A Case Against ISO 9000; Critique
by Ken Black
John Seddon is an occupational psychologist, researcher, lecturer and Managing Director of Vanguard Consulting. A leading authority on managing change in organizations, he ISO 9000 Is Fundamentally Flawed
John states that ISO 9000 starts with the flawed perception that work is best controlled by specifying and controlling procedures and that people are having to do two jobs; do the work and then write about it - that there is no evidence that performance has been improved - just the opposite.
In order to improve performance, those registered to ISO 9000 will have to unlearn and undo much of what they have implemented - such as command people to work to procedures and then control them through inspection. John rejects the claim that it is a first step to becoming a quality organization.
John states that he cannot say what could be done to put it right - he states that a perfect prescription cannot be written and we cannot expect people to follow a prescription.
The "bottom line" is consistent conformance and continuous improvement. Those who do both and do it best will win. How to do it best? Clear, concise and valid requirements and measurements plus the ability to accommodate change are prerequisites. This equates to changing faster and documenting (communicating) better in order to win.
Consistent conformance must be achieved before continuous improvement can be robust. Most organizations, however, were operating in a corrective action mode before certification and continue to do so afterwards. ISO 9000, in itself, is not the answer. Is it a first step? We at ICM think it is.
Implementation of CMII is a major step beyond ISO 9000. CMII would put it right.wrote "I Want You To Cheat: The Unreasonable Guide to Service and Quality in Organizations" and did a CD on "Change Management Thinking."
"In Pursuit of Quality, The Case Against ISO 9000," is his latest book (1997 copyright). He makes a case that the 100,000-plus organizations now certified to one of the three standards, have taken a major step backward in their pursuit of quality.
To summarize his 200-page, easy to read book, he states that ISO 9000 promotes a "command and control" method of management. It creates a "control through procedures system" rather than help the business - that the emphasis on written procedures was entirely unnecessary - a simple flow chart would have been sufficient - the inspection school has gained the upper hand over the variation school.
He states a need to transition from command and control thinking to system thinking; thinking of the organization as a system - to transition from a push system to a pull system - to allow customers to pull from the system - to understand the predictability of demand and the predictability of response and act on the causes of variation. He continually refers to Dr Deming - that learning from variation is fundamental to process improvement.
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