Is ISO 9004 a path to business excellence? Opinion of Canadian standards experts

ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 were created as a “consistent pair” of standards so that businesses that wanted to exceed the requirements of 9001 could use the principles of 9004 to move towards business excellence. In this paper, opinions from Canadian quality standardization experts were used to explore the needs of business against what is offered by ISO 9004 and to assist in the comparison of ISO 9004 with common business excellence models. The ISO 9004 (2000) document was perceived as needed, and as holding great potential. Suggestions for realizing that potential ranged from the inclusion of more guidance on specific business processes (for example complaints handling) to the incorporation of material that links ISO 9004 with industry-specific standards, awards and/or general business programs. With modification, the document was seen as being able to make a valuable contribution to an organization’s business excellence strategy. Without some form of recognition and/or award as offered by other business excellence models, however, the amount of usage ISO 9004 will receive is questionable. Introduction It is not an understatement to say that organizations throughout the world are struggling with the ever-expanding role of quality. In recent decades, the term “quality” has expanded beyond the classical interpretation of “satisfying customer expectations related to the supplied product” to include not only the delivery of excellence to a variety of stakeholders, but also the environmental, safety, financial, and even social aspects of organizational performance. This direction of change has prompted a small revolution in quality management research and practice. The shift in focus from solely the external customer to the internal organizational health and overall business performance has resulted in the creation of excellence criteria, including the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) excellence model, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA, 2002) and the Canadian Framework for Business Excellence (CFBE, 2002). Such models contain guidelines for improving both the enablers of performance and related financial and The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0265-671X.htm A path to business excellence?