ISO 9001

ISO 9000 - Does It work?

The ISO 9000 standard was first published as a British Standard (BS 5750) in 1979, since then its use has spread throughout the world and is used by big and small organisations alike to improve their performance.

The standard is now used in well over 100 countries and the number of certificates is estimated to be in the order of 350,000.

A number of reports have been published on the use of the standard one of which, undertaken by the Manchester Business School [1], found that overall 99% of businesses had benefited from the experienced of implementing ISO 9000. It was also found that whilst most organisations focused on the external benefits of obtaining the standard the real benefits derived from the implementation process were actually internal.

The benefits reported by Manchester Business School included:

Better management control	78%	Improving efficiency	69%
Improving awareness of procedural problems	77%	Retaining existing customers	67%
Using the standard as a promotional tool	73%	Increasing customer satisfaction	67%
Improving customer service	70%	Aiding induction	54%
Eliminating procedural problems	70%	Improving market share	47%

A further study by MORI [2] of captains of industry found similar results. The MORI study drew from the experiences of 115 captains of industry who reported the critical contribution of ISO 9000 as being:

Improved management control	82%	Reduced wastage	60%
Improved customer satisfaction	82%	More effective marketing	52%
A motivated workforce	62%	Reduced costs	50%
Increased opportunity to win work	73%	Increased market share	49%
Increased productivity/efficiency	83%	Increased exports	24%

[1] ISO 9000 - Does it work? Manchester business School, based a study of 1190 organisations
[2] Attitudes of captains of industry towards ISO 9000, MORI, based on a study of 115 captains of industry