How to Achieve ISO 9000 Series Registration: A Model for Small Companies

Abstract

This article outlines a model that portrays what a small company needs to successfully achieve ISO 9000 registration. The model consists of the domains of motivation, information, resources, and planning. Examining the interaction among these four domains highlights how progress toward ISO 9000 registration can be enhanced or diminished. The dynamics of the model require that the four domains be raised from their latent state through internal and external stimuli. As the factors inflating or deflating the domains strengthen or weaken, so the rate of progress toward installing a quality management system to meet ISO 9000 requirements increases or decreases. The research findings indicate that progress by a company toward ISO 9000 registration is only made when the demands of motivation, information, resources, and planning come together. The union of only two domains is insufficient to generate sufficient momentum to promote progress; if all the domains are sufficiently deflated the progress to ISO 9000 compliance is halted.

• information
• ISO 9000 series
• motivation
• model
• planning
• resources
• small companies

Additional information

Notes on contributors

M. M. McTeer

M. M. McTeer is a squadron leader in the Royal Air Force, responsible for quality and logistics The research presented in this article is based on his master's degree, which was earned from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST).

B. G. Dale

B. G. Dale is a reader in quality management and director of the Quality Manogement Centre at UMIST. He is also a nonexecutive director of Manchester Circuits Ltd., a company specializing in the manufacture of high technology and complex printed circuit boards for aerospace and defense applications. He earned a doctorate degree in cellular manufacture from the University of Nottingham. Dale may be contacted at the Quality Management Centre, UMIST, P.O. Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD, United Kingdom; 011-44-01-200-3424, Fax [phone].