Thanks for the reply
I wonder what the significance is of different types of industry. I work
in health, and I see systems being applied with little regard for the
difference between different types of industry. That is not to say that
there are not similarities, but I think it needs care to sort out the
difference. In particular, I work mainly in a public health system, which
in funded by a political process, and the benefit is gained to individual
patients, via professionals, many of whom are contracted. There is little
connection between finance and benefit. Somehow, I think this makes a
difference between the corporate coherence and the style of operation of
an organisation. I certainly think the TQM has been badly misapplied in
health, and I am not sure about ISO 9000. I heard one talk about
implementing ISO 9000 in a hospital, and I heard a lot about sorting out
paper-work, adn not a think about doing things for patients. It made me
wonder.
Another thing that I wondered, is that your description sounded all the
world like people working closely together supporting each other - perhaps
just a little formalised. Perhaps I am deeply ignorant - but it is not
clear to me the contribution of the ISO 9000 structures.
Many thanks
Gray Southon
At 10:14 AM 23/7/97 -0400, William Buxton wrote:
>> Just two questions -
>>
>> what industry are you in?
>
>Telecommunications. The folks I work with most deal with a satellite
>telephone system that gets sold around the world, including lots of 3rd
>world countries. Personally, I'm a consultant to the group, and I deal
>with user issues, including documentation.
>
>> Is it possible for internal reviewers to have the same impact?
>
>Inspectors are internal reviewers. It's a peer review, basically, though
>one's place in the hierarchy is not as significant as one's ability to
>contribute or one's need to stay in touch with a development.
>
>> Is it possible that people might be diverted from the real issues by
>> having to comply to the requirements of internal inspectors (as seems to
>> happen in some other inspection and accreditation processes)
>
>There are outside auditors for ISO certification who descend on the
>company from time to time, but they have nothing to do with the inspection
>process I was talking about.
>
>One of the appealing things about the ISO approach (again,I'm speaking as
>a private, not a general) is that the yardsticks are primarily internal.
>You're not getting assessed on an external set of criteria or getting
>compared to somebody else's ideal of the way things should be done.
>
>There are some requirements imposed on top of existing work (like doing
>internal inspections in some fashion and documenting some key things), and
>they can seem like makework/paperwork initially, but I don't see how
>"people might be diverted from the real issues" at all. Perhaps I'm
>missing your point.
>
>I'll also forward you another email on the nitty gritty of inspections.
>
>cheers
> Bill Buxton
Gray Southon
Consultant in Health Management Research and Analysis
15 Parthenia St., Caringbah, NSW 2229, Australia
Ph/Fax +61 2 9524 7822, mobile +61 414 295 328
e-mail gsouthon@ozemail.com.au
Web Page: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~gsouthon/
--Gray Southon <gsouthon@ozemail.com.au>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>