Iso 9000 Essay

ISO 9000 is a quality system standard that sets out the methods by which a management system, incorporating all the activities associated with quality, can be implemented in an organization to ensure that all the special performance requirements and the needs of the customers are fully met (Bell, McBride and Wilson, 1994). According to ISO 9000 (2000), Quality Management System-Fundamentals and Vocabulary, International Standard, requirements for quality management system are generic and applicable to organizations in any industry or economic sector regardless of the offered product category. The standard further emphasizes that itself does not establish requirements for products.

According to Dale (2003), in today’s global competitive market

The QMS informs the organization how well or badly its doing against standards which it has set for itself. If there is no conscious effort to continually improve standards and performance, the measurement activity is but an exercise in futility. Overall, a well designed QMS, should generate significant benefits to the organization as will be seen in the literature review, otherwise an organization ends up with a certificate but no benefit at all. Starting a process of improvement and then developing and fostering its advancement needs to be a long-term organizational objective (Dale and McQuarter, 1998).

In order to face the challenges, many organizations including East African Packaging Industries, have implemented ISO 9000. According to Bell, Mcbride and Wilson (1994) when ISO 9000 is properly implemented out of a strategic decision rather than from reaction to changing competitive circumstances the following are the possible benefits;

 Access to markets

 Organized form of communication (improved management, better planning of activities, early resolution of problems)

 More precise specification means (correct interpretation of customer’s need, better chance of complying, identification of weaknesses in specification/orders)

 Greater control of suppliers

 Increased efficiency giving better quality

The procurement procedures are cumbersome and materials and equipment take long time before there are supplied (From management review minutes). EMS audits are not yet integrated with the QMS as had been anticipated. Productivity reports not reported on. The company continue to experience high volume of waste materials and leftovers.

The company’s quality index has also been on a downward trend (from management review minutes), never achieving the targeted quality index of 9.3. This trend coupled with the problems highlighted above threatens the performance of EAPI. In view of this observations, there is need to investigate the effects of implementation of ISO at EAPI. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate why the performance of EAPI has been low, despite implementation of ISO