there are two sides to the debate. One that states diminishing standards of certification have eroded the advantage of sustaining a QMS (Quality Management Systems). The other, surprisingly supported by an ever-growing demand, continues to see the merit in the systems approach and nurtures the core principles as a launching pad for an array of quality initiatives, be it adoption of newer quality tools or sectoral standards which even the ISO is supporting (albeit with a little reluctance as it still believes ISO 9001 can serve all needs). For these organizations, certification is not the end, but a by-product.

In the past twenty years, management system standards have grown both horizontally to cater to specific sector needs as well as vertically to standardize the certification - accreditation pyramid. In yet another dimension, several complementary standards have been developed as building blocks to the reference standards.

Sectoral expansion first took place with the publication of QS 9000, now ISO TS 16949. We now have a series of Management System Standards such as ISO 20000 for Information Technology, ISO 27001 for Information Security, ISO 22000 for Food Safety, ISO 28000 for Supply Chain Security. Outside the ISO umbrella, International Standards on OHSAS (Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Services), Social Accountability (SA 8000) are very popular. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), in a pioneering effort has recently published the first Standard for Quality Management Systems in Public Service delivery (IS 15700:2005). The British Standards Institute is also in the process of publishing a Standard on similar lines. The Quality Council of India (QCI) has published a Standard for Hospital Accreditation. Countries and regions continue to use ISO 9001 as a base to publish specific utility based standards and  or Good - Practices documents and successfully implementing them.

In a vertical expansion of Management System Standards, a series of Conformity Assessment Standards have been published by the CASCO, (Conformity Assessment Committee of ISO). Significant among these are ISO 17025 for laboratories, ISO 17021 (replacing Guide 62 and Guide 66) for Management System Certification Bodies, ISO/Guide 65 for Product Certification Bodies, ISO 17020 for Inspection Bodies. All these Standards prescribe the eligibility requirements for the operation of these bodies and also require them to declare their competence areas for external evaluation. The Conformity Assessment bodies require accreditation to be credible. Thus Accreditation Bodies have been set up by several countries. ABs have to become members of the International Accreditation Forum, for which they have to, themselves undergo peer evaluation on a common reference criteria (ISO 17011). In India, the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies is a member of the IAF. The NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) in turn is a member of the International Laboratory Accreditation Council, and both are ISO 17011 compliant.

In order to ensure commonality in approach, the ISO has published a set of five Standards that would form the building blocks for all conformity assessment standards in future. 

These are:

• Impartiality and avoidance of conflicts of interest (ISO PAS 17001:2005)
• Confidentiality and trust (ISO PAS 17002:2004)
• Complaints and appeals (ISO PAS 17003:2004)
• Disclosure of information and transparency (ISO PAS 17004:2005)
• Use of management systems in conformity assessment - Principles and requirements (ISO/CD PAS 17005:2004)

The subjects of these Standards depict areas where the main emphasis lies, such as in avoidance of all means of conflict of interest (the greatest bane in the certification business), trust (credibility), customer complaints handling, transparency and the adoption of basic management system principles. Evidently these are of paramount importance to protect the soundness of the certification / accreditation systems.

The merit of these standards is slowly being realized both by regulatory as well as market sectors. In each country, two regimes operate in controlling the quality (and safety) of goods and services. The Regulatory regime operates from standpoint of health, safety, environment and the Sectors mostly covered are food, electrical appliances, toys, gas appliances, safety equipment, electronics, IT and telecom. The Voluntary regime relates to insistence on ISO 9000/ISO 14000- generally by organized buyers e.g. retail chains). A recent thinking is to make available alternative schemes to industry such as 'Self declaration' in place of third party intervention as incentive for good performance, leading to reduced regulatory checking. For instance a High level committee has been set up by the Planning Commission to consider as an option, third party certification for industry to demonstrate regulatory compliance in fields of Environment /Occupational Health and Safety /Social Accountability to national/international standards with the provision of tier 2 certification focusing only on areas of regulatory compliance.

Another area of focus is the Service Sector which is adopting the Quality Management Systems in a big way. However, some difficulty is being faced on adopting the standards largely written and interpreted for the manufacturing sector. The ISO has published ISO 9001:2000: A workbook for service organizations designed to make it easier for service providers to achieve the benefits, such as increased efficiency and effectiveness, of implementing ISO 9001:2000.

These developments would indicate the QMS is in an evolutionary phase. While we will continue to innovate on the assessment models, the core of the systems would continue to find a very important place within organizational governance.

(The author is a Senior Counsellor with the CII Institute of Quality)