A Few Words About ISO

by Leo Petipas

When it comes to standards and explaining the what and the why of their existence, even the most bureaucratically-minded technical communicator can manage a GROAN. Standards aren't so bad really, once you get to know them. For those of us who have a technical background, a foray into the world of standards makes for a very interesting challenge. One of the most disarming maxims I advocate in doing the work of helping people interpret and implement management system standards is "Let's not cut down a lot of trees (read: we don't need to create a mountain of paperwork here) in developing the records and documents for your system." With the advent of electronic systems, the literal sense of this maxim is not as relevant as it used to be, but we continue to have a few paper manuals, work instructions and forms floating around in our organizations.

Adoption of international standards for managing organizations, referred to here as quality management systems, is being spearheaded by the manufacturing sector, with services and information technology slowly following. It is interesting to note here that the American Society for Quality now views information technology as a separate animal from goods and services, although you can have any combination of these three in many organizations. Let's find out a bit about international accords that are helping some organizations in their efforts to be become more "global".

ISO Background and Its Technical Committees

ISO (meaning equal or the same as; Gr.) is the International Organization for Standardization, headquartered in Geneva, which consists of standards bodies from more than 140 industrialized and developing countries. The primary role of ISO is to develop voluntary technical and management standards that add value to the operation of an organization. The basic details of developed standards are agreed to by an international technical committee and involve much drafting and beating the bushes for input from various experts in industry, academia and government. For example, the technical committee for quality management systems, ISO 9001, is identified as TC176, and for environmental management, ISO14001, we have TC207. The resulting documents represent a consensus of the most current thinking on the topic, whether it be construction materials, environmental management, information technology, paint and colour industries, quality management systems, railway engineering, shipbuilding, or marine structures.

Benefits of Implementing Standards

The most obvious benefit realized by an organization adhering to an international standard is recognition by prospective users of your widget or service anywhere in the world. If your product deals with telecommunications and information exchange between systems (ISO8802-2), users know what to expect from it. Waste recycling service customers know you are following generally accepted environmental management practices (ISO14001). Purchasers of your widget know you have followed a systematic approach to managing your organization for quality (ISO9001) from accepting an enquiry, through the planning and production of the widget, to after sales service.

Systems Approach

The standards that apply to whole organizations, such as Quality System Management (ISO9001), touch every area of the operation, some areas more than others. The following is a sample breakdown of how the whole operation in an organization is considered in this particular standard:

Quality Management System

This is a navel-gazing section of the standard where an organization examines its processes, identifies its shortcomings with respect to the standard (gap analysis), plans to satisfy all requirements, implements the plans and documents/records the whole system (that's where we come in, right?).

Management Responsibility

Here is where the management team puts its collective head on the chopping block and states its commitment to the standard; including the considerations of customer focus, planning for quality, declaration of chain of command and periodic review of the whole system.

Resource Management

Some motherhood notions of providing the resources needed to keep the system going, continually improving and meeting customer requirements. Human resource issues such as competence and employee development, as well as infrastructure and work environment, are also brought into play.

Product Realization

Planning of how the product or service is to take shape while taking the customer into consideration; design, purchasing and production activities are addressed here.

Measurement, Analysis and Improvement

This involves the notion of continual monitoring with a view to corrective and preventive activities.

While this is a fairly sketchy overview of a system that proposes a holistic approach to doing business while following the practices advanced by a standard, it does propose a comprehensive framework for guidance without dictating a management ‘style’.

Some standards advance the notion of a third party examining an organization for compliance and offering the status of ‘registration’ with ISO. Maybe you have seen such declarations posted across the front walls of local businesses/organizations? ISO9001 / ISO14001 REGISTERED!

For more info and links to standards organizations you can check out my rather austere, not flashy, web site at concretecanoes.com

Editor's Note: Leo Petipas is a former Hospitality Manager for this chapter, past contributor to the Quill (general meeting reviews) and is currently a contract technical writer and ISO consultant/auditor working in the tri-city area.