ISO 9000 is scheduled to be revised in November. In the case of ISO 9001, there are 20 elements covering such items as management responsibility, quality system, contract review, design control, document and data control and purchasing. To perform audits in the U.S, registrars must be accredited by the Registrar Accreditation Board of the American Society for Quality, Milwaukee, one of the 250 standards-developing organizations in the American National Standards Institute. There are about two dozen accredited U.S. registrars. ISO 9001 and 2 does not mean that the management systems scrutinized will produce a quality end result, but many contractors overlay a quality improvement program on top of their ISO effort.
Quality comes from consistency, say contractors.
Hoffner and other quality managers say that program is extremely beneficial when new employees come on board because all company procedures are outlined in a document. BHE's experience is typical of the process in construction. After one false start, it decided to kick off the process again in January 1997. It hired a consultant to guide the firm and explain to management what the 20 elements of ISO 9001 were. That was followed by educating the office staff and foremen.