The attitudes of small companies to the ISO 9000 series

This paper reports the main findings of a study of eight companies with fifty or less employees which investigated their attitudes, problems and successes in relation to registration to the ISO 9000 series of quality management system standards. All the companies studied had attended a Workshop Programme training course to provide them with the requisite advice and assistance to gain registration. However, only one of the eight companies went on to gain ISO 9000 series registration. In every case the perception that the market-place was demanding or likely to demand ISO 9000 series registration was the prime motivator. The two main drawbacks of introducing an ISO 9000 series quality management system standard were time and the volume of paperwork.