Opinion I "SO-What" 9000?!I "SO-What" 9000?!?!

By Hillel Glazer



So, your company meets ISO 9000 standards? Big deal! (Note: For those of you who don't know what ISO 9000 is, the most common oversimplification is to say it's an international standard for producing and delivering "quality" products and services. "Quality," in this case, is defined not by luxury or attentiveness or refinement, but what the customer expects, when they expect it, and how much they expect to pay.) AnywayÉ achieving "quality" means making sure every department of your company knows what to do before any need arises, does what it's supposed to do, and can prove it. Every aspect. From design to delivery, packaging to maintenance, storage to order processing.

A company being "registered" as meeting ISO 9000 standards (usually one of the specific sub-sets such as 9001, 9002, or 9003) has implied meaning to those who know or care what it means. It's a bigger deal in large manufacturing and defense circles in the U.S., and in Europe, but a healthy return on investment is why many companies "register."



Steps To Qualify

In order to register, a company must prove it knows what it's doing on a regular basis by submitting to professional ISO 9000 auditors.

Though it is possible to "fool" the auditors, becoming and staying registered isn't a trivial matter. So, a company that's registered has some bragging rights. But what does it really mean? The assumption is that a company registered to ISO 9000 ought to deliver "high-quality" products and know how to fix their processes when they fail to deliver, with the idea being that an "ISO 9000 company" has its act together.

But what I want to know is, I SO-WHAT? What good is it? As a customer, where does the "rubber hit the road?" How does being ISO 9000 registered manifest in the storefront?

Here's an example. I'm in a shop that has a "Registered ISO 9002" logo on their sign. To me, that says they've got an efficient way of delivering their service. I didn't know that about them before I gave them my order.

In fact, I only noticed the logo while waiting for them to come up with a solution to the fact that my order was botched beyond repair - literally - the machine they needed broke down while processing my order and was being repaired. At that point, the ISO 9002 logo seemed a rather sarcastic commentary to what was happening before me. Not that I had an issue with Murphy's Law being at work in this shop that morning; it could happen to anyone. But, parts of ISO 9002 say: that you keep maintenance records, know what your critical resources are, when new parts are needed, how to manage and track orders, involve your customer when things aren't going right, and, generally, that you maintain customer satisfaction in the event that all heck broke loose.



Missing The Point

But when the clerk (a) charged me (at all) for a less-than-what-I-ordered replacement, (b) charged me nearly as much for the alternative, (c)Êcouldn't change my charge to a more reasonable amount, and, to top it off, no one called to say the machine broke or sent the order to a competitor just to ensure I got my time-sensitive solutionÉ I started asking, "I-SO WHAT?!"

I spoke to the owner later that afternoon and asked him, "What does ISO 9002 do for your business?" He explained that they measure and track various metrics about the company's operations, make sure the measures are within certain parameters and take corrective action when errors occur.

He was terribly embarrassed when I told him what happened, but knew exactly what went wrong. He then opened an account for my company, gave the account credit for the charges, and added a note to add a further discount on my next order.

While this seems like it was plain-old good customer service, what ISO 9002 meant was that the owner of this barely year-old company knew this situation wouldn't fly for him or for the corporate powers-that-be. He knew he had data that told him this machine was bad and had already placed an order for its replacement. He knew exactly why the clerk charged me as she did, and that he'd have to address the order fulfillment software, too.



Getting It

But he also knew that something was missing in the training as required by ISO 9002 that didn't clue the clerk into the notion that maybe charging me at all wasn't such a good idea, or that maybe she ought to have called me so I could get the order filled elsewhere, or that maybe she could have sent my order to such a someplace-else herself, so I'd, at least, have something instead of next to nothing.

ISO 9000 registration won't prevent the business process from breaking down. But, in this case, ISO 9000 registration wasn't smoke and mirrors. It meant that the owner knew how his business is supposed to operate, how to fix it, and has someone on the outside looking in every year to make sure it operates correctly.

More importantly, perhaps he knows that if his ISO 9002 registration is to carry any value, he's got to live up to it or take it down. Some people know what it stands for.





Hillel Glazer is principal with Entinex in Silver Spring. He can be reached at 301-384-4203 or hillel@entinex.com.