The Impact of ISO Certification on the Levels of Awareness and Usage of Quality Tools and Concepts: A Survey of Turkish Manufacturing Companies

Abstract

Total quality management and the implementation of quality systems have become major initiatives of companies throughout the world over the last 20 years. This is especially true for companies that are doing or wish to do business in the European Community.

For many of these companies, however, ISO certification has become a prerequisite when exporting their products. Companies must be able to demonstrate that they have the systems in place to provide a quality product if they wish to be competitive in the global marketplace. This article presents results of a survey of Turkish manufacturing companies. The study included 140 large Turkish manufacturing firms and investigates important relationships dealing with quality and the implementation of quality tools in Turkish manufacturing companies. The results lead to a greater understanding of the implementation of statistical tools and the relationship between the application of these tools and ISO certification in Turkey. Some of the results were surprising. There appeared to be significant differences in usage between ISO certified companies and noncertified companies for most of the basic standard quality tools but on only four of the advanced tools. ISO certified companies used more standard, basic quality tools than noncertified companies. Of the 13 advanced tools, however, the ISO certified companies used only four of them much more frequently. In addition, noncertified companies did not use any quality tool significantly more than ISO certified companies.

• ISO certification
• SPC
• TQM
• Turkey

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ceyhun Ozgur

Ceyhun Ozgur is an associate professor and area coordinator of information and decision sciences/finance in the college of business administration at Valparaiso University. He earned a bachelor's degree in industrial management and master's degree from the University of Akron and doctorate in business administration (operations management/operations research) from Kent State University. Among others, Ozgur has published in Interfaces, OMEGA, Production Planning and Control, International Journal of Operations and Quantitative Management, International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, International Journal of Business Disciplines, Industrial Mathematics, and Teaching Statistics. He is a member of the Decision Sciences Institute, INFORMS, and APICS and serves as an area editor and member of the editorial review board for International Journal of Operations and Quantitative Management and Industrial Mathematics, respectively. He can be reached at [email protected].

Gary E. Meek

Gory E. Meek is a professor of business and dean of the College of Business and Technology at Black Hills State University. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Cleveland State University and a doctorate in statistics from Case Western Reserve University. Meek has coauthored textbooks in statistics for Allyn & Bacon and Houghton-Mifflin and contributed to a text for Wiley Interscience. He has had articles published in the International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, Industrial Mathematics, Journal of the College and University Personnel Association, and the Journal of Private Enterprise. His presentations include papers at meetings of DSI, International DSI, Academy of Management, Asian Academy of Management, ORSA/TIMS, ASA, IMS, ASQ, and Academy of Business Administration. Meek has consulted in the areas of statistics and TQM with companies nationwide and was a Fulbright Fellow to Malaysia in quality management and statistical process control. He can be reached at [email protected].

Aysegul Toker

Aysegul Toker is an associate professor in the Department of Management at Bogazici University, Istanbul. She received her doctorate in industrial engineering in 1994 from Middle East Technical University, Ankara. Her research focuses on production planning and control, information systems, quality planning and benchmarking, and solid waste management. She has published articles in Naval Research Logistics and Journal of Operational Research Society. Toker is member of INFORMS and serves as a member in Quality and Technology Advisory Board of Istanbul Chamber of Industry.