The year was 1994 and I sat in the room filled with anxious questioners. “What,” they asked, “was the usefulness of this quality system? How can it better my business?”
The quality system under question was ISO 9000. My response was something like, “In its ideal use, ISO 9000 offers an opportunity for a company to evaluate how it manufactures its product and determine whether improvement can be made. Otherwise, it’s just a piece of paper.” I stand by that statement today, and I believe the experience of many ISO-certified manufacturers bear out that statement’s validity.