1.
INTRODUCTION
According
to Sartori and Weise (2013), the total quality management seeks constant
improvement and a gradual introduction of new processes both existing in order
to achieve greater excellence in quality organizations as a whole. The intensity
of global competition has required companies to rethink their strategies in
order to increase competitiveness, profitability and, at the same time, thrive
on the market in which they work. In order to have a management development, it
is necessary to supplement with quality tools, and management tools, which help
in the overview of the organization and also in the processes and
services.
In
this sense, according to the International Organization for Standardization
(ISO) annual survey, by the end of 2007, over 951 thousand companies in 175
countries had won a certification based on the ISO 9001:2000 quality management
system. This number represents an increase of approximately 6% over the
previous year. Compared to previous increases, 15% in 2006 and 17% in 2005,
this number may be considered low. However, in Brazil, by the end of the same
period, the total number of ISO 9001:2000 certified companies had reached
15.384, representing an increase of more than 70% compared to 2006 (ISO, 2007).
According to a survey carried out by the Brazilian Quality Committee (ABNT/CB-25)
in 2005, more than half the companies seeking the certification in Brazil are
small B2B companies facing a decrease in market share since many of their possible
customers demand a quality certification from their suppliers, in most cases,
the ISO 9001:2000.
Although
ISO 9001:2000 has been present in Brazil and in the international scenario for
a number of years now bringing many benefits to the companies and their
customers, Szyszka (2001) states that many companies ignore it believing that
the certification is only for large and multinational companies due to its
cost. This way of thinking is erroneous, though, since, as aforementioned, the survey
sponsored by the Brazilian Quality Committee showed that more than half the
companies certified in 2007 were small companies.
In
view of that, this article aims to identify and critically analyze the effects
of the ISO 9001:2000 implementation process in a small Brazilian company in the
printer supplies business. The purpose of this article is to answer the
following research question: What were the main effects and changes occurred as
the ISO 9001:2000 standard was implemented in a small company dealing in printer
supplies? To conduct this investigation,
this article was organized as follows:
section 2 presents a brief theoretical and analytical framework on
quality and the ISO standard, which sets the basis for the investigation; in
section 3, the research outline is characterized and justified; section 4
presents the development steps of the case study in the company; section 5
shows an analysis and a discussion of the perceptions derived from the development; and, lastly, section 6 covers the conclusions
and the limitations that were identified and suggestions for future research
work.
2. QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Deming
(1990) states that the quality of a product or service can only be defined by
the customer. The author also stresses the point that quality is a relative
term that changes its meaning as the customer requirements evolve. To
live up to, or exceed, customer expectations, managers must realize the
importance of customer surveys.
Likewise, Juran (1995) defines quality
as the level of satisfaction achieved by a certain product as it meets the
user’s objectives during its use, which is called “fitness for intended use”.
According to Garvin (2002), quality
can be defined through the following five approaches: i) Transcendent quality:
synonymous of “innate excellence”, i.e., learning to recognize by experience.
The transcendent approach equals quality to fine handcraft and a rejection of
mass production, i.e., it values effort and seriousness. It is a subjective
approach, with no pre-defined standards and concepts to measure and affirm
whether or not a product has quality; ii) Product-based quality: considered as
a precise and measurable variable. The quality differences reflect differences
in the quantity of some ingredient or attribute of a certain product; iii)
User-based quality: based on the premise that quality is in the eye of the
beholder; iv) Production-based quality: identifies quality based on the
production such as conformity to specifications; v) Value-based quality: considers that a
quality product offers a performance or conformity at an acceptable price or
cost, i.e., the excellence we can buy.
According
to Santos and Martins (2010), quality management has become increasingly
important in terms of measuring, quantitative methods, specialised teams and clearly
defined performance goals. These ideas seem demonstrate that the search for
quality is fundamental to any company, especially in markets where products are
homogeneous, as is the case of printer supplies since it is a way to get a
competitive edge and a strategic differential. Companies that do not invest in
quality are losing share of market to companies that do and reap results
through customer loyalty and high profitability from the satisfied customer,
achieving this by reducing production wastes, streamlining operations and
making them more efficient.
2.1.
ISO
9000
According
to Arnold (1994), the ISO 9000 series, currently ISO 9001:2000, is a set of
guidelines for the design, manufacture, sales and support for a product or
service. Its successful implementation requires that the implementation team
consider the standard as a complete “clause” for the design, manufacture, sales
and support. The system to be developed should be based on firmness of purposes
and has as its goal the requirements of business practice. In other words, the
ISO 9000 series consists of guidelines for conducting business globally.
Delazaro
Filho et al. (1996) state that the certification of a company demonstrates that
it possesses a well-organized work force and that its products are reliable.
Therefore, it can affirm to its customers that it is a world class manufacturer.
To Cerqueira (1999), the ISO 9000 series signals the need to take into
consideration the expectations of internal and external customers as well as all
of the organization’s stakeholders.
According
to the International Organization for Standardization (2009), the NBR ISO
9001:2000 standard is based on 8 quality management principles:
·
Customer focus – organizations depend on their
customers, therefore they ought to understand their customers’ current and
future requirements, meet those requirements and seek to exceed their
expectations;
·
Leadership – the leaders are responsible for
establishing the purposes and giving direction to the organizations, in addition to creating and maintaining an
internal environment where people are fully engaged in the achievement of the
organization’s objectives;
·
Involvement of people – people are the essence of an
organization (independently of their levels) and it is their involvement that
drives them to use their abilities to the company’s benefit;
·
Process approach – the desired result is achieved more
efficiently when the activities and their associated resources are managed as a
process;
·
System approach to management – identifying,
understanding and managing interrelated processes since a system contributes to
the efficacy and efficiency of the organization as it moves toward its
objectives;
·
Continuous improvement – the continuous improvement of
the organization’s overall performance should be its ongoing objective;
·
Factual approach to decision making – efficacious
decision making is based on an analysis of data and information;
·
Mutually beneficial relationships with suppliers – an
organization and its suppliers are independent and a mutually beneficial
relationship increases their ability of adding value.
Moura e Carillo Jr. (1994) believes
that the standards of the ISO 9000 series were created to be used in three
situations:
·
Contractually, between customer and supplier: when the
customer is interested in elements of the supplier’s system of quality that
have a bearing on the customer’s production process of goods or services. In
other words, the customer opts for a certain quality assurance model and
requires by means of a contract that the elements comprising the chosen
standard be an integral part of the supplier’s quality system;
·
Customer’s approval or registration of the supplier’s
quality system: the customer is interested in evaluating the supplier’s quality
system to verify that it is compatible with its chosen standard of quality. The
customer uses the standard as a benchmark for the evaluation and may issue a
formal recognition that the system is compliant with the standard. It is normally used for the purpose of
indicating approval and registration of the supplier in the customer files;
·
Certification or registration of the supplier’s
quality system by a certifying agency or to provide guidance for the quality
management system: the supplier is appraised by a certifying agency and commits
itself to maintain the quality system for all the customers, except when
otherwise specified. The certifying agency issues a formal recognition that the
quality system is compliant with the standard for a given period of time. This
type of certification and registration of the quality system reduces the number
of audits to be performed.
2.2 Criticism and Benefits of ISO 9000
One of the strongest criticisms to
the ISO 9000 series is that it limits the company’s flexibility. Some authors
make this point arguing that if everything a company produces must be
previously described, the company will end up as a hostage of its own
standards. In other words, there would be no room for flexibility. In addition to that, there is also
some criticism about what refers to the people who work for the company.
According to Litmanowicz (1995), ISO 9000 covers only a part of the
organization, leaving out of its scope the entire human behavior. According to the author, the company should
undergo a cultural change as it would do no good to implement the standard if
the organization did not absorb the change into its culture. To him, the
certification should be a consequence of the cultural change within the
company. Like Limanowicz (1995), Moura e Carillo Jr. (1994) also believes that
a gap of the standard underlies the distortions that happen with regard to its
true purposes and the little knowledge that people have about the culture of
total quality.
Likewise, Roesch (2009) states that
many companies take the ISO 9000 standard as if it were a model of total
quality. This is not 100 percent true since
it is possible to say that the standard is only a system to assure compliance
with specifications. The standard does not question whether the levels of
specification and their controls are suitable or not. It is up to the company
to identify the best practices and processes to be standardized. Crosby
(1997) says that the ISO system does not lead companies to doing the right
things. As the system is passive, not an operating philosophy, the company
should always be looking to improve its processes since the system itself will
not.
In 2005, two research projects were
conducted by the Brazilian Quality Committee (ABNT/CB-25) in partnership with
INMETRO. The first one, ISO 9000 Certification Credibility Research, presented
the main reasons why companies seek the quality certification: customer demand
(32%;); quality improvement (20%); better process control (15%); increased
internal standardization (12%); improved competitiveness (11%); and better
internal organization (10%). In addition to that, the same research identified
the main advantages acquired during the implementation process: improved
internal organization (22%); improved competitiveness (12%); improved process
control (11%); increased customer confidence (11%); cost reduction (9%);
increased internal standardization (9%); employee skills development (9%); and
others (18%). According to the second research project that the Brazilian
Quality Committee (ABNT/CB-25) asked INMETRO to conduct, ISO 9000 Certification
– Results Research, the main reasons why the researched companies wanted the
certification were: market demand (36%); company policy (24%); winning new
markets (23%); increased productivity (10%); and marketing (7%).
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
As the purpose of this article is to
study the ISO 9001:2000 implementation process in a small company to identify
the mains effects of implementation. The method of research used was the case
study with a qualitative approach. This method is considered the most suitable
because it permits a more thorough study and a
better qualification of the data collected and analyzed. The case study was
conducted in a small company dealing in printer supplies, located in the city
of
According to Yin (2005), the data
for the case study can come from three different sources of evidences, which
can be: documentation; filed registers; interviews; direct observation;
participant observation; physical artifacts. For this work, the data was
collected by means of semi-structured interviews and participant observation
made during company visits. The interviews were performed after the complete
implementation of ISO. The in-depth interviews relied on semi-structured
questions for the two groups: the first one composed of the company top
management and the second group composed of department heads. Altogether, the
following six people were interviewed: the Office Supervisor, Tape Supervisor,
Inkjet Supervisor, Toner Supervisor, Quality Supervisor and one of the Managing
Directors of the company. The six employees interviewed represent all the
company departments and roughly 30 percent of the company direct
headcount.
The interview questions were framed
around the theoretical framework. Two
sets of questions were used, one for the Director and one for the department
heads (Supervisors) due to their different positions and participation in the
process. Frequent visits to the company and talks with the
employees and the managers provided the participant observation data input,
presented in the following sections. The following data analysis was conducted
by means of the content analysis technique of Bardin (2002) and the
interpretation of the data collected in relation to ISO theoretical
fundamentals. The data collected from the interviews is presented according to
the subjects that were discussed, and specific information is referenced to the
position of the respective interviewee.
4. RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT
The case study company has been in
the printer supplies business for over twenty years with 20 direct employees,
representatives and outside personnel. Next, we present the development steps
of the ISO implementation, in the light of the theoretical framework of ISO
principles.
Corroborating the theoretical
framework, the interviewees pointed out the following reasons why the company
opted for the ISO 9001:2000 standard: customer demand of a certification, market-share increase, marketing gains
and the quality assurance as determining factors. According to the Toner
Supervisor,
“the main
reason why we chose ISO is that companies use this standard as a means to
select their suppliers. More often than not, they are big companies who demand
large amounts. [...] Furthermore, I believe that ISO will be a marketing tool
for us to publicize the quality we already have since no other company
(competitor) in the southern part of the country has this certification.”
Besides, the Tape and Office Supervisors
cited other factors, such as gains that will come from better company
organization, all the way from the organization of materials in the departments
to the overall company organization, both with regard to the materials and
communication and processes. According to the Tape Supervisor, one of the main
reasons why the company opted for ISO was the organization of the company as a
whole. In addition to that, he believes that the certification can further
assure the quality of its products, which has always been the focus of the
company.
4.1
Customer Focus
With regard to customers, the first
principle among the eight principles established by the International Organization for Standardization, all the
interviewees, except for the Quality Coordinator (a new hire), stated that the
company has always listened to their customers. In the words of the Office
Supervisor, “the company has always worked hard to meet the customers’
requirements through customer feedback from informal talks when the orders are
taken”. However, he remarks that “due to the crisis, in recent years the
company began to have more customers in the home market than in the industrial
market, which was not the company focus”. This fact brought down the number of
customer feedback. The increase in the home market represents a longer period
between the orders because customers in the home market usually buy products
for home use.
The Inkjet Supervisor also pointed
out that this change in the customer profile brought about a change in the
production area as well. The percentage of refills – when the customer brings
in his own empty cartridge (toner, inkjet or tape) to be refilled – in the home
market is a lot larger. As a result, the number of services rendered by the
company increases and the product process gets slower since the cartridge lots
per model are smaller. However, ever since the implementation process started
out, there have been changes in this service in order to optimize and control
it more effectively.
4.3 Leadership
It can be observed that, since the
implementation process initiated, there have been changes in the jobs of some
employees. According to ISO, the leadership plays a vital role in the
organization. Hence, some changes have occurred in the way some of the
Supervisors (leaders) behave. Currently, production supervisors (toner, inkjet
and tape) believe that, in addition to running their department, they should
also look for a greater employee and departmental involvement with the
achievement of the company goals. Says the Tape Supervisor:
“I feel I have
a lot more responsibility than I used to have. [...] When the implementation of
the standard initiated, supervisors started to play a different role – they became
leaders of their departments. [...] I have now a lot more autonomy in my
department. I discuss ideas with the people and I try to get them to speak up.”
Similarly, the Supervisor of Inkjet
believes that with his increased responsibilities and duties, the other
employees will have to cooperate more if the performance desired is to be met. Therefore,
the supervisors have to incentivize and encourage employees to achieve stretch
goals. The Toner Supervisor added that the leadership should not be provided by
the company Directors alone. The leadership should be disseminated across the
entire organization (Directors, Supervisors and employees alike).
4.4 Involvement
of People
This change in the way supervisors
act has brought about a greater degree of employee involvement, and they are
the essence of the organization – generating a better utilization of their
abilities. According to the Tape Supervisor, employees feel that they are more
recognized than they used to be before the ISO implementation process started
since their opinions are listened to. The Toner Supervisor described the
employee involvement in his department with the following sentence: “People
were so enthusiastic that when we were implementing 5S, they asked if they
could come in on Saturday afternoon to tidy up the department, since they
didn’t have enough time during the workweek.”
When the interviews were conducted,
it was observed that, although most people are aware of how important this
process is for the company, some employees hope to gain something at the end of
the process (certification), receive some kind of reward, not necessarily
money, but they do hope to get something in exchange. This fact indicates a
communication problem because the supervisors never mentioned, at any one time,
that the employees would get something in return for their contribution to the
certification.
4.5 System
Approach to Management
According to the Toner Supervisor,
the greater employee involvement has contributed not only to the department
where they work, but to the entire production system. He believes that the
creation of the internal customer-supplier chain at the inception of the
implementation process was vital so that every employee could see their
dependence from other internal suppliers and, mainly, their importance to the
external customers. The Office Supervisor added: “Now, the departments are a
lot more aware of their interdependence. [...] everybody knows their needs and
duties in the internal customer-supplier chain.”
The Tape Supervisor says that this
greater interaction between the departments took place principally as a result
of the improved internal communication. Had the internal communication not
improved, all the work done by the company, mainly those jobs involving two or
more departments, could hardly hope to reap the desired results. It seems to be
unanimous the fact that the improved internal communication between the
departments, and particularly between the office and the toner section, was
responsible for the increased cooperation.
“There used to
be many problems between the office and the toner section. Today, after a
number of talks and discussions, the problem has been fixed. Of course, there’s
always something to be improved, but there’s no comparison to what it used to
be. [“...] Both departments now understand that they have to cooperate with
each other.” (Toner Supervisor).
The Managing Director mentioned that
the company had been trying to improve the internal communication for a long
time. As we have mentioned before, the major problems were in the communication
between the office, the inkjet department and the toner department, mainly regarding
the office-toner relationship. Several
meetings had been held with the supervisors of each department and their
employees in order to resolve the issue. However, as the Director put it, the
people involved were lacking in commitment and they did not really want to
change. As the standard was being implemented, however, the lack of goodwill
began to wear off and employee commitment surfaced. He believes that the
initial training and the motivational talks given by the consultant,
emphasizing the need to collaborate and cooperate with the activities of the
company, account for the change of attitude.
4.6 Process
Approach
As far as the processes are
concerned, few changes were reported. Most processes were standardized with no
changes. According to the Quality Supervisor, approximately 90% of processes
continue unaltered and 10% underwent minor changes. The most discussed change
by the interviewees was the change in the refill control, which limited the
number of refills per day and formally established a maximum delivery time per
customer’s requirement and a minimum delivery time according to the production
capabilities. With this change in the process, the communication problem
between these two departments practically ceased. Before the ISO standard was
implemented, the departments did not understand the need for departmental
cooperation, they were just focusing the local results: for sales department,
to sell more, and for production department, to produce more.
“In the
production process, no change occurred, only the standardization. [...] The
only change was the implementation of a timetable (office) for the refill
control, since we were having some delivery issues.” (Toner Supervisor).
“The only
change in the process was the refill control for toner and inkjets because the
production people were experiencing overload issues and late deliveries. [...]
the implementation of the refill control timetable fixed the problem.” (Office Supervisor).
4.7 Continuous
Improvement
According to the ISO standard, the
continuous improvement of the overall company performance should be an ongoing
objective. The implementation of the ISO standard itself can be deemed a search
for improved overall performance as it sets the basis for improvement actions.
Generally speaking, the company still has a lot of work to do in terms of
continuous improvement. The department heads state that they are all open to
new ideas, willing to listen to them and are committed to try them for
feasibility.
“Although participation is still low, employees feel
more at home to speak up and voice their improvement ideas. However, there is
still a lot to do in this question.” (Tape Supervisor).
“We have been working the hardest of all the
departments because we are always looking for new ways to improve. We collect
ideas from employees; we research the Web and trade publications. [...] keeping
up to date is critical for this process.” (Toner Supervisor).
In spite of the improved work
environment, increased employee involvement and an open book attitude from the
supervisors, barriers still remain that hamper a more spontaneous contribution
from employees. The interviewees mentioned that over 90% of contributions come
from questions they ask employees, i.e., less than 10% are spontaneous
contributions. It is believed that it takes time for employees to gain
confidence and come up with ideas and suggestions without prompting.
4.8 Factual
Approach to Decision Making
One of the eight ISO principles is
that an efficacious decision-making depends on a careful evaluation of the
information. For this reason, the use of indicators is recommended to aid
people with their decision making. According to the interviewees, the company
has been using indicators for some time. The indicators, however, are few. In
the production area, the only indicators in place are daily productivity
indicators per sector and type of product. The Tape Supervisor says: “We could
add some indicators and reevaluate others. The utilization of only a few
indicators may lead to a poor interpretation of the whole [...] you have to
confront the data for a better evaluation.”
In the administrative and customer
service areas, the only indicators in place are the basic financial indicators,
such as sales and working capital and the number of customer complaints
(defective product). Therefore, the company should implement other indicators
in the production and administrative areas to turn the decision making process
more efficacious. Says the Office Supervisor: “We need to implement management
indicators in the sales and administrative areas. [...] the only indicators we
have in place are basic.” In this sense, according to the Toner Supervisor, in
addition to revising the existing indicators, there are other indicators being
created by the quality department in conjunction with the supervisors of every
department. The company director stressed the need and the importance of
adopting new indicators and using them for a more efficient and efficacious
decision making and stated: “The quality department people and the head of
every department are working together to create new management indicators and
to the revise the existing ones.”
4.9 Mutually
Beneficial Relationship with Suppliers
The last ISO principle, the mutually
beneficial relationship with suppliers, is present in the company culture. In
the data collection phase, all the interviewees declared that the company-supplier
relationship has always been cooperative. According to the Director, “the
company has always looked at suppliers as partners, since we need them and they
need us [...] we look for a win-win relationship.”
“The company
has always maintained partnerships with our customers. For instance, in the
office, nearly 100% of suppliers of materials are company customers. Roughly
50% of our customers are bookstores, stationery stores, etc. [...] we go out of
the way to buy from various customers due to their large number. Of course, we
end up buying from the bigger customers, the ones who buy the most from us.
[...] it is a win-win relationship between the parties. The company always
tries to collaborate with customers. [...] in the production area, the company
has a good relationship with suppliers too.” (Office Supervisor).
“It is fundamental for the company to maintain a good
relationship with suppliers [...] The company maintains a partnership with more
than one supplier of raw materials, i.e., there is always a second trusty
supplier option.” (Toner Supervisor).
The dissemination of this good
relationship with suppliers became more important in recent months due to the
reduction of inventory and the cost that it represents. The strategy of the
company is to maintain a low inventory of raw materials, and this calls for a
collaboration of everyone in view of the increased control of inventory that is
required, in addition to the increased dependence on suppliers. In the case of
delivery non-conformances, the company runs the risk of stalling for lack of
raw materials.
5. ANALYSIS AND
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
Of all the changes so far, it seems
that the one that caused the greatest impact on the employees was the
improvement of internal communication between a production section (toner and
inkjet) and the office. The employees unanimously stressed the importance of
this improvement. In addition to that, the better internal organization,
particularly, the reduction of informality and the application of 5S procedures,
were also highlighted by the Director, the Quality Supervisor and the Tape Supervisor.
Generally speaking, it can be
observed that despite the increased responsibility and work, most employees are
happy with the ISO 9000 implementation process. The only complaints were the
buildup of tasks and the increased paperwork; however, everyone is content with
the results so far. According to the Toner Supervisor, “all the changes so far
have been positive for the company, but there is still room for improvement.”
The Tape Supervisor states that “the ISO implementation is very good. It was
high time for it. It should have been implemented years ago, but it is better
late than never”. He also highlighted the gains in organization and
communications.
From the standpoint of the Quality Supervisor,
the main change was that the company as a whole became more professional. The
company moved from a family-managed business to a much more professional
profile. We didn’t even have an organization chart. Now, the company
informality is decreasing and people are beginning to adapt themselves. This
change is being accomplished to the management support. Cooperation and support
from the top management is fundamental, not just look forward to results.
In his interview, the Director
mentioned that the expenditure with the implementation process is minimal if compared
to the gains the company had so far. The major expense so far has been the Quality
Supervisor, a new hire to run the entire implementation process. Other expenses
include the fees of the certifying body, training and consultants fees.
However, the major benefit, according to the Director, is the improvement of
the organization as a whole, cost reduction, rework reduction, increased
productivity, waste reduction, a better communication, among others. Although
there are not many indicators, the Director highlights that from the inception
of the process, productivity gains and increased sales could be observed. Board 1 shows examples of summary results
identified in the interviews. The main answers were classed according to
specific objectives.
Table 1: Summary
results of interviews
As the board above demonstrates, all
the interviewees indicated as the motivating aspects for implementing the ISO
9001:2000 standard the following: customer demand; the company drive to
increase the market share; and the quality assurance for the company products
and services. Other aspects mentioned include the search for a competitive
differential; better internal organization; improved customer service;
productivity gains; and better housekeeping. In other words, generally speaking,
the entire company presents the same motivating aspects – customer demand;
search for quality; search for new markets; better internal organization;
increased productivity; and marketing – presented by the majority of companies
surveyed by the Brazilian Quality Committee.
Just like the main difficulties
encountered, the main points identified as process facilitators involve people.
However, only those interviewees who did not manifest the difficulties
mentioned the commitment of their department employees as a positive factor for
the successful implementation. The
Quality Supervisor, who had previously manifested the lack of supervisory
leadership, praised the top management support to the implementation. The top
management, in turn, praised the commitment of the quality section personnel
and the Program “ISO Bound” as the main process facilitators.
6. CONCLUSION
The purpose of this article was to
identify and review the changes occurred during the implementation process of
ISO 9001:2000 in a small company in the business of printer supplies, with four
specific objectives, which identify the motivating aspects for implementing the
ISO 9001:2000 standard, the improvements occurred, the facilitating factors and
the difficulties encountered along the way to the present time. The overall
objective could be contemplated through an in-depth analysis of these specific
objectives.
It can be observed that, in the
beginning of the process, one of the most important factors for the good
deployment of the process was the involvement and the direct participation of
the company top management and the certainty that the ISO implementation would benefit
the company. Without the management support and encouragement, the company could
have dropped the process, like many other companies did.
Right from the inception of the
process until the study was carried out, of all the processes implemented, the one
that stood out was the internal communication (particularly between the office
and the production section). As the study showed, this was an old problem in
the company for which no solution had been found. However, the problem was
fixed when a change took place in the process involving the two departments. A
timetable was created to control the refill, a simple and efficacious change
that practically eradicated the communication problem between the parties.
Another change that deserves to be mentioned is the change in the management
from informality to professionalism, i.e., the professionalization as a whole.
However, there have been negative
points associated with the process. Although there is a great commitment from
the company management, the same does not apply to some employees. Most
employees are engaged and support the implementation process, but there are a
few employees who resist the process, for fear of what will happen or for unwillingness.
In addition, some issues have been identified that require attention such as
the need of supervisory leadership training. Considering the major limitation
of the work is of course the fact of conducting a case study on a single small
company for future research to deepen the theme is suggested: i) conduct
research of multiple case studies on the impact of the implementation of ISO
9000 in small businesses in the same sector industry in different regions of
Brazil, including to identify the influence of contingency factors; ii)
empirical research on the critical success factors for implementation of ISO in
small businesses; iii) how to integrate other approaches to improve the
performance in small business; in this sense, a starting point for future research on
these topics can found in the discussion held in Pacheco et al. (2013) and
Pacheco (2014).
REFERENCES
ABNT/CB-25.
Pesquisa de credibilidade das
certificações ISO 900. Disponível em http://www.abntcb25.com.br/. Acessado
em 20 de maio de 2013.
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