Evaluating ISO9001 principles in a service organisation

Abstract

ISO9000 is a quality management system (QMS), consisting amongst others of ISO9001, which is a set of international quality assurance (QA) standards that enable companies to manage quality effectively by providing an organisation with the guidelines to do so. This study evaluates the application of ISO9001 principles in a service organisation by assessing the data collected from the QMS, based on the ISO9001 standard guidelines of the Centre for Environmental Management (CEM) at the North-West University (NWU) for the years 2012-2019. The ISO9001 standard guidelines are not industry-specific and can therefore be implemented in any size or type of organisation. ISO9000 can assist an organisation in meeting its customer’s needs, as well as comply with and continually improve on their regulatory requirements related to quality. CEM transparently and diligently follows these principles in all their operations. All processes and products at CEM are designed and implemented to support customer satisfaction. The quality management guidelines are further extended to suppliers and subcontractors, to provide quality service and to maintain mutually beneficial ties. Corporate and operating priorities are periodically developed following the executive assessment cycle, as well as the strategic and the organisational preparation phases. These priorities are included in the quality targets. This study will focus on this service organisation, Centre for Environmental Management, to evaluate its use of ISO standards guidelines. This research evaluates whether the values outlined in the standard are being implemented within an ISO9001-based active QMS, whether they address quality and whether they allow the organisation to improve service quality and customer satisfaction continuously.