Reading Assignment:

Download and read Chapter 5 in Essentials of Quality With Cases and Experiential Exercises.  Review the Discussion Questions at the end of the chapter to be sure that you understand what you have read

A quality audit is a management tool which provides "a systematic examination of the acts and decisions by people with respect to quality in order to independently verify or evaluate and report degree of compliance to the operational requirements of the quality program, or the specifications or contract requirements of the product or service."  Quality audits may be either internal (first party audits) or external (second or third party audits).

Registration to one of the ISO or ANSI/ASQ 9000 standards requires an external (third party) audit by a registrar.  Evaluation of applicants for the MBNQA is accomplished by external (third party) audit.  Read more about the MBNQA at the  NIST National Quality Program Web Site.  A challenge for organizations is to ensure that they pursue ISO 9000 or MBNQA for the right reasons.  While it may be possible to obtain certification to ISO 9000 without actually changing the behavior of the organization, that would defeat the real purpose of the accredition process.  The documented procedures must be assessed for their ability to help the organization achieve the control and consistencey that is essential to the achievement of organizational excellence.

Thought provoking question:  Think back to Lesson 15.  Is it possible that ISO 9000 might create such a structured environment that employee creativity might be stiffled?  What actions should a proactive manager take to ensure that this does not happen?

Supplier certification is often accomplished by an external (second party) audit by a team put together by the customer.  Organizations frequently conduct internal (first party) audits in preparation for external audits and also as a routine part of the management control process.  ISO 9000 requires that organizations meet the standard and do what they document.  Internal audits can be used to ensure that organizations conform with the requirements of their documented procedures.

Another quality standard, NADCAP (National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accredation Program), is increasingly being required of suppliers to the aerospace and other industries.  Find out more about NADCAP at the Performance Review Institute (PRI) web site.

QS-9000, the quality standard for automobile manufacturers and their suppliers, is scheduled to expire soon.  QS-9000 will be replaced by ISO/TS 16949:2002.  Suppliers to Ford and GM must transition to the new standard by December 14, 2006.  Suppliers to DaimlerChrysler must transition to ISO/TS 16949 by July 1, 2004.  Information about the transition is available from the Automotive Industry Action Group.

The ISO 9000 standards were revised in 2000.  The ISO 9000-2000 standards have been published by ASQ as Item Number T2100 (priced at $96.00 for members; $120.00 for non-members).  This publication contains the ANSI/ISO/ASQ Q9000-2000, ABSI/ISO/ASQ Q9001-2000, and ANSI/ISO/ASQ Q9004-2000.  There is an e-version of the standards.  Item T2100E is available for download for $120.00.

"Why have so few companies registered to ISO 9001:2000? In its July 2002 ISO 9000 survey, Quality Digest reported 'the actual figure [of companies that have transitioned] is probably 8 to 10 percent.' Companies now have barely more than a year to change to the new standard. One major reason for the slow response might be that ISO 9001:2000's perceived value isn't sufficiently compelling in these slow economic times."

Answer Discussion Questions 9-13 at the end of Chapter 5 of the text.  Do not submit these for grading.  Address any confusion you have about a particular question via e-mail to the instructor.

Do Case Study 5.1, The First Audit, at the end of Chapter 5 of the text.

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