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SUMMARY
THis paoer is a discussion on how quality casta are handled in the IOS 9000 standards and how their evolution in succeeding versions of the standards of 1987, 1994, 1997 and 2000 reflect the impact of total quality management (TQM).
KEY WORDS
cost of quality, economics, Q90 series
INTRODUCTION
One of the most striking and universal trends in quality management during the past ten years has been the drive by businesses of alI types to become certified to ISO 9000, or industry-specific standards based on ISO 9000, such as QS-9000. This trend is occurring simultaneously with another trend that has characterized, and indeed defined, the quality movement for the past fifteen or so years, namely, the adoption by organizations of all types of the principles and practices of continuous improvement and TQM. Where does the use of quality costs, which actually predates by decades either of these two trends, fit into the picture? Observing how the committees and working groups responsible for writing ISO and related standards continue to struggle with this question tells us a lot about both the confluence and contradictions of these two cornerstones of modern quality management. The objective of this presentation is to provide quality managers and those charged with implementing ISO 9000 quality standards guidelines on integrating financial measures into their quality systems.
THE EVOLVING ISO 9000 STANDARDS
The ISO 9001, 9002, 9003 series standards define and specify the elements of a quality system that must be in place to ensure the quality of the output, i.e., that products and services meet customer requirements. Quality costs are not mentioned in these standards. ISO 9004, on the other hand, offers guidelines to help measure the effectiveness of the quality system. The measures of most general interest are financial. Money is the universal language of business and is at least a consideration in most other enterprises. For this reason the ISO 9004 standard recommends a financial measurement of quality and specifies quality costs as one of these financial measures (ISO 9004-6 (Revision)Financial Considerations of Quality Systems-identical to ANSI/ASQ Q9004-1-1994). The...