Some experts could barely hide their disappointment when the total number of ISO 9001 certificates recently failed to break the long-awaited million-certificate mark—as if it isn’t enough to have the world’s most widely used voluntary quality standard of all time.
With 982,832 third-party certificates issued in 176 countries and economies as of December 2008—the latest year for which figures are available—“around” one million certified users may very well be good enough.
The total still represents an overall increase of 31,346 certificates compared to the 2007 year-end total of 951,486 certificates that were issued in 175 countries and economies, according to data collected on behalf of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
But the larger questions that industry has been struggling with for some time is how many of these certifications have been performed in a way that brings value to the end-user—namely you and me? Can a certified firm ship nonconforming, or substandard, products at times still hold onto their certificates?
How good is good enough?
“I think one million is a psychologically important number,” acknowledges Nigel H. Croft, who was recently named to take over the chairmanship of the international subcommittee responsible for drafting ISO 9001 and companion document ISO 9004, which has been refocused to assist organizations in achieving sustained success.
“Whether it’s slightly more or slightly less than a million certificates doesn’t really concern me,” Croft told me in an interview. “What does concern me is the value that certification is bringing to the world economy within the context of facilitating world trade and providing confidence in cross-border trade or cross-frontier transactions.”
For years, Croft has been at the forefront of efforts to build greater confidence and integrity into the third-party system. In addition to his work in standardization, Croft has been a force within the accreditation and conformity assessment communities, attempting to focus greater emphasis on achieving better outcomes with the standard rather than merely driving up the number of certificates.
Even his recent eBook, ISO 9001:2008 Small Changes Big Opportunities (Sustainable Success Alert, 2009) highlights 38 “big opportunities” for companies to improve their systems with the latest edition of the standard—all with an eye toward reinforcing the message that outcomes do indeed matter.
The 500-pound elephant in the room, so to speak, with respect to certification is whether or not we’re seeing a peak in certification activity. That might mean we may even see our first dip in the total number of certificates.
After all, the most recent total represents a mere 3-percent gain overall. In its analysis, ISO attributes this slight gain to the need to correct data from the previous year’s total—similar to a company restating its financial earnings.
The recalculation alone doesn't appear to explain such slow overall growth. I would be more inclined to buy the fact that we are still feeling the effects of one of the worst global recessions since the Great Depression and organizations are fighting to stay in business, as opposed to buying more quality certificates.
The latest ISO 9001 numbers also come at a time when it is unclear when, or even if, we can expect a revision of the standard within the next five years.
The international technical committee responsible for initiating any future drafting work has formed a strategic planning task force to consider the vision, mission, and long-term strategic plan for future work. They are looking at what some experts refer to as the “eco system” of related standards, guidance documents, and the range of activities that depend on the international quality management system documents in the ISO 9000 family.
This includes sector-specific regulatory requirements such as ISO/TS 16949, AS9100, and TL 9000 that reference ISO quality documents as well as the relationship of the documents in the broader context of conformity assessment, particularly in the case of ISO 9001. The work will almost certainly consider quality award schemes such as the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and its Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence in the United States.
While it’s still early in this process, some experts are convinced that ISO 9001 and other documents in the ISO 9000 family need to be more user-friendly. That is, they want to find a mechanism by which the technical integrity of the documents can be preserved while making them easier to understand and implement by users and other stakeholders.
That’s consistent with what I’m hearing from experts, who insist that the single biggest challenge facing the ISO 9001 community is not how to improve the standard to get better results, but how to get more organizations to make the most out of the tools that are already contained in ISO 9001: internal audits, management review, preventive and corrective action, etc.
Another way this can be accomplished is by putting more pressure on the bodies that stand behind the world’s third-party certificates—the national and regional bodies that accredit certifiers through the loosely structured International Accreditation Forum (IAF).
While there are pockets of excellence within the accreditation community, it’s no secret that resources are limited and progress has been slow.
Randy Dougherty, U.S. expert of the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB), has recently been named to head the IAF. Dougherty has a reputation among the certification bodies accredited by ANAB as being tough on enforcement, albeit within the constraints of available resources. If I had to name two people who have had the greatest effect on the credibility of the standard in the last five years, I would be hard-pressed not to put Croft and Dougherty on my short list.
The fact that one of them will be leading future revisions of the standard, and the other driving changes in the policing of the third-party system, bodes well for finally getting something done about our 500-pound elephant, even at the expense of posting bigger numbers.
Don’t be surprised or disappointed if the numbers start to go down in future counts. Frankly, we’d all be better served to have fewer certificates that are more meaningful than the satisfaction of breaking the million mark—particularly when that mark is clearly stained.
Paul Scicchitano is the creative inspiration behind Sustainable Success Alert, the first online publication devoted to helping organizations achieve sustainable success. This encompasses all around sustainability of the organization—from business continuity in a crisis to minimizing environmental impacts, reducing energy consumption, growing the business, minimizing risks, and developing new clients while protecting sensitive customer data. It offers a range of publishing solutions, including its flagship online publication, a co-branded customized e-journal for all clients of Quality Systems Registrars, video webinars, and e-books like the recently published ISO 9001:2008 Small Changes Big Opportunities by Nigel H. Croft. With an impressive track record in fast-paced publishing companies like McGraw-Hill, Times Mirror, and The Philadelphia Inquirer, Scicchitano is well prepared to help companies identify today’s most critical business tools to navigate the global economy. Some of his articles and photographs can also be found in The Washington Post.
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