Raising awareness of the benefits of certification and assurance services
In ‘Benefits of ISO 9000 implementation in Spanish industry’ (Casadesús, M., Giménez, G., Heras, I, 2001), the benefits of certification to ISO 9000 are examined by looking at 502 businesses in Catalonia and the Basque country in Spain. These areas were chosen for the study because the relative high proportion of certified companies and a higher diversity of sectors.
The findings of the research broke the companies into two groups, those who had seen high internal benefits (HIBs) and those who had seen moderate internal benefits (MIBs). The research identified 79% of companies as HIBs and 21% as MIBs. The most important internal beneficial outcomes of ISO 9000 for the HIBS were perceived to be:
Moreover, 74% of the companies recognized a decrease in their costs having applied ISO 9000.
The conclusion of the report explains why the research identifies the two groups of HIBs and MIBs, ‘It is undeniable that, although ISO 9000 has many positive points, these must be used in the right context, which meant that not all companies were able to take advantage’.
One pointer to the growth of other management system certification schemes came with the report stating that ‘96% (of companies) believed that ISO 9000 standard is a good system of quality assurance, although many managers believed that the standard should be extended to include environmental and industrial safety standards’. An indicator from 2001 (when this paper was published) of the growth of schemes such as ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 for environmental and health & safety management respectively.
Universidad de Girona (Casadesús, Giménez), Universidad del Pais Vasco, Bilbao (Heras)