Book Reviews

ISO 9000:
Meeting The New International Standards

By Perry L. Johnson

Reviewed by Steve Buchwald, CIRM

In the AME publication for the first quarter of 1996 there was an interesting article about "The Trouble With ISO". That article described the ISO specification as being based on an antiquated and redundant military procurement spec. Since the APICS library had recently purchased a copy of an ISO 9000 publication I was curious to see what the author was talking about. I read that article and couldn't believe it was true because if it were, why were so many companies getting on the bandwagon? In his works, "Of course, a great part of the stimulus that keeps the ISO standards in vogue is generated by people making money from this scam, that is, everyone else but the certified company".

Well, my curiosity was up. I went home, got out that ISO 9000 book and started reading. And to my surprise found the following statistics early in the book. ISO registered companies have a bankruptcy rate of .2% while non registered companies have a rate of 7.14%. This did not seem to be consistent with the AME article so I read the entire book.

However, I don't recommend you go run out and buy it. The problem with this book (and I imagine every other book on this subject) is that it tends to be obsolete before you buy it. Written in 1993, it talks about changes that are scheduled for 1996. Well, 1996 is long gone, but I can't tell from reading the book if those changes have actually occurred. Not all of the sections in the book are obsolete, but trying to figure out which ones are still good and which ones should be ignored will be a major problem in using it well.

Nonetheless, the book is actually well organized. It is divided into three sections and ends with an Afterward section which includes three Appendices. The three sections are All About ISO 9000, Technical Requirements and Guidelines, and Putting ISO 9000 to Work.

If you just want an overview on what ISO stands for and how it came to be, the first section will suffice. And if you are interested in quality the second section does a good job as well. In fact, the parts I found most interesting, and there were only two, were Identifying Customer Requirements on page 8 and a discussion on the American equivalent to ISO 9000 on page 135.

In conclusion, I want to leave you with this thought. The ideas of quality control are not new, they tend to be quite stable. It is the specifications and processes one must go through to get certified that are constantly changing. If you find yourself in dire need of more ISO 9000 information, get on the Internet and start surfing. For starters you might want to try the ISO 9000 Home Page from Geneva Switzerland at: http://www.iso.ch/iso/en/ISOOnline.frontpage. The contents of this home page include:

• An introduction to ISO
• The ISO structure (the most up to date possible)
• A listing of ISO members worldwide
• A link to the ISO Technical Committee
• The ISO meeting calendar
• and the ISO catalogue.

Good luck in your search and let the NET be with you.

Good reading!