[oclug] To What Degree, Support?

[Francis J. A. Pinteric]

On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 02:28:08 +0000
Greg <sphex at sympatico.ca> wrote:

> If you question Stephen closely, you would probably find his complaint
> is not about ISO 9000 per se, rather with the way it is used.
> 
> As (I think) you imply, if a company wishes to control its 
> product-quality, ISO 9000 can help;  if a company wishes to neglect
> its product-quality, substitute meaningless logos on the box for
> product in the box, ISO 9000 can help with that, too.
> 

Clever. But that is possible only after certification has been achieved.
A company can completely neglect its responsibilities under ISO 9000 all
it likes. Of course the next series of audits will uncover that.

Assuming a company wants to perpetrate a fraud, then they can drag out
the period between a failed audit and decertification for as much as a
year (under ISO 9000 1993).  Then again, a failed audit is reported
immediately. In the meantime they can display the logo until they are
officially decertified.

That of course begs the question why would any company go to the trouble
of certifiying itself only to later perpetrate a fraud? Of course the
answer lies in companies like WorldCom and the billions lost through the
fraud of it's officers.

I can't guarantee that ISO 9000 would prevent a WorldComm, and in fact
knowing ISI 9000 1993, it would not have prevented it.

In the end, a quality system is only as good as the people who are
commited to it. Any quality system works best when all the people
involved buy into it, ISO 9000 or otherwise.

But sometimes quality sneaks in whether you like it or not. Open Source
development manages to sneak in ISO-9000 without the participants even
knowing it. Open Source development lends itself very easily to ISO
9000. It's no wonder considering that Swedish culture grew up with it.

I really encourage every OCLUG member to get a hold of the ISO 9000
series standards and read them. And pretend you didn't grow up in
America.

>>>--fja->






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