Once called BS 5750 – now re-invented as ISO 9000 – this is a "QA Tax on Small Businesses”

Did you hear the radio programme about ISO 9000?  It included interviews with both supporters and opponents of the ‘Quality Assurance’ British and international standards. A common theme emerged - all the supporters had a personal vested interest in seeing ISO 9000 perpetuated - and all the opponents were trying to run small businesses successfully. It would seem that the two are not compatible.

I too have a vested interest which I shall now declare. I was once a middle manager for a small West of England electrical company, charged with the responsibility of implementing ISO 9000.

I can claim to have been ripped off, confused and flooded with useless paperwork. At first I thought I was a victim of a propaganda campaign to obscure the truth, organised jointly by the British Standards Institute, the Department of Trade & Industry, and QA Consultants at large. Now I know better - it is a propaganda campaign to obscure the truth. Too many people have too much to lose by clearing up the confusions.

First the cost. The radio quoted a figure of £50,000 for small businesses. At the best this sum will only get you the initial certificate. Also it does not include the hidden costs for the many hours of departmental managers' time spent trying to clean up operating procedures. QA is an ongoing meal ticket for the inspecting organisations and it is unlikely they will renew your certificate year after year without requiring lots of subtle changes to your forms / procedures / handbooks / methods of working. The registration companies ensure that it is impossible for any company to "get it right" all of the time. Each inspector looks for something different - and they rarely send the same inspector twice. One could be forgiven for suspecting that they each work to a different rule book.

Next the QA Manual. We are told that if this is 3" thick then we have not done our job properly. Advisor "A" will tell you that a summary of your QA policy on a couple of sheets of paper is all that is needed. Sadly, Advisor "B" recommends writing a document for each paragraph of text in the British Standard. If you follow the former course of action, you can be sure that your inspector will be a believer in the latter philosophy. One thing of which you can be very certain, whichever you follow the QA Industry will ensure that you must spend more money changing it to the other.

As every sales administrator will tell you, even if you chose to ignore ISO 9000 you still cannot avoid the costs. Who these days has not heard of Vendor Assessment ?  Almost every company in the land is now flooded with enquiries from its customers asking them to fill in QA Questionnaire Forms. My small firm sometimes gets a dozen in a week, many from customers we may not have dealt with for 15 or 20 years. If you are on their vendor list, you will get a form. If you do not reply they may delete you from their suppliers list. Worse still, some flood you with chaser letters.  These forms are not short - some companies send out more than 20 pages to be filled in. It is possible to tie up a member of staff for one day a week just completing these forms. And no, they don't all ask you the same questions. How simple it would be if we could all post a standardised document to every company we dealt with ?  This, of course, would not perpetuate the meal ticket.

Lost business is the threat that hangs over every company choosing to ignore ISO 9000 (or ISO 9001). There are already some local authorities and major plc's that only trade with ISO 9000-approved companies. It does not matter if you sell high tech electronics or window cleaning services - the same rules apply, and what a nonsense these rules are. The DTI says that ISO 9000 is applicable to all businesses, large or small. No it is not.  ISO 9000 was written around the large defence industry contractors, and is really only applicable to them. It has nothing to do with Quality, and everything to do with control of paperwork and site/factory inspections.

We are all looking for Quality. Unfortunately ISO 9000 offers consistency, not quality. Any buyer will tell you, if he has not a vested interest in the system, that the quality of goods does not improve after a supplier has gained ISO 9000 certification. Indeed, with some small companies the quality standards fall. Removing £50,000 or more working capital from a little company in order to qualify can leave their trading position very precarious. These businesses solve the cash flow problem by reducing testing and inspecting, which is very labour-intensive.

Why are we in this dilemma ?  Two reasons really. First the word "Quality" appears in the title of the British Standard.  This has fooled many 'Trade & Industry' officials into thinking it might be of some benefit to industry at large.  Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the QA Industry makes a lot of money out of ISO 9000 and therefore has a powerful lobby. No government has ever listened to the cries from small businesses so there is no real force in the land to stop the "ISO 9000 bandwagon".