"Can you provide information or experience that ISO 9000 does really
enhance innovation and learning in a significant number of organisations
that take it on, rather than the exceptional few."
The origin of ISO9000 is in the carmaker and parts industry, where the low
price / high quality cars by japanese car makers lead to a revolution of
quality. The competitive situation for european/US cars without ISO9000
would be the same as for television and cameras.
In our branch there is no way without ISO9000. Today it is impossible to
deliver for example more than 100.000 electronic controll units for one
car-line per year, where "no failure" for over 10 years (summer and
winter) is vital for the security on our streets, without a quality
assurance system at least according to ISO9000: Write down what you do, do
as you have written, improve your doing.
What I am saying is: ISO9000 is unquestionably fundamental. (But yes, it
can be misused - see comments by Jay Spitulnik (LO14354) and Bill Buxton
(LO14371) to which I fully agree).
Regards, Winfried
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>