Is it enough for companies to say that they do things right? I think not, everybody thinks that they're the best.

Because of this, it's necessary to have a third party to evaluate and ensure the adequate level of management of companies and in order to ensure an impartial evaluation of all companies, the evaluation must be done according to the same criteria in all cases. This is the true nature of standards like ISO 9000.

It's true that Quality Systems developed in accordance to ISO 9000 must document some procedures, but ISO 9000: 2000 version only requires six procedures, the Quality Manual, Quality Policy and to identify the processes. The rest of the procedures are not required by the standard if the company demonstrates that they are not necessary for the correct working of the processes.

On the other hand, it's true that companies develop their Quality Systems with the objective of convincing the auditor and certifying the company. In many cases this causes a two-tier management system, but this is not as a consequence of the standard but the lack of implication of the managers of the companies in Quality Management. If an auditor detects and can demonstrate either this situation or the artificial reproduction of records (this is very difficult) they may recommend not to certify the company.

However, this is not the philosophy of the certification, it's a voluntary process and companies must use it to reach their customers' satisfaction and for continuous improvement, not to deceive the auditor and certification bodies. In fact, the records must be used to obtain information to analyse and detect points of improvement and necessary actions to achieve customer satisfaction.

In my opinion, the problem is not in the standard (ISO 9000 or similar) or in the certification process, but in the bad approach employed by the companies and the low power that auditors and certification bodies exert on companies: "If this certification body doesn't give me the certificate, I'll look for another one..."

enough - bastante
third party - terceros
in order to ensure - para asegurar
impartial - imparcial
according to the same criteria - de acuerdo con los mismo criterios
standards - normas
procedures - procedimientos
Quality Manual - Manual de Calidad
Quaility Policy - Política de Calidad
On the other hand - Por otro lado
two-tier management system - Doble sistema de gestión
lack of implication - falta de implicación
records - registros
continuous improvement - mejora continua
certification bodies - entidad de certificación
customer satisfaction - satisfacción del cliente
bad approach - mal enfoque
exert - ejercer