ISO 9000 standards implementation in Turkey: reasons, difficulties, and results.

Pinar, Musa ; Guder, Faruk ; Yucel, Tulay 等

INTRODUCTION

Companies have had to respond to changing conditions throughout recorded history. However, the pressure on management to improve organizational performance has grown significantly over the past two decades due to the rapid changes in the global business environment. Organizations needed to improve their performance to be competitive and to adapt to changing conditions to sustain competitive advantages. As adaptive systems, organizations must respond to the forces driving the need to be competitive. These forces include demanding customers, fierce global competition, technological change, and the general environmental influences such as government and culture (Rummler and Brache, 1995).

Organizations have used a variety of approaches to improve their performances. Some of these approaches include guru-based approaches, just-in-time production, total quality management, business process reengineering, the Baldrige Award Criteria framework, or ISO standards. Management has faced different problems to implement the performance improvement efforts based on each approach. Each approach has resulted in many successes, but also many failures. In some cases, it is difficult to measure the success of the improvement efforts. Although financial and market performance measures such as return on equity or market share have been the traditional measures, there are other business performance measures such as customer satisfaction, effectiveness of human resources, and process performance, which are perhaps a better indication of sustained success. This difficulty of determining the effectiveness of improvement initiatives is further complicated by the fact that competitors also have similar performance improvement initiatives. Lessons learned from past experiences should be helpful for organizations to better prepare for future improvement efforts.

This study reports the experiences of ISO 9000-certified organizations in Turkey. The specific objectives of this survey were: (1) To determine the reasons/motives for implementing ISO 9000 standards, (2) To identify the difficulties/problems faced in implementing the standards, (3) To examine the impact of the ISO system on business performance measures, and (4) To compare the performance measures of the firms who achieved their expectation from ISO 9000 certification with those firms who did not achieve.

PREVIOUS RESEARCH ON ISO 9000

There have been a number of empirical studies conducted to examine the reasons/motives for implementing ISO 9000 standards and the benefits the companies gained from certification (Rayner and Porter, 1991; Rabbit and Bergh, 1993; Brumm, 1995; Eddy, 1995; Peach, 1995; O'Brien, 1996; Weston, 1995; Morita, 1996; MORI, 1996; SGS Yarsley, 1996; Rao, Ragu-Nathan and Solis, 1997; Chittenden, Poutziouris and Mukhtar, 1998; Al-Ghamdi, 1998; Barnes, 1998; Bhuian, 1998; Vloebrghs and Belles, 1996). These studies found that the most common motives for implementing ISO 9000 fell into the two broad categories of internal and external. The most common internal benefits were improved management control and process, workforce motivation, team building and improved internal communication, increased productivity, improved and consistent documentation, improved or higher perceived product quality, improved efficiency, cost savings and increased profits. The most important external benefits of ISO 9000 were improved/greater customer focus and satisfaction, decline in customer complaints, increased sales in global and domestic markets, increased market share, and greater marketing and competitive advantage.

A survey by Lloyd Register Quality Assurance (LRQA, 1996) compared the performance of a sample of 222 British ISO 9000 registered companies with the industry average. The study found that ISO 9000 registered companies were two to three times more profitable than their non-registered competitors. They significantly outperformed the industry average on five key financial and sales measures of profit margin, return on capital employed, sales per employee, capital employed per employee, and asset turnover. The results also showed that ISO 9000 registered companies had experienced improved efficiency and productivity, reduced waste and costs, and improved their market share. The study further found that ISO 9000 registered firms were financially better than their non-certified competitors, and small companies in particular were almost three times more profitable than the industry average.

A number of studies have identified various problems and difficulties that the companies faced when implementing ISO 9000 standards (Morita, 1996; SGS Yarsley, 1996; Al-Ghamdi, 1998, Barnes, 1998; and Chittenden, Poutziouris and Mukhtar, 1998). The most frequently cited difficulties or problems with ISO 9000 certification were increased paperwork, internal and external interpretations of the standards, understanding the language and terminology of the standards, ISO 9000 being too prescriptive, the high level of red tape in implementing the standards and the high cost of implementation. In response to these problems, the ISO 9000 technical committee responsible for the standards conducted to identify the potential improvements for revision (Seaver, 1998). The "top seven" improvements recommended for the 2000 revision were: simpler language and terminology, easier integration into one management system, continuous improvement, a process model approach, better compatibility with other management system standards, and customer satisfaction and business orientation.

Despite the world-wide popularity of ISO 9000, Bannock (1991) concluded that there was "no rush for small firms to register" with ISO 9000 since early criticism of the standard drew attention to the complex quality management procedures, which were thought to be inappropriate to the needs of small-scale operations. It was claimed that the formality of the procedures resulted in high financial and time costs associated with developing and operating the ISO 9000 quality management system. Several studies have identified the factors that contributed the unpopularity of the standards in the small business community (North, Blackburn and Curran, 1993, 1994; Street and Fermie, 1992). These factors were being unaware of or not intending to register with the standards, considering the standards irrelevant because of the size of their business, being too costly, and being bureaucratic and incompatible with their management style.

METHODOLOGY

In order to accomplish the study objectives, a questionnaire was designed to address each research objective. Specifically, respondents were asked: (1) The reasons for implementing ISO 9000 standards; (2) The impact of ISO 9000 certification on business performance and achieving of ISO 9000 expectations; and (3) Difficulties faced in implementing ISO 9000 standards. There were several additional questions about the selected profiles and characteristics of the firms.

The Aegean Region of Turkey, which is the southwestern part of the country, was selected for this study. This region was selected because: (1) It is one of the most industrialized regions of Turkey, (2) The region has diverse industries, and (3) There has been great interest in ISO 9000 certification. Because of these characteristics, the Aegean region gives a fairly good representation of Turkey. Also, the Izmir Chamber of Commerce (the major one in the region) was interested in assessing the impact of ISO 9000 on the performance of businesses in the region so that the future plans and strategies could be developed and/or redirected. Since the study was limited to the Aegean Region, a list of ISO 9000 certified firms in the region was obtained from Izmir Chamber of Commerce. There were a total of 111 ISO 9000 certified firms in the region when the study was conducted. The standardized, self-administered questionnaire was mailed to all ISO 9000 certified firms in March of 1998. The survey was directed to the person who is in charge of quality management in the organization. A total of 64 useable surveys were returned. This represents a response rate of about 58 percent. The results showed that about 50% of the respondents were directly involved with some form of quality control, 8% were president/CEO or general manager, 11 % were vice president (no indication for area of responsibility), 12.7% did not respond to this question, and the rest had managerial positions in various business areas. The analyses of the results are presented in the following sections.

RESULTS

Selected Profiles of the Responding Firms In order to gain some insight about the ISO 9000 certified firms, their selected profiles are presented in Table 1. The survey results indicate that the firms in the Aegean region of Turkey started receiving their ISO 9000 certification in 1993. However, this increased dramatically after 1995. Before 1995, while 9.4 % of the respondents (6 firms) had received ISO 9000 certification, the number increased sharply in 1995 to 23.4 % (15 firms). When the survey was conducted, the largest certification occurred in 1996 with 19 firms or 29.7 %, followed by 1997 with 26.6 %. These results show that about 90.6 % of the responding firms received their certification after 1995. This may indicate that there is a growing interest among Turkish firms in the Aegean region to improve the quality of their products.

There is not a major difference in the sizes of the firms, based on the number of employees, in seeking ISO 9000 certification (Table 1). While the firms with 101-250 employees have the most ISO 9000 certification (34.4 %), the firms with 501 or more employees have the lowest certification (18.0 %). The study also found that 23.0 % of the firms with less than 100 employees and 24.6 % of them with employees between 251-500 had ISO 9000 certification. These findings may suggest that the firms with 101 to 500 employees might be more responsive and/or more willing to pursue ISO 9000 certification.

The majority of the firms (57.8 %) in the sample are in manufacturing, followed by agriculture and food industry with 10.9 %, and energy with 4.7 %. There were not many ISO 9000 certified firms in service, construction and mining industries. The "Other" category makes up 18.8 % of the respondents, which covers all other industries.

The exporting volume of the ISO 9000 certified firms are put into four groups, as presented in Table 1. The results show that the largest percent (35.1 %) of the ISO 9000-certified firms have exports of $1.0-$5.0 million, followed by 24.3 % with exports of less than $ 1.0 million, 18.9 % with exports of $5.0-$10.0 million, and 21.6 % with exports of more than $10.0 million. These results show that about 60.0 % of the firms with exports less than $ 5.0 million have received ISO 9000 certification. This may suggest that since ISO 9000 has been accepted as a world wide quality standard, the firms with low exports might be more interested in ISO 9000 certification to increase their exports. The study also showed that 80.6 % of the firms are currently exporting and only 19.4 % are not exporting. The other finding of the study is that 70.3 % of the firms were certified by the Turkish Standards Institute, 17.2 % by foreign certifying organizations, and 12.5 % by both Turkish Standards Institute and Foreign certifying organizations.

Reasons for Implementing ISO 9000

The motivations for receiving and implementing ISO 9000 standards are classified into three groups. These groups are organizational-specific performance improvements, competition, and market and customers-related pressures. The specific reasons for implementing within each category are presented in Figure 1. On an overall basis, the results of the survey showed that organizational performance improvement factors were more important for the firms in seeking ISO 9000 registration than competitive or market and market factors. The study found that to improve organizational effectiveness (64.1 %) and to improve product quality (56.3 %) are the two most important reasons given by the respondents for implementing ISO 9000, both of which are organizational performance factors. This may suggest that internal factors were the primary reasons for seeking ISO 9000 certification. The other organizational performance measures that the respondents rated were reduced costs (43.8 %), improve workforce motivation (42.2 %), maintain long-term survival (42.2 %), and reduce waste/scrap (39.1 %).

The study found that market and customer factors were also important reasons for seeking ISO 9000 certification. "Increasing market share was the most important reason in this category, followed by pressure from domestic customers (40.6%), pressure from foreign customers (35.9%), increase exports (31.3%), and finally ISO 9000 as a good promotional tool (21.9%). Since increasing market share and pressure from domestic customers are the highest rated market and customer factors, this may suggest that firms seek ISO 9000 certification in response to a pressure from domestic market rather than international markets. This finding is somewhat supported by the fact that only 31.3% of the respondents stated that "to increase exports" was the reason for seeking ISO 9000 certification. The competitive pressure was the other motivation for implementing ISO 9000. However, a relatively low rating of competitive pressure (21.9%) suggests that it was not a major motivating factor for Turkish firms for seeking ISO 9000 certification.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Difficulties in Implementing ISO 9000 Standards

One of the objectives of the study was to identify the difficulties and concerns that the firms faced in implementing the ISO 9000 standards. The respondents were asked to indicate the difficulties and/or concerns they had in seeking and/or implementing the ISO 9000 standards. The results in Figure 2 show that the respondents had the most difficulty with bureaucracy and paperwork (57.8 %) in implementation of ISO 9000. This is followed by the difficulty of understanding the requirements (45.3 %), high cost of initial certification (35.9 %), restrictiveness of ISO 9000 (32.9%), lack of support by personnel (26.6 %), and high cost of maintaining ISO 9000 (17.2 %).

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

It is interesting to note that only 4.7 % of the respondents indicated "improvement change in quality" as a concern with implementing ISO 9000. This shows that about 95% of the respondents experienced some degree of improvement in quality. Since bureaucracy and paper work coupled with the difficulty of understanding requirements seem to be the major concerns in ISO 9000 implementation, some effort could be made to reduce this burden so that firms could achieve their ISO 9000 objectives. This could be especially significant for small firms with limited resources.

Impact of ISO 9000 on Business Performance

The survey contained a number of questions to measure the impact of ISO 9000 on effectiveness of various business performance measures. As shown in Table 4, these business activities were grouped as customer, management and human resources, financial and market, and organizational effectiveness. All the factors were measured on a five point scale, where 1=decreased very much, 2=decreased, 3=no change, 4=increased, and 5=increased very much. Also, the respondents were given a choice to indicate if it was too early to decide if ISO 9000 had had any impact on any of the business performance factors. The mean responses and frequency distributions for each factor are presented in Table 2.

The results in Table 2 show that ISO 9000 had the greatest impact on management and human resource factors. The effectiveness of quality system experienced the most increase with a mean value of 4.29, where 33.3 % of the firms responded as "increased very much" and 60.30 % responded as "increased." This is followed by "communication among department" with a mean value of 3.88, "effectiveness of top management" with a mean value of 3.79, and "personnel motivation" with a mean value of 3.69.

The next area that showed the most improvement from ISO 9000 implementation is organizational effectiveness. In this group, defective products improved the most with the mean value of 1.95, where 18.0 % of the firms responded as "decreased very much" and 67.2 % as "decreased." This is followed by waste/scrap with a mean value of 2.17, and costs with a mean value of 2.78. Productivity/efficiency also showed an improvement with a mean value of 3.74.

In addition, the study found that ISO 9000 had a positive impact on customers, where the mean value of 2.07 indicated that customer complaints have decreased considerably. This is also supported by the fact that 74.2 % of the respondents indicated their customer complaints "decreased or decreased very much." The results showed that 16.1 % of the respondents stated that the customer complaints "decreased very much" and 58.1 % of them stated it "decreased." That means about 75 % of them have experienced some degree of decline in customer complaints, which is a good indication for improved and more satisfied customer, leading better and long-term customer relationship.

Finally, the findings suggest that ISO 9000 had a smaller impact on financial and market factors. The mean values for these factors are about 3.50, indicating that the impact was not significantly noticeable. One possible explanation for this is that it may take longer for these factors to show any significant improvements. The other explanation is that the other factors have to be improved considerably before financial and market factors can show any improvements. This explanation was somewhat supported by the higher percent of "early to decide" responses given to most of low improvement factors.

The Impact of ISO 9000 on Foreign Competitiveness

The survey included a question to determine if ISO 9000 has improved the competitiveness of the firms in the foreign markets. The respondents were asked to rate the impact of the ISO 9000 on their foreign competitiveness on a five-point scale, which ranged from increased very much to decreased very much. The results of the survey are presented in Figure 3. 10.2 % of the firms stated that their foreign competitiveness has increased very much, and 54.2 % of them stated that foreign competitiveness somewhat increased. While none of the respondents reported any decrease in their foreign competitiveness, 35.6 % indicated no change. This suggests that ISO 9000 has had a positive impact on the foreign competitiveness of the firms.

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

Accomplishing ISO 9000 Expectations/Goals

The study examined whether or not the firms had achieved their expectations/goals of ISO 9000 certification. This was measured on a five point scale where 1 = not achieved at all and 5 = totally achieved. The results presented in Figure 4 show that 38.1 % of the firms have totally (7.9 %) or somewhat achieved (30.2%) their ISO 9000 expectations, 49.2 % said that it was too early to decide, and 12.7 % stated that they have not achieved (11.1 %) or not achieved at all (1.6%). These findings suggest that the Turkish firms have had considerable success with ISO 9000 certification, which is further evidenced by the low scores for "not achieved" and "not achieved at all" expectations from ISO 9000 certification. Since the majority of the firms received their certification after 1995, this may partially explain why about half of the respondents stated that it was 'too early to decide' if they have achieved their ISO 9000 expectations. They may need a few more years to realize the benefits of ISO 9000 certification.

[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]

Achievers vs. Non-achievers of ISO 9000 Expectations

We wanted to compare the firms that stated that they achieved their expectations from ISO 9000 with those that did not achieve their expectations from ISO 9000 with respect to business performance measures. For this purpose, the firms were put into two groups. One group included the firms which responded as "totally or somewhat achieved" their expectations from ISO 9000, and called them as "successful or achievers." The second group included the firms who responded as "too early to decide, not achieved, or not achieved at all" and called them as "unsuccessful or non-achievers." The mean calculations of the business performance measures for achiever and non-achiever groups as well as overall means are presented in Table 3.

The results show that the firms, which achieved their ISO 9000 expectations, outperformed the non-achieving firms on all business performance measures. The mean comparison t-tests of these two groups showed that productivity/efficiency, profitability, and cost measures were statistically significant at a p < 0.01 level. Also, the effectiveness of quality systems, communication among departments, foreign competitiveness, personnel motivation, and defective product measures were statistically significant at a p < 0.06 level. The only factors which were not significant were effectiveness of top management, export sales, domestic sales, waste/scrap rate, and customer complaints. However, the successful (or achievers) firms still showed a better performance on these measures.

The mean comparisons of these two groups indicate that the firms, which stated that they achieved their expectations from ISO 9000, experienced the most improvements on all those business performance measures. The results showed that the ISO 9000 had the most immediate and substantial impact on productivity/efficiency, profitability and cost factors, followed by others. This might suggest that these were the main factors influencing the belief or perceptions of the firms regarding ISO 9000 success.

SUMMARY

This study presents the experiences of the Turkish companies in implementing ISO 9000 in regard to their motives for seeking and implementing the certification; benefits gained from the standards, and the problems they faced in seeking and implementing ISO 9000 standards. Based on the survey results by the Turkish firms in the Aegean region, the study shows that about 90% of the firms have received their ISO 9000 certification after 1995. The results showed that there were no major differences among the different sizes of firms, based on number of employees, in seeking ISO 9000 certification. The survey also found that the firms with exports less than $ 5.0 million were more interested in ISO 9000 (59.4 % of the respondents). Finally, the results showed that the majority of the firms were in the manufacturing sector.

The study found that improving organizational performance and product quality, two of the company-specific performance improvement factors, were the most important motives/reasons for seeking ISO 9000 certification. The market and customer factors were the next important motives for ISO 9000 certification. The competitive pressure did not seem to be a major motivating factor for seeking ISO 9000.

The results showed that the most difficult problems that the Turkish firms faced when implementing the ISO 9000 standards were the bureaucracy/red tape and paperwork in the certification process, the difficulty of understanding the standard requirements, and the high cost of certification.

The survey found that ISO 9000 had the highest impact on management and human resource factors, followed by organizational effectiveness, customers, and had the least impact on financial and market factors. These results indicate that the most significant benefits of implementing ISO 9000 were internal. The low level of impact on financial and market factors could suggest that it might take longer for these factors to show any improvements.

A comparison of the firms that achieved ISO 9000 expectations with those did not showed a significant difference in many performance measures. The firms, which achieved their ISO 9000 expectations, outperformed the non-achievers in all performance areas. The difference was most significant for productivity/efficiency, profitability, and cost measures. The factors, which were not significant, were effectiveness of top management, export and domestic sales, waste/scrap rate, and customer complaints.

REFERENCES

Al-Ghamdi, S. (1998). ISO 9000: Saudi export businesses' point view. International Journal of Technology Management, 16(46), 570-583.

Bannock, G., (1991, January-February). Opinion-BS5750; No rush to register. Small Business Perspectives, 15-16.

Barnes, F. C. (1998). ISO 9000 Myth and reality: A reasonable approach to ISO 9000. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 63(2), 23-30.

Bhuian, S. N. (1998). Saudi companies attitude toward ISO 9000 quality standards: An empirical examination. International Journal of Commerce and Management, 2(1), 28-42.

Brumm, E. K. (1995). Managing records for ISO 9000 compliance. Milwaukee, WI: ASQC Quality Press.

Chittenden, F., P. Poutziouris, & S. M. Mukhtar (1998, October-December). Small firms and the ISO 9000 approach to quality management. International Small Business Journal, 17(1), 7388.

Eddy, T. (1995, July/August). Survey provides 'snapshot' of ISO 9000 certification in 10 countries. ISO 9000 News, 4(4), 11-13.

LRQA--Lloyd Register Quality Assurance (1996, January/February). ISO 9000-registered companies are twice as profitable, says survey. ISO 9000 News, 5(1), 8-10.

MORI--Market and Opinion Research International (1996, November/December). Attitudes of captains of industry toward ISO 9000. ISO 9000 News, 5(6), 12-14.

Morita, C. (1996, November/December). Japanese survey: ISO 9000 ascending in land of the rising sun. ISO 9000 News, 5(6), 26-30.

North, J., R. Blackburn, & J. Curran (1993, November). Small firms and BS5750/ISO 9000: A preliminary investigation. Presented at the 16th National Small Firms Policy and Research Conference, Nottingham.

North, J., J. Blackburn, & J. Curran (1994, February). Maintaining quality in small firms and the role of BS5750/ISO 9000. Small Business and ISO 9000 Workshop. Kingston University Business School.

O'Brien, T. (1996, November/December). Australian ISO 9000 survey reveals significant gains for certified organizations. ISO 9000 News, 4(6), 5-12.

Peach, R.W. (1995). The ISO 9000 Handbook, 2nd ed. Homewood, IL: Irwin Rabbit, T. J. & P. A. Bergh (1993). The ISO 9000 book: A global competitor's guide to compliance & certification. New York: Quality Resources.

Rao, S. S., T. S. Ragu-Nathan, & L. E. Solis (1997, December). Does ISO 9000 have an effect on quality management practices? An international empirical study. Total Quality Management, 8(6), 335-346.

Rayner, P. & L. J. Porter (1991). BS5750/ISO 9000--The experience of small and medium-sized firms. International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, 8(6), 16-28.

Rummler, G. A. & A. P. Brache (1995). Improving performance: How to manage the white space on the organization chart, 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA: JBP.

Seaver, M. (1998, September/October). TC 176 Surveys ISO 9000 user requirements for year 2000 revision. ISO 9000 News, 7(5), 2-4.

SGS Yarsley International Certification Services (1996, November/December). ISO 9000--Does it work? ISO 9000 News, 5(6), 4-11.

Street, P. A. & J. Fernie (1992). BS: 5750: The industry review. International Journal of Quality and Reliability, 9(7), 9.

Taylor, W. A. (1995). Organizational differences in ISO 9000 implementation practices. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 10-27.

Vloeberghs, D. & J. Bellens (1996, June). Implementing the ISO 9000 standards in Belgium.

Quality Progress, 29(6,) 43-48.

Weston, Jr., F. C. (1995, October). What do managers really think of the ISO 9000 registration process? Quality Progress, 67-73.

Musa Pinar, Pittsburg State University

Faruk Guder, Loyola University Chicago

Tulay Yucel, Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey

TABLE 1: SELECTED PROFILES OF THE RESPONDING FIRMS

 ISO 9000 Certification by Years

Years Percent n

1993 3.1 2
1994 6.3 4
1995 23.4 15
1996 29.7 19
1997 26.6 17
1998 10.9 7

 Firm Size Based on Employees

# of Employees Percent n

Less than 100 23.0 14
101-250 34.4 21
251-500 24.6 15
More than 501 18.0 11

Industrial Distribution of the Firms

 Percent n

Agriculture and Food 10.9 7
Mining 1.6 1
Energy 4.7 3
Manufacturing 57.8 37
Construction 3.1 2
Services 3.1 2
Other 18.8 12

 Export Volume ($ 000,000)

Exports Percent n

Less than $1.0 24.3 9
$1,001-5.0 35.1 13
$5,000-10.0 18.9 7
More than $10.0 21.6 8

TABLE 2: THE IMPACT OF ISO 9000 ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE MEASURES

Categories Activities Overall Increased Increased
 Means very much

 Percent

Customers Customer complaints 2.07 0.0 3.2
 Effectiveness of
 quality system 4.29 33.3 60.3

Management Communication among
And Human departments 3.88 14.8 59.0
Resources Effectiveness of
 top management 3.79 16.7 41.7
 Personnel motivation 3.69 3.2 62.9

Financial Export sales 3.63 9.3 38.9
And Domestic sales 3.47 0.0 44.2
Market Profitability 3.41 0.0 40.7

Organizational Productivity/
Effectiveness efficiency 3.74 6.7 55.0
 Costs 2.78 1.7 20.3
 Waste/scrape rate 2.17 0.0 0.0
 Defective products 1.95 0.0 1.6

Categories Activities No Decreased
 change

 Percent

Customers Customer complaints 16.1 58.1
 Effectiveness of
 quality system 4.8 0.0

Management Communication among
And Human departments 19.7 3.3
Resources Effectiveness of
 top management 36.7 0.0
 Personnel motivation 24.2 1.6

Financial Export sales 38.9 1.9
And Domestic sales 50.0 0.0
Market Profitability 33.3 7.4

Organizational Productivity/
Effectiveness efficiency 23.3 3.3
 Costs 20.3 42.4
 Waste/scrape rate 20.6 69.8
 Defective products 9.8 67.2

Categories Activities Decreased Too early
 very much to decide

 Percent

Customers Customer complaints 16.1 6.5
 Effectiveness of
 quality system 0.0 1.6

Management Communication among
And Human departments 0.0 3.3
Resources Effectiveness of
 top management 0.0 5.0
 Personnel motivation 1.6 6.5

Financial Export sales 0.0 11.1
And Domestic sales 0.0 5.8
Market Profitability 0.0 18.5

Organizational Productivity/
Effectiveness efficiency 0.0 15.0
 Costs 0.0 15.3
 Waste/scrape rate 4.8 4.8
 Defective products 18.0 3.3

TABLE 3: THE IMPACT OF ISO 9000 ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

Activities Overall Achievers

Effectiveness of quality system 4.29 4.46
Communication among departments 3.88 4.14
Effectiveness of top management 3.79 3.90
Personnel motivation 3.69 3.91
Export sales 3.63 3.74
Domestic sales 3.47 3.56
Profitability 3.41 3.82
Foreign Competitiveness 3.75 3.96
Productivity / efficiency 3.74 4.13
Costs + 2.78 2.20
Waste/scrape rate + 2.17 2.09
Defective products + 1.95 1.74
Customer complaints + 2.07 2.00

Activities Non Achievers Signif. (p =)

Effectiveness of quality system 4.16 0.06
Communication among departments 3.72 0.02
Effectiveness of top management 3.71 0.36
Personnel motivation 3.53 0.03
Export sales 3.57 0.46
Domestic sales 3.42 0.37
Profitability 3.15 0.00
Foreign Competitiveness 3.63 0.05
Productivity / efficiency 3.43 0.00
Costs + 3.17 0.00
Waste/scrape rate + 2.19 0.42
Defective products + 2.09 0.03
Customer complaints + 2.15 0.41

Scale: 1 = Decreased very much; 5 = Increased very much; + Lower
scores are better