Vägen till ett lyckat kvalitetsarbete med ISO 9001 : en studie av kritiska framgångsfaktorer för mindre företag ur ett globalt perspektiv

Abstract: More than 90 % of all business activity in the world market consists of small and midsized companies today. Recent studies have shown that there has been an increase in small companies’ certification to ISO's management standards. Smaller organizations tend to have more limited amounts of resources at their disposal than larger ones. This can result in difficulties during the implementation process of ISO 9001. It is therefore of great significance that the implementation is carried out in an efficient manner. ISO 9000 is one of the most frequently used management systems in the world today. It is essential that the organization is actively and consistently managed to maintain a successful management system. The quality standard is based on eight quality management principles. These principles can be used by managers as a reference; to guide their organization towards improved performance. The fact that ISO’s quality management principles are general and do not provide any specific requirements is recognized as a reoccurring problem. The aim of this study is to identify the most critical success factors that may be of importance to senior management during the implementation of ISO 9001. The study also examines similarities between these critical success factors and the eight quality management principles. The study is focused on small- to middle-sized firms. This study establishes which success factors are most important during the implementation of ISO 9001. The findings in this study indicate top management commitment, continual improvements, employees’ commitment, communication, a culture of quality, training and the understanding of the ISO 9000 standards’ as reoccurring success factors irrespective of the size of the organization. The study also presents success factors that can be categorized as specific for smaller companies: standardization of all processes, choice of certification body, formalised system for monitoring complaints, internal and external customer focus, positive attitude towards ISO 9000 among employees, focus on error prevention and being able to present ISO 9000 in an easy manner to the employees. After a comparison between these critical success factors and the eight management principles, it is concluded that one factor is different from the management principles. No similarities can be found between this factor and any of the eight management principles; choice of certification body. The remaining factors can be interpreted as a variant of some of the eight leadership principles.