The Development of the Quality Standards

Quality  standards  evolved  with  quality  management  movement  which gained  importance  after  the  Second  World  War.  The  contributions  of Fredrick Winslow Taylor, a mechanical engineer called the "the father of scientific  management"  laid  the  foundation  of  quality  management  by seeking to improve industrial efficiency. Henry Ford was an important contributor in bringing processes and quality management practices.

Walter A. Shewart made a major contribution in 1924 by creating a method of quality control. He gave the famed Shewart cycle (PDCA). W. Deming„s expanded  quality  control  theory  and  used  statistical  process  control methods. The 1950s saw the birth of Japanese development of the quality management with the help of quality gurus - Juran, Deming and Feiganbaum. The concerted efforts of the Japanese and their successful implementation of quality led the USA to take notice of quality control benefits. The British standard of BS 5750 became the defacto standard of the  International  Organisation  for  Standardisation  and  thus  the ISO 9000:1987  was  born.  This  standard  specified  with  inspection  alone  to ensure conformance. This later included quality assurance with the help of preventive  actions  in  their  ISO  9000:  1994  versions.  ISO  Technical Committee was formed in 1979 to harmonise the increasing international activity in quality management and quality assurance. A set of five individual, but closely associated, international standards on quality management and quality assurance is the ISO 9000 series. They are not specific to particular products but are generic. Manufacturing and service industries alike can use them.

The  ISO  is  the  specialised  international  agency  for  standardisation  at present, combining the national standard bodies of 91 countries. ISO is made up of approximately 180 technical committees. Each technical committee is responsible for one of many fields of specialisation. The key idea of ISO is to publicise the development of standardisation and related activities to facilitate the international exchange of goods and services and to develop co operation in intellectual, scientific, technological and economic activities.

The service sector is also covered in the ambit of ISO since the emerging service sector contributes. The service sector is the largest single employer compared to the rest. E.g. In 1996, 60 % of the workforce in the European Union was employed in this sector. Active participation in the structural change    presents    the    greatest    challenge.    In    line    with    this    trend, standardisation  also  extended  its  range  beyond  its  traditional,  technical fields too included the service sector. This later was submitted to ISO as the basis for a draft proposal.

Some of the major ISO standards are:

ISO 9000 - This is the formal standard for business processing with proper and comprehensive documentation.

ISO 12207 - This standard describes the selection and implementation of the project development life cycle and the practises to monitor.

ISO 15504 - This ISO standard is a frame works that assess the software processes, this is also known as the Software Process Improvement Capability Determination (SPICE).

Other International Product and Process standards are the following:

International    Electro    technical     Commission     (IEC).    This    global organisation prepares the standards for electrical, electronic and related technologies.

Apart  from  these,  there  are  business  excellence  models  like  Malcolm Balridge criteria which help in developing quality in organisations.