ISO 9000 the revision-the small business perspective

Third party certification to BS EN ISO 9000 Standard is now accepted as bringing two major benefits. Firstly holding certification is seen as a way to secure further contracts with other organisations, public or private. Secondly, working to gain and retain certification provides improved efficiency and leading to the avoidance of financial problems. Private sector businesses have made substantial investments in becoming certification holders of the Standard; investments which must be protected. Many of the small businesses voicing concerns relating to the Standard turn over less than £50,000 per year, and have less than six staff. They do not have a departmental structure, let alone a separate quality department, and find it difficult to see `quality´ as a separate issue from all the other strategic and operational aspects. Their concerns jeopardise the investment of the certification holders. This 1994 revision of the Standard is unlikely to stem the flow of problems voiced by small business. This paper gives every encouragement to make the next revision, called `Vision 2000´, relevant to managing in the 90s. It outlines the two major reforms required that are outside the remit of Revision committees´ work but which are essential to enable `Vision 2000´ to be successful