Results of an empirical investigation on the anticipated improvement areas of the ISO 9001:2000 standard

The latest ISO 9000:2000 family of standards was expected to advance quality management further than the previous (1994) version of the series and to form a new basis for continual improvement and business excellence. However, although the expectations of the revised standard were very high, there is not enough evidence yet to support its actual success. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of quality management in accordance with the global ISO 9000:2000 standards. More specifically, the paper investigates whether certified organisations have really witnessed the expected benefits of the revised series of standards, as well as the overall benefits and problems encountered in the implementation of the process-oriented ISO 9001:2000 standard. The study is based on Greek SMEs which were initially certified to the previous ISO 9000:1994 standards and adapted their systems to the revised ISO 9001:2000 standard. Major conclusions indicate continuous improvement and customer orientation as the main improvement areas. Higher management involvement in quality efforts and continuous process improvement are the most obvious and valued benefits from certification, while managers did not witness any special difficulties in the standard's implementation process.