Re: ISO9000: what you make is what you claim to make

["Walker, Arlen P" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM>]

      Now, please, tell me if and when ISO9000 force you to tell your
      customer WHAT you want to produce.

I would think the customer forces that. If I don't tell you what I'm
making, how can I realistically expect you to buy it? And if my competitors
don't tell you, but I do, doesn't that give me an advantage over them in
selling to you? ISO9000 doesn't have to force anything, the market system
does that all by itself.

      Are you, manufacturer, forced to give me a data sheet that describe
      your product and tell me the quality level you decided to keep? Have
      I (individual customer) access to your product's project and ISO9000
      quality plan?

If you don't get that access, perhaps you, as a customer, should ask why
you don't. Seems dangerous to me to buy something without knowing what it
is you're buying or who you're buying it from.

      How can I tell you if your product's features comply with my wish
      list?

Compare your wish list with my spec sheet. Or do you seriously mean to
suggest anyone should buy something without checking the specs on it first?

      How can I tell you if I'm willing to accept your cost/compromise
      manufacturing decisions?

By opening your checkbook or not. If you don't buy, obviously there's
something about it you didn't think was worth buying. I can either ignore
the fact you didn't buy, or ask you why. You can either tell me or not. If
I don't ask, I can't improve. If you don't tell me, you make it difficult
for me to improve.

      Why should not I be legitimate to read it as a general claim of
      "high" quality? Why should I think that my idea of "high quality" was
      incorrect? Did you warn me of my "phylosophical" mistakes?

Since I wouldn't be aware of your "philosophical mistakes" unless you told
me about them, I could hardly warn you about them in advance, now, could I?
If I put any statement at all about the quality of my product on my box,
how would you know the truth behind it? You'd have to examine my claim to
see what it means and to see if it was true. You should treat ISO9000
certification the same way. It's rather senseless to give the certification
a high value without knowing what it means, isn't it?

      Are not you, ISO9000 certified company, hiding yourself in a
      bureaucratic maze? Do you really think customers will not realize it?

My company went for certification for several reasons, and one of them was
because our customers demanded it. They obviously didn't think we were
using it to hide in a maze. ISO9000 isn't hiding anything. The meaning of
ISO9000 is clearly defined and easily available. If a customer doesn't want
to bother to check what the ISO9000 certification means before using it to
make a purchasing decision, then I'd suggest that the quality of their
purchases is probably not their only problem, nor even their most pressing
problem.

It seems to me your objections aren't really about ISO9000 at all. They
seem to be more about sleazy business ethics than about quality management
systems.

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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