ISO 9000 series certification over time: What have we learnt?

The ISO 9000 experiences of the same sample of organisations over a five year time period is examined in this paper. The responses to a questionnaire sent out at the end of 1999 to companies which had a reasonably long term experience with the ISO 9000 series quality system are analysed. These companies were ISO 9000 series certified before 1994 when the authors conducted their first survey on the same sample. The main aim is to explore the links between the motivation for undertaking the ISO 9000 series and continued certification, with the impact on the type of TQM practices that have been adopted after certification, and what kind of gains have been achieved. Challenges faced by these organisations over time are also addressed. Some of the findings are: an internally based motivation for certification of the quality system tends to stimulate more follow-up activities in relation to the broader concepts of TQM; internal motivation to continuously provide attention to the quality management system delivers better benefits from certification; the main challenges to the ISO initiative was the need for management to embrace the initiative and provide support; the involvement of an external consultant in relation to the ongoing TQM practices and follow up activities tends to give better results for the organisation; if responsibility for TQM is given to the management team or the manager it seems to end up in more training than is the case when the quality manager gets the responsibility; the frustration of often finding that customers did not really care if the business was certified; many companies had maintained a minimalist approach to ISO 9000.