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ISO 9001:2000 in the Egyptian manufacturing sector: perceptions and perspectives

Hesham A.E. Magd
e-TQM College, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine management attitudes/perceptions of Egyptian manufacturing organizations toward the implementation of ISO 9001:2000. The implementation of ISO 9001:2000 depends on how the standard is perceived by Egyptian companies themselves. Design/methodology/approach The present study is exploratory in nature and seeks to collect data about management attitudes/perceptions towards ISO 9001:2000 through a structured mail survey. Mail questionnaires were sent to 200 manufacturing companies throughout Egypt, yielding a response rate of 35 percent. Findings Survey results indicated that Egyptian manufacturing organizations are aware of ISO 9001:2000 and it is considered to be relevant to their organizations. The main motivators for seeking ISO certication were to improve the efciency of the quality system and to achieve customer satisfaction. The vital benets perceived from implementing the certicate were improved documentation and improvement in the efciency of the quality system. However, the participants perceived top management commitment and the lack of qualied personnel to be major barriers for the effective implementation of ISO 9001:2000. Originality/value The research adds knowledge in the eld of quality management within the context of developing countries and gives a particular focus on Egypt and the manufacturing sector, as it is one of the few papers available within the eld of quality management in Egypt. Keywords Quality standards, Egypt, Manufacturing industries, Perception Paper type Research paper
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Received April 2005 Revised August 2006 Accepted 31 August 2006
Introduction The globalization of the marketplace and the rapid improvement in high quality products and services has brought about high levels of market pressure across the world. In order to become efcient and competitive in todays business environment, the majority of companies are being encouraged not only to change their old operational habits, but also to develop better ways to ensure that customers are satised with the quality of products/services. As many organizations have discovered that the key to customer satisfaction and competitive success lies in emphasizing and achieving product and service quality as a strategic weapon in performing business (Pulat, 1994; Krasachol and Guh, 2001; Lai et al., 2002; Reed et al., 1999). It is clear that quality has emerged as a strategic competitive tool for organizational success (Yong and Wilkinson, 2002). In todays business environment, organizations cannot afford to ignore the strategic implications of quality for its competitive position. In the light of this, it is vital for organizations to develop or adopt an effective Quality Management System (QMS) very often associated with ISO 9000 series (Rohitratana and Boon-Itt, 2001).
International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management Vol. 25 No. 2, 2008 pp. 173-200 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0265-671X DOI 10.1108/02656710810846934
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Quality Management System is referred to as a business management system that can be applied to all business sectors and all sizes of companies. If you think of a business as a set of processes it identies the key process areas that need to be addressed to ensure quality is managed effectively. Moreover, quality management systems are designed to provide the support and mechanism for the effective accomplishment of quality-related activities in organizations. It is recognized as a systematic means to manage quality in organizations (Kolka, 2002). In broader sense, Goetsch and Davis (2005, p. 174) indicated that the quality management system consists of all the organizations policies, procedures, plans, resources, processes, and delineation of responsibility and authority, all deliberately aimed at achieving product or service quality levels consistent with customer satisfaction and the organizations objectives. When these policies, procedures, plans, etc. are taken together, they dene how the organization works, and how quality is managed. An example of quality management system is the well known ISO 9001:2000. The ISO 9001:2000 has formalized an effective system for evaluating the ability of any rm to consistently design, produce, and deliver quality products/services (Fuentes et al., 2000; Martinez-Lorente and Martinez-Costa, 2004; Terziovski et al., 2003; Wayhan et al., 2002). ISO 9001:2000 provides guidelines for organizations to establish their quality systems by focusing on procedures, control, and documentation (Sun et al., 2004). Therefore, the objectives of ISO 9001:2000 is the provision of consistency in products, meeting customer and regulatory requirements and having systems that address customer satisfaction, continual improvement, prevention of non-conformity, and the adoption of a system approaching Total Quality management (TQM) (Goetsch and Davis, 2005). The ISO 9001:2000 is based on the concept that certain minimum characteristics of a quality management system could be usefully standardized, giving mutual benet to suppliers and customers, and focusing on process rather than product/service quality (Van der Wiele et al., 2005; Dick et al., 2002). ISO 9000:2000 is perceived as a management control tool, a driver of innovation, and plays a strategic role within organizations in focusing and ensuring the delivery of quality products/or services (Van der Wiele et al., 2005). This is seen through the fact that ISO 9001:2000 encourages the adoption of the process approach for the management of the organization and its processes, and as a means of identifying and managing opportunities for improvement. The processes approach is developed based on the belief that a desired result is achieved more efciently when activities and related resources are thought of as a process (Bhuiyan and Alam, 2004). Figure 1 illustrates the model of the process-based quality management system approach recommended by ISO 9001:2000, where the process-based model denes a quality management system as a single large process which links sub-processes in a continuous improvement cycle. The utilization of process approach emphasizes the importance of understanding and fulllment of requirements, the need to consider processes in terms of added values, obtaining results of processes and continual improvement of process based on objective measures (Tan et al., 2003). Moreover the generic requirements of the new edition are depicted as linked processes (Janas and Luczak, 2002). Figure 1 illustrated the process approach, which include the following as briey explained by Biazzo and Bernardi (2003, p. 156): . The management responsibility element comprises the requirements for developing and improving the quality, system, listening to customers,
Figure 1. ISO 9001:2000 process-based quality management system
formulating quality policy and planning, and dening responsibilities, authorities and communication processes to facilitate effective quality management. The resource management element comprises the requirements for managing both human and infrastructural resources in order to implement and improve the quality management system and to address customer satisfaction. The product realization element includes the specic requirements for the product realization processes, which involve identifying customer requirements, reviewing product requirements, communicating with customers, designing and developing products, purchasing, producing (and/or delivering) services, and controlling measurement and monitoring devices. The measurement, analysis and improvement element features the requirement for monitoring information on customer satisfaction, measuring and monitoring products and processes and managing internal audits, non-conformity detection and improvement actions.
ISO 9001:2000 uses the PDCA (Plan-Do-Act-Check) improvement circle to enclose the four blocks of management responsibilities, resource management, process management, measurement, analysis and improvement (Ho, 2002). The PDCA methodology can be applied to all processes and can briey be described as follows: (1) Plan. Establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with customer requirements and the organization policies. (2) Do. Implement the processes. (3) Check. Monitor and measure processes and products against policies, objectives and requirements for the product and report the results. (4) Act. Take actions to continually improve process performance.
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ISO 9000 certication supposed to help companies to identify mistakes, streamline their operations, and be able to guarantee a consistent level of quality products/services (Kartha, 2002). In support of this further, Dick (2000, p. 368) stated that: you should expect greater responsibility, accountability and quality consciousness among your staff, better use of time and resources, greater consistency and traceability of product/service, less wastage through product or service failure, continual improvement to your quality and efciency, improved prot and wider market opportunities. Moreover, Sun (1999) investigated ISO 9000 certication in Norwegian companies and found that it was signicantly correlated with quality results, especially the reduction of defective products and customer complaints and the improvement of business performance such as protability and productivity. While another study reported by Heras et al. (2001) demonstrated that organizations which have implemented ISO 9000 systems have managed to achieve continuous enhancement and improvement and a better-run organization. Moreover, Van der Wiele et al. (2005) illustrated that ISO 9000: 2000 perceived to have positive effects on business in various perspectives such as continuous improvement, management control, quality focus, efciency of processes and customer focus. Furthermore, Bhuiyan and Alam (2005) identied the perceived benets of the ISO 9001:2000 are improved documentation, improved quality perception, disciplined work environment, consistency across the organization and improved customer condence. While a study conducted by Zhang (2000) reported further that registered rms tended to achieve improvement in employee morale and personal accountability for job performance as a result of employees understanding their role in the total process. However, recent empirical studies have concluded that the most important benets sought from ISO 9000 are prot improvements (Naser et al., 2004; Heras et al., 2002b; Zairi and Baidoun, 2003), customer satisfaction (McAdam and Canning, 2001; Escanciano et al., 2001), continuous improvements (Boys et al., 2004; Aarts and Voss, 2001; Zairi and Baidoun, 2003), process improvements and marketing benets (Wayhan et al., 2002; Aarts and Voss, 2001; Eklof et al., 1999), and protability (see Table I for illustration). Despite the numerical success of ISO 9000, a considerable number of criticisms of the certication exist, as it is not a risk-free undertaking. ISO 9000 registration does not
Quality management system The approved quality management system brings an increased emphasis on quality and how it may be achieved consistently
ISO certication Certied to ISO 9000 standard
Quality improvement Internal: less waster and duplication of effort External: quality received by customers improves
Business performance Reduced costs improves competitiveness Fewer customer defections so sales increase Badge of quality opens more sale opportunities
Protability Cost of sales reduces leading to increased prots Protability benets from scale economies and lower sales acquisition costs
Table I. The expected links between quality certication and business performance
Source: Heras et al. (2002a, p. 776)
guarantee improved performance due to the high explicit and implicit costs associated with implementation (Van der Wiele et al., 2005; Curkovic and Pagell, 1999). Van der Wiele et al. (2005), and Bhuiyan and Alam (2005) indicated that ISO 9000: 2000 perceived as having higher development and maintenance costs. The cost of certication can be very high ranging from $10,000 to $250,000 (Withers and Ebrahimpour, 2001). The variation in costs depends on the suitability and efciency of existing systems and the competence of the employees (McAdam and Jackson, 2002: Mo and Chan, 1997) Stevenson and Barnes (2001) identied four factors that tend to generate costs in achieving certication: time, training, consultants and the registration itself. Moreover, another perceived criticism of the ISO 9000 was the primary concern with the generation of documentation to describe steps to be taken when problems are encountered (Bhuiyan and Alam, 2005). This is evident through a survey of UK quality management which concluded that ISO 9000 had been reduced to a mechanical approach and as being paperwork driven (Wilkinson et al., 1994). Furthermore, the standard may interfere with new and better ways of operating, quality by inspection is not quality, and too heavy reliance on peoples and in particular assessors interpretation of quality (Seddon, 1997; Stevenson and Barnes, 2001; Douglas et al., 2003). Also the certications tend to provide indicators that the certied organization has complied with process requirements, but they do not guarantee that the supplier produces quality products and/or services that actually meet customer requirements (Abraham et al., 2000; Singels et al., 2001), and may discourage creative and critical thinking, because employees are forced to work according to well-described procedures and rules (Casadesus and Karapetrovic, 2005). Recently, various studies have conrmed that ISO 9000 certications are too expensive, too time consuming, resource-consuming, too formalized and impersonal and that costs are greater than the benets derived (Casadesus and Karapetrovic, 2005; Bhuiyan and Alam, 2005; Dick, 2000; Augustyn and Pheby, 2000). The implementation of ISO 9000 certication does not come without a risk factor and organizations should review the benets and drawbacks of ISO 9000 certications as the implementation and the impact of ISO 9000 standards can vary from organization to organization and from country to a country, and these variations exists due to the various organizational contexts/variables and the state of countries awareness of quality management, their commitment in helping organizations in implementing quality management tools and techniques, and countries infrastructure/readiness. For example, the government of Hong Kong had mandated its contractors to be ISO certied in ensuring quality. Organizational contextual factors/variables include managerial knowledge, corporate support for quality, external quality requirements and product complexity, international competition, rm size, capital intensity, degree of diversication, timing of implementation and maturity of quality management tools (Hendricks and Singhal, 2001; Das et al., 2000). These contextual factors have contributed to the variations of ISO 9000 implementation within organizations and countries, but the most important factor is the way the certication is perceived by top/senior management, as this is classied as the most inuential factor for implementing the standard. If the certication is perceived in a negative way, top management would not implement the standard, but on the other hand, if the standard is perceived positively, top management will provide their full support to ISO 9000 certication. This is evidenced through the fact that top
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management acts as a driver of quality management systems implementation through the provision of the needed resources and the key to continuous improvement through the creation of values, goals and systems to satisfy customer expectations and to improve organizational performance (Chin and Choi, 2003; Solis et al., 2000; Yusof and Aspinwall, 2002; Antony et al., 2002). It is notable that much of the research on ISO 9000 certication, particularly in the USA and Europe, has consistently been claimed, while little research has been carried out in developing countries (Al-Khalifa and Aspinwall, 2000; Tannok and Krasachol, 2000; Krasachol and Guh, 2001), and more specically Egypt. Therefore, it seems that this area of research in developing countries should have more focus on the trend of ISO 9000 certication, and this is evident through the ISO Action Plan for developing countries 2005-2010, as it is realized the importance of developing countries to have access to international standards and increase their participation in international standardization and formal assessment activities and consequently benet from knowledge transfer (ISO, 2004). The ISO action plan illustrated various actions for developing countries which intended to mobilize its members, regional organizations and donor agencies. The actions are aimed at promoting developing countries participation in ISO, building capacity through technical assistance programs and enhancing interactions at regional and international levels (ISO, 2004). Therefore, in enhancing and complementing the ISO action plan, the researcher attempts to shed some light on ISO 9001:2000 certication driving forces, benets and barriers in the manufacturing sector in Egypt as an example of a developing country. Research problem and study objectives The Egyptian government and the business community have placed a greater emphasis on achieving superior quality in order to compete in both domestic and foreign markets through a quality assurance system (ISO 9001:2000). This is vital because more and more European and foreign buyers have become frustrated having to verify the quality of Egyptian goods they purchase, a costly and time consuming process. Therefore, the Egyptian government and consulting rms have been persuading Egyptian companies to seek ISO 9000 certication to ensure quality of products/services. The quality standard has also become a subject of interest in Egypt due to the fact that ISO 9000 has been used widely throughout Europe, the USA and worldwide as a nationally and internationally accepted quality standard (Tan and Lim-Teck Sia, 2001; Dick, 2000; Zairi and Baidoun, 2003). For example, more than 300,000 public and private organizations worldwide have received certication as of December 1999 and this number is growing by 50,000 to 60,000 per year (Corbett and Kirsch, 2001). Moreover, ISO (2001) conrmed that the worldwide total of ISO 9000 certicates was 408,631, which provides evidence of the continuing growth of the quality system standard (ISO 9000). The standard was perceived as a non-political baseline for quality and spread from Europe to North America, Japan to the rest of the World. The implementation of the standard in Egyptian companies depends on how the standard is perceived by the Egyptian companies themselves. Despite the number of publications and the amount of research into ISO 9000, little empirical research has been carried out in the Arab world and more specically Egypt. There is very little known about management attitudes/perceptions in Egypt towards ISO 9000.
Therefore, the focus of the present study was to examine management attitudes/perceptions of Egyptian manufacturing organizations toward ISO 9001:2000 standard. Research methodology and organizational prole This study is exploratory in nature and seeks to collect data about management attitudes/perceptions towards ISO 9001:2000. In deciding on the most suitable method for collecting the required data, it is important to note that based on the literature review it was clear that the majority of research about ISO 9000 has been conducted via quantitative approaches, predominantly through postal questionnaires (see Table II) to cover various issues such as the value of the standard (Mezher et al., 2004; Chang and Lo, 2005; Bhuiyan and Alam, 2005; Van der Wiele et al., 2005); reasons for seeking certication, perceived degree of difculty of ISO 9000: 2000 (McAdam and Jackson, 2002; Mezher et al., 2004; Bhuiyan and Alam, 2005), Questionnaires are popular within the various studies on ISO 9000 due to the fact that they are stable, consistent and uniform statistical measure, provide less opportunity for bias or error than interviews, provide greater assurance of anonymity and can be completed at the participants convenience (Kumar, 2000). Denscombe (1999) indicated that the postal questionnaire is the best-known research method, involving sending self-completion questionnaires through the post. This generally implies that postal questionnaires can cover wider geographical areas than interviews (Riley et al., 2000), and enable researchers to obtain a large amount of data inexpensively (Sarantakos, 1998). Questionnaires were chosen for this study, partly because of the popularity of this method in quality management research (Bavagnoli and Perona, 2000; Liker et al., 1998). Questionnaires have been used to study quality management techniques in different countries or regions, as in the case of Taiwan (Chang and Lu, 1995). Further, quality management questionnaires are utilized to also focus on a specic companys size, or a sector, as in the present study. The questionnaire was developed based on an extensive review of the literature in order to have large statements related to the various driving forces, benets, and barriers other researchers (e.g., Escanciano et al., 2001; Pan, 2003; Van Der Wiele et al., 2000; McAdam and Fulton, 2002; Chow-Chua et al., 2003; Lee, 2004; Calisir et al., 2001) have utilized in their studies. The design of the questionnaire relied upon closed and scale questions. Closed questions were chosen to provide the researcher with standardized data and can be presented in an appropriate format that lends itself to being quantied and compared. Also it is utilized in providing pre-coded data, which can be analyzed easily and the gathered data tend to be reliable and valid. Scale questions were utilized to identify the management perceptions through the use of
Response rate (%) 102 30 40 70 59 83 52 22 24 35 23 41.5
Authors Bhuiyan and Alam (2004 Bhuiyan and Alam (2004, 2005) Ruzevicius et al. (2004) Gulbro et al. (2000) Beaumont and Sohal (1999) Salaheldin (2003)
Research method utilized Questionnaires Questionnaires Questionnaires Questionnaires Questionnaires Questionnaires
Sample targeted 200 138 125 200 252 200
Table II. Overview of similar research studies on the eld of ISO 9000/quality management
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Likert Style rating scale. The researcher chose the use of Likert style rating scale because it communicates interval properties to respondents, and therefore to produce data that can be assumed to be related to an interval scale. The data collected from the Likert scale can be evaluated easily through standard techniques. Closed ended and scale questions were used in the questionnaire to obtain different types of information. This information can be classied into factual information, achieved through classication questions 1-5 to gain information industry type, organizational size, certication status, awareness of ISO 9001:2000, and relevance of ISO 9001:2000. Perceptions, attitudes, and thoughts achieved through attitudinal questions 6-8 to gain information on the extent of agreement/disagreement of participants regarding the driving forces (14 statements), benets (19 statements) and barriers (11 statements) of ISO 9001:2000 implementation. It was decided that the questionnaire would be sent to a target of 200 manufacturing organizations in Egypt and this chosen sample of 200 would be justied because most research in the eld of quality management/ISO 9000 tends to use 100-200 as an appropriate sample size (see Table II). Further, because of the time and cost constraints involved in the research, the researcher felt that 200 was an appropriate sample size, compared well with relevant past studies and enough statistical information can be gained from it. A covering letter accompanied the questionnaire, which explained the nature of the study, asked the participants to ll in and return the questionnaire in the self-addressed enveloped provided, and explicitly requested completion of the questionnaire by the managing director (MD) or owner of the business, rather than a person with the title of quality manager or equivalent. This was as MDs have an overview of the entire organization and they are more likely to provide objective view. A total of 70 questionnaires were returned representing a response rate of 35 per cent. The response rate (35 per cent) is quite reasonable compared with other studies in the eld of quality management (Dissanayaka et al., 2001). Following the data collection stage, the responses were coded to enable them to be computer processed. The researcher used the software package referred to as Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). It is interesting to note that the majority (70 percent) of the respondents participated in the study were from engineering, electronics, pharmaceutical and chemicals organizations (see Table III). This may be due to the fact that these sectors are exposed to a highly competitive market and forced to implement quality tools/techniques. Therefore, they are more willing to participate in studies related to quality to gain knowledge on how to improve quality in order to compete in todays competitive environment. With respect to the number of employees in the surveyed organizations, the percentages of the employees distribution in the manufacturing sector are shown in Table III. In this study, most of the participants came from large companies with more than 249 employees representing 60 percent, while the responses for medium-sized enterprises (between 50-249 employees) and small rms (Less than 50 employees) were 30 percent and 10 percent respectively. However in terms of ISO certication (see Table III), the majority (50 percent) of the surveyed organizations were found to be either in the process of acquiring ISO certication or were planning to pursue it, and 20 percent were still undecided about certication. While 30 percent of the surveyed manufacturing organizations were found to be certied which, represents a satisfactory rate of certication within a developing country.
Category Industry Pharmaceutical and chemicals Foods and drinks Engineering and electronics Textiles Instruments and related products Number of employees 1-49 (small) 50-249 (medium) 249 and above (large) Certication status In the process of acquiring certication Planning to pursue it Undecided Certied Awareness of ISO 9001:2000 Very well Quite well Only slight Very little Relevance of ISO 9001:2000 More relevant Less relevant Neutral
No of participants 21 7 28 7 7 7 21 42 21 14 14 21 28 21 14 7 49 14 7
% of participants 30 10 40 10 10 10 30 60 30 20 20 30 40 30 20 10 70 20 10
Table III. Prole of surveyed manufacturing organizations (n 70)
Findings and discussion Awareness and relevance of ISO 9001:2000 The respondents were asked to state their level of awareness of ISO 9001:2000. The vast majority (70 percent) of the respondents reported that they were familiar to at least some degree with the ISO 9001:2000 (see Table III). Their understanding and awareness of the ISO 9001:2000 to some degree referred to the fact that the respondents were not aware of all the new components within the ISO 9001:2000, and their level of familiarity was judged based on the eight quality management principles that contained within the ISO: 9001:2000 and they are customer focused organizations, leadership, involvement of people, process approach, system approach to management, continual improvement, factual approach to decision making and mutually benecial supplier relationships. The researcher selected these eight quality management principles as they are the principles used to revise the standard and produced the main four management requirement for ISO 9001:2000 and they are: (1) management responsibility; (2) resource management; (3) product realization and measurement; and (4) analysis and improvement.
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The participants were asked whether the 2000 revisions made ISO 9000 a more relevant system for their organizations? The majority of the participants provided positive feedback, as 70 percent of the surveyed sample reported that they thought the new standard is more relevant than the old standard (see Table III). Driving forces for seeking certication The literature has suggested many reasons as to why companies seek ISO certication (Buttle, 1997; Dissanayaka et al., 2001; Magd, 2004). These reasons from the literature were condensed to 14 reasons in the survey (see Table II), the driving forces were adapted from a similar study performed on an African country by Magd (2004). Participants were asked to rate the importance of these reasons on a ve-point scale. Table IV presents the driving forces as identied by the participants in terms of mean score and standard deviation. It also presents rank ordered responses. It is clear that from Table IV that the most important driving forces for seeking ISO 9001:2000 certication are to improve the efciency of the quality system; to achieve customer satisfaction; pressures from competitors/foreign partners; to maintain/increase market share; avoid potential export barrier and to meet government demands requirements or pressure. Improving the efciency of the quality system and achieving customer satisfaction appear to be the leading driving forces for seeking ISO 9001:2000. It is clear that Egyptian managers recognized that the standard is geared towards quality system efciency and customer satisfaction rather than achieving quality improvement ranked seventh place. Seeking ISO 9001:2000 as a step towards Total Quality Management (TQM) was not a signicantly important driving force for seeking certication. This is an interesting observation, as it reects the Egyptian manufacturing companies level of ambition with regard to quality as well as their awareness and understanding of the possibilities of using the standard as a tool for
Rank Driving forces (adapted from Magd, 2004) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 To improve the efciency of the quality system To achieve customer satisfaction Pressures from competitors/foreign partners To maintain/increase market share Avoid potential export barrier To meet government demands, requirements or pressure To achieve quality improvement To market products in the international arena To use ISO as a marketing/promotional tool To be a step towards TQM To achieve cost reduction To meet corporate objectives To improve employees relations Capturing workers knowledge M 4.71 4.68 4.64 4.62 4.60 4.56 3.71 3.64 3.47 3.29 3.19 2.24 2.17 2.14 SDb 0.42 0.48 0.49 0.50 0.57 0.60 1.02 1.10 1.42 1.30 1.27 1.20 1.18 1.09
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Table IV. Driving forces for seeking ISO 9001:2000 certication
Notes: The mean score is based on participants level of agreement with each statement on a scale of 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree; a mean score above 4 indicates high, between 3 and 4 indicates moderate and a score of less than 3 indicates a low level of agreement; bSD Standard Deviation
organizational development. Furthermore, Egyptian manufacturing companies are moving towards achieving organizational success and focusing on growth as a strategy by seeking certication, this is evident from the fact that maintaining and increasing market share ranked in fourth place as one of the important driving forces for seeking certication. It is clear that Egyptian manufacturing companies considered internal improvement of the organizations products and processes and external pressure to obtain the certicate as the main driving forces for seeking certication. Comparing these ndings to other studies, Tang and Kam (1999), Pan (2003), Torre et al. (2001), Escanciano et al. (2001) and Buttle (1997) investigated the reasons why organizations sought ISO 9000 certication. These studies were similar to the present study and they suggested that the most important driving forces for seeking certication were government pressures, customer pressures, to improve market share, improve efciency and achieve quality improvement. The order of these reasons varies among studies. Moreover, Magd (2004), Brown and Van der wiele (1995) and Vloeberghs and Bellens (1996) concluded that improving the efciency of the quality system was very important, which is consistent with the present study. Therefore, it can be concluded that the results of the present study are strongly supported and consistent with the ndings of previous studies. A cross tabulation and t-tests were performed, classifying the participant organizations into their respective size, in order to determine whether the driving forces for seeking ISO 9001:2000 certication differed within each category (see Table V). As a result, it was furthered established that large manufacturing organizations are signicantly more likely to seek certication as a part of a TQM program and to improve the efciency of the quality system than are medium-sized enterprises. This can be explained due to the fact that large manufacturing companies
Small and Large medium sized organizations enterprises (mean) (mean) (n 42) (n 28) 4.50 4.60 4.61 4.6 4.6 4.55 3.1 3.55 3.4 3.15 3.12 1.9 1.85 1.88 4.99 4.8 4.7 4.65 4.6 4.58 3.9 3.8 3.61 3.51 3.32 2.9 2.75 2.64
ISO 9001:2000 driving forces To improve the efciency of the quality system To achieve customer satisfaction Pressures from competitors/foreign partners To maintain/increase market share Avoid potential export barrier To meet government demands, requirements or pressure To achieve quality improvement To market products in the international arena To use ISO as a marketing/promotional tool To be a step towards TQM To achieve cost reduction To meet corporate objectives To improve employees relations Capturing workers knowledge Note: * p value denotes signicant at 0.05 (two-tailed)
t-test ( p-value) 0.04 * 0.636 0.342 0.765 0.878 0.277 0.849 0.478 0.472 0.05 * 0.059 0.047 0.933 0.067
Table V. Driving forces for seeking ISO 9001:2000 certication among small, medium and large manufacturing organizations
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are concerned about quality issues in both the short and long term. Also large organizations might focus on certication more than small and medium sized organizations depending of the type of customer which might be demanding certication and large organizations have the capital to invest in certication. Benets of certication Subjective assessments were undertaken to identify the perceived benets from implementing ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing organizations. It is often very difcult to quantify such benets due to their nature, whether tangible or intangible. Table VI reveals the number of benets extracted from the literature to undertake this study. The various benets were adapted from similar studies undertaken by Magd (2004), Chow-Chua et al. (2003) and Van der Wiele et al. (2005). It is understood that the most important perceived benets from implementing ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing organizations are improves documentation; improves the efciency of the quality system; clearer work instruction/procedures and job responsibilities; helps supplier selection; improves product/service quality; helps develop quality management; and promotional tool. Improving the documentation and the efciency of the quality system appear to be the leading benets for implementing ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing organizations with the highest mean score and the lowest standard deviation. Similar positive responses were indicated relative to clearer work instructions/procedures/and job responsibilities and supplier selection. It is clear that
Perceived benets (adapted from Magd, 2004; Chow-Chua et al., 2003 and Rank Van der Wiele et al., 2005) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Improves documentation Improves the efciency of the quality system Clearer work instructions/procedures/and job responsibilities Helps supplier selection Improves product/service quality Helps develop quality management Promotional tool Improves export potential Improves protability Expansion to international markets Customer satisfaction Increase quality awareness Improves employee relations Improves employee motivation Improves employee productivity Reduces costs Reduces production time Greater staff retention Product development tool Average mean score
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M 4.51 4.48 4.46 4.45 4.40 4.30 4.21 3.95 3.84 3.74 3.70 3.63 3.59 3.51 3.41 2.23 2.08 1.91 1.62 3.58
SDb 0.47 0.49 0.59 0.66 0.71 0.77 0.85 0.90 0.93 0.96 0.96 0.99 0.99 1.01 1.09 1.19 1.21 1.26 1.29
Table VI. Perceived benets of ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing organizations
Notes: The mean score is based on participants level of agreement with each statement on a scale of 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree; a mean score above 4 indicates high, between 3 and 4 indicates moderate and a score of less than 3 indicates a low level of agreement; b SD Standard Deviation
Egyptian managers recognized the standard as a tool for achieving quality system efciency rather than achieving quality products/services. The two leading benets are tangible direct effects since ISO 9001:2000 includes mainly requirements for a better quality system. However, improving product/service quality ranked fth among all the benets, which was reasonable rank since ISO 9001:2000, is not designed to address the quality but the efciency of the quality system. Pinar et al. (2000) supported this further by his conclusion based on a sample from Turkey that quality system focuses on achieving efciency rather than quality. Implementation of the standard was perceived to assist in the development of quality management. This is evident from the fact that, as organizations improve documentation of products and processes, new potential for quality improvement may become apparent. As these possibilities are identied, changes that might improve quality can be further investigated. ISO 9001:2000 certication is denitely perceived as a positive promotional marketing tool. This is because of the international recognition of the standard. The participants agreed that the implementation of the standard has other positive outcomes (see Table VI), but these benets were not perceived as positive as the above seven outcomes, which achieved a mean score above 4. However, it is clear that the majority of ISO 9001:2000 benets (see Table VI) are perceived applicable in the manufacturing industry in Egypt. While Issues related to cost reduction were not perceived as positive as other benets, and this may be a result of increased documentation of processes that results in reduced variability in the production operations, yielding greater output per input and translating into reduced cost. The lowest perceived benet in this study was in response to ISO 9001:2000 as a product development tool. This can be explained by the fact that the increased emphasis on documentation can be viewed as a potential drawback to the research and development process, and innovation. Comparing the ndings on the main positive outcomes of implementing ISO in Egyptian manufacturing organizations to other studies on ISO 9000: 1994, Magd (2004), Magd and Curry (2003); Dissanayaka et al. (2001), Ragothaman and Korte (1999), Van Der Wiele et al. (2000), Yahya and Goh (2001), Tang and Kam (1999), Escanciano et al. (2001), Stevenson and Barnes (2001), Dick et al. (2001) and McAdam and Fulton (2002) investigated the main benets of implementing ISO in Egypt, Hong Kong, the USA, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Spain, the UK, and The Republic of Ireland. These studies were similar to the present study, and it should be made clear that the methodology is different, but the results are comparable with the present study. They suggested that the most important benets occurring from implementing the standard were: Improves documentation; improves the efciency of the quality system; clearer work instruction/procedures and job responsibilities; helps supplier selection; improves product/service quality; helps develop quality management; promotional tool; improves export potential; improves protability; expansion to international markets; customer satisfaction; increase quality awareness; improves employee relations; improves employee motivation; and improves employee productivity. The order of these reasons varies within the studies on ISO 9000: 1994 and this is clearly illustrated in Table VII, while Magd (2004), Brown and Van der wiele (1995) and Vloeberghs and Bellens (1996) concluded that improving the efciency of the quality system was a very important benet of ISO implementation, which is consistent with the present study and also it demonstrated that the internal perceived
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Present study Better understanding of process/responsibilities Employees become more quality aware Improved employee training Improved product/service quality Reduction of level of failures Improved customer satisfaction Increased clients reliance Reduced complaints from clients Better knowledge of duties and obligations Reduced number of defects
Improves documentation
Clearer work Effectiveness of instructions/procedures quality system Improves the efciency of Clearer job responsibilities Communication the quality system among departments Better corporate image Effectiveness of Clearer work top management instructions/procedures/and job responsibilities Helps supplier selection Better documentation Personnel procedures motivation
Improves product/service quality
Helps develop quality management
Promotional tool
Improves export potential
Improves protability
Expansion to international markets Customer satisfaction
Increase quality awareness Reduction in waster and inefciency Improves employee Improve protability relations
Table VII. Comparative analysis of the present study and ISO 9000:1994 benets Chow-Chua et al. (2003) ISO 9000:1994 Benets Pinar et al. (2000) Escanciano et al. (2001) Ruzevicius et al. (2004) Magd and Curry (2003) Improves documentation Improves the efciency of the quality system Helps supplier selection Improves product/service quality Helps develop quality management Improved communication between employees Won tenders for orders Promotional tool Export sales Elimination redundancy/reduce unnecessary work Domestic sales Enable easy accessible, traceable and auditable work procedure Greater quality awareness Protability Greater competitive advantage Improve customer satisfaction Helped in continual improvement Better customer service Better knowledge of customer expectations Productivity and Increased workforce efciency motivation Reduced costs Mutual co-operation with suppliers Reduced waste Greater advantage of and scrape rate time and resources Reduced customer Internal customer complaints orientation Reduced defective Increased productivity products Improvement of work environment Improves export potential Improves public relations Customer satisfaction Increases quality awareness Improves employee productivity Improves employee motivation Improves employee relations (continued )
Present study Increase market share Greater staff retention
Chow-Chua et al. (2003)
ISO 9000:1994 Benets Pinar et al. (2000) Escanciano et al. (2001)
Ruzevicius et al. (2004) Magd and Curry (2003) Reduces costs Reduces production time
Improves employee motivation Improves employee productivity Reduces costs Expansion to international market Greater opportunity for export Cost reduction Reduced quality audits by customers
Reduces production time
Increased employee satisfactions Increased employee participation Better relations management/employees Improved protability
Greater staff retention Product development tool
Table VII.
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benets were highly appreciated and presented. Therefore, it can be concluded that the results of the present study are strongly supported and consistent with the ndings of previous studies on ISO 9000: 1994. Based on the competitive analysis data of the present study and ISO 9000: 1994 benets, it was evident that the perceived benets are very similar, and they seem to follow similar patterns. One of the possible reasons for such similarity is that this empirical study is based on pervious studies, which were focused on the benets of the old version of the standard. Therefore, the present study may had some bias in the design of the survey, focusing on the aspects that are more important for the old version of the standard rather than focusing on the new version. Another contributing reasons was that organizations with negative experiences in implementing the ISO 9000: 1994 may perceived the old version negatively and that could be reected on the new version of the standard. Moreover, the similarity is that the lack of knowledge and experience leads organizations through a more difcult process of implementation, which means more time, more cost and fewer benets perceived. Furthermore, the surveyed organizations seem to be in the process of certication or just acquired the certication and this indicate that these organizations lacks the experience with the standard in terms of benets, and therefore the time factor is quite important as a contributing factor. This is supported further by Brecka (1994) who suggested that the longer the organization is certied, the higher the perceived benets. Its also remarkable that the results of the previous ISO 9000: 1994 standards are comparable with those for ISO 9001:2000, and in illustrating this further a comparative analysis between the present study and other studies on ISO 9001:2000, are shown in Table VIII it must be taken into consideration that the order of the perceived benets varies due to the extent of participants level of understanding and experiences with the standard. A cross-tabulation and t-tests were performed, classifying the participant organizations into their respective size (see Table IX), in order to determine whether the main benets derived from implementing ISO 9000: 2000 differed within each category. As a result, it was furthered established that small and medium sized had a stronger belief that the implementation of the standard results in an increase in export potential and cost reduction than did large organizations. This can be explained by the fact that small and medium sized organizations tend to use ISO 9001:2000 to identify existing production processes with a resulting cost reduction because of improved knowledge of the production process. Ferguson (1994) and Ragothaman and Korte (1999) support this. In order to condense the number of perceived benets and group them into factors and identify any existing relationship between factors in each group. Factor analysis of the benets of ISO 9001:2000 was performed through the principal component approach with varimax rotation procedure with a criterion cut off factor score of 0.5 was applied to select the benets factors which are shown in Table X. Factor analysis was utilized to consolidate the benets and barriers of ISO certication, as factor analysis is viewed as consisting of a broad set of techniques (models) that encompass several related procedures such as principal components, principal factor analysis, image factor analysis, and maximum likelihood factor methods. The immediate objective of factor analysis is to reduce a set of inter-correlated responses (the variables) or alternatively, a set of respondents (the individuals), to a smaller set of
ISO 9001:2000 Benets Bhuiyan and Alam (2005) Improved documentation Improved quality perception Disciplined work environment Consistency across the organization Improved customer condence Efciency of processes Customer satisfaction Quality of product/service Improved customer service Effective leadership Advertising/marketing Brand image Able to stay in business/not excluded from Customer loyalty/repeat tenders business Improved market share Teamwork Market share Attraction of new customers Rework Employee turnover Employee absence Customer satisfaction Continuous improvement Management control Quality focus Van der Wiele et al. (2005) Casadesus and Karapetrovic (2005)
Present study
Improves documentation Improves the efciency of the quality system Clearer work instructions/procedures/and job responsibilities Helps supplier selection
Improves product/service quality Helps develop quality management Promotional tool Improves export potential Improves protability
Decreasing nonconformance Customer satisfaction Improving supplier relationships Decreasing customer complaints Team participation Suggestion systems Health and safety at work Meeting the delivery date Customer loyalty Work satisfaction Market share Increasing sales Return on investment Decreasing lead time Decreasing costs Increasing inventory turnover Increasing sales per employee Reducing employee absenteeism
Expansion to international markets Customer satisfaction Increase quality awareness Improves employee relations Improves employee motivation Improves employee productivity Reduces costs Reduces production time Greater staff retention
Product development tool
Table VIII. Comparative analysis of the present study and ISO 9000:2000 benets
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ISO 9001:2000 benets
Small and Large medium sized organizations enterprises (mean) (mean) (n 42) (n 28) 4.5 4.47 4.46 4.45 4.40 4.23 4.20 4.02 3.83 3.71 3.70 3.62 3.58 3.49 3.37 2.0 1.77 1.56 1.68 4.52 4.49 4.46 4.45 4.40 4.35 4.22 3.81 3.86 3.79 3.72 3.65 3.60 3.54 3.49 2.40 2.8 2.6 1.7
t-test ( p-value) 0.477 0.933 0.096 0.059 0.291 0.056 0.471 0.002 * 0.047 0.921 0.459 0.821 0.471 0.056 0.298 0.000 * 0.059 0.057 0.059
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Table IX. ISO 9001:2000 benets among small, medium and large manufacturing organizations
Improves documentation Improves the efciency of the quality system Clearer work instructions/procedures/and job responsibilities Helps supplier selection Improves product/service quality Helps develop quality management Promotional tool Improves export potential Improves protability Expansion to international markets Customer satisfaction Increase quality awareness Improves employee relations Improves employee motivation Improves employee productivity Reduces costs Reduces production time Greater staff retention Product development tool Note: * p value denotes signicant at 0.05 (two-tailed)
unobserved factors or latent variables which presumably give rise to the observed data and correlation (covariance) metric (Rossi et al., 1983, pp. 269-70). Therefore, the rational behind the selection of choosing factor analysis is to reduce multiple relationships that may exist among variable statements, and to uncover common dimensions that link together the seemingly unrelated variables, providing insight into the underlying structure of the data. For easier interpretation of the gathered data set, varimax rotation is used. Based on the factor analysis performed, the benets and barriers statements (see Tables X and XI) were reduced and produced fewer factors. Naming these factors is done according to the statements included in every factor. For instance, factor 1 of Table X is named internal focus because the question/variables under this grouping include issues such as documentation improvement, quality awareness, clearer work instruction/procedures and job responsibilities, improvement in the efciency of the quality system, and the development of quality management. These issues are considered internal organizational issues, which are required in achieving ISO certication. The value of the overall KMO[1] statistics for this factor analysis is 0.843. Based on the factor analysis of ISO 9001:2000 benets in Table IV, four main factors were then identied: (1) Internal focus through documentation improvement; quality awareness clearer work instruction/procedures and job responsibilities; improvement in the efciency of the quality system; and the development of quality management.
Composite factors/benets items 1. Improves documentation 2. Increase quality awareness 3. Clearer work instruction/procedures and job responsibilities 4. Improves the efciency of the quality system 5. Helps quality management 6. Improves customer satisfaction 7. Improves product/service quality 8. Promotional tool 9. Helps supplier selection 10. Improves protability 11. Improves staff retention 12. Reduces costs 13. Expansion to international markets 14. Improves export potential Eigenvalue Cumulative variance explained
Varimax rotated loading Internal External Results Export focus focus focus focus 0.79 0.71 0.66 0.64 0.59 0.89 0.71 0.64 0.61 0.81 0.73 0.57 8.791 37.23 2.347 47.46 1.737 56.51 0.91 0.83 1.271 61.21
Table X. Factor analysis of ISO 9000:2000 benets in Egyptian manufacturing organizations
Varimax rotated loading Composite factors/barriers items 1. Top management commitment 2. Failure to dene responsibility and authority for personnel 3. Organizational resistance to change 4. Difculties in motivating staff participation 5. Lack of nancial resources 6. Insufcient quality education and training 7. Lack of qualied personnel 8. Scratchy documentation, procedures and records 9. Poor supplier involvement Eigenvalue Cumulative variance explained Organizational commitment 0.861 0.751 0.713 0.679 0.814 0.714 0.654 3.546 17.340 3.021 15.321 0.765 0.751 3.005 15.105 Table XI. Factor analysis of ISO 9001:2000 implementation barriers Resources Quality system and supplier
(2) External focus through customer satisfaction improvement; product/service quality improvement; the use of ISO 9001:2000 as a marketing promotional tool; and the assistance in supplier selection. (3) Results focus through protability improvement; staff retention improvement; and costs reduction. (4) Export focus through expansion to international market; and export potential improvement.
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Barriers to ISO effective implementation Subjective assessments were performed to identify the perceived barriers which might contribute to the ineffective implementation of ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing organizations. Table XII shows the number of barriers extracted from the literature to perform this study. The participants were asked to rate these barriers on a ve-point scale from strongly disagree 1 to strongly agree 5. Table XII indicates that there is a consensus among Egyptian manufacturing organizations that top management commitment, lack of qualied personnel, insufcient quality education and training, lack of nancial resources, and failures to dene responsibility and authority for personnel are regarded as barriers to effective implementation of ISO 9001:2000. The most important barrier was perceived as top management commitment and this due to the fact that without top management commitment, employees tend to put a low priority on the quality management system and the quality management system becomes static. Moreover if top management does not show commitment to the importance of system continuously, employees will prioritized other work activities over the quality management system and nothing will results in terms of the effective implementation of the quality management system. In comparison with other studies (Mezher et al., 2004; Ruzevicius et al., 2004; Bhuiyan and Alam, 2005; Magd, 2004; Chow-Chua et al., 2003; Lee, 2004; Yahya and Goh, 2001; Calisir et al., 2001), these studies suggested the most important barriers to ISO implementation are top management commitment, nancial resources and training and education. It is clear that the present ndings are consistent with previous studies, which focused on ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 9000: 1994, which conrmed that top management commitment, nancial resources and training and educations are reported as the main barriers for the effective implementation. The ndings are extremely signicant for policy makers, whom can easily identify which barriers can be reduced or eliminated to produce an effective implementation of ISO 9001:2000. Also factor analysis of the barriers of ISO 9001:2000 was performed through the principal component approach with varimax rotation procedure with a criterion cut off factor score of 0.5 was applied to select the benets factors which are shown in Table XI. The value of the overall KMO statistics for this factor analysis is
Rank Barriers 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Top management commitment Lack of qualied personnel Insufcient quality education and training Lack of nancial resources Failure to dene responsibility and authority for personnel Poor supplier involvement Organizational resistance to change Difculties in motivating staff participation Scratchy documentation, procedures and records Lack of experience in establishing quality systems Decient supplier control Mean 4.52 4.47 4.39 4.21 4.11 3.97 3.87 3.69 2.89 2.62
Table XII. Barriers to ISO 9001:2000 implementation
Note: The mean score is based on participants level of agreement with each statement on a scale of 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree
0.822. Based on the data provided in Table XI, which suggests that there are three barriers/factors identied and they are as follow: (1) Organizational commitment through top management commitment; failure to dene responsibility and authority for personnel; organizational resistance to change; and difculties in motivating staff participation. (2) Resources through lack of nancial resources; insufcient quality education and training; and lack of qualied personnel. (3) Quality system and suppliers through scratchy documentation, procedures and records; and poor supplier involvement. Conclusions and recommendations Despite the number of publications and the amount of research into ISO 9000, the literature review identied a gap with regard to the fact that there is a little research has been carried out in the Arab World and more specically Egypt on ISO 9001:2000 and more specically the new revised standard. On 15 December 2000, the European Committee for Standardization approved the ISO 9000: 2000 series of standards. The recent changes have highlighted the changing requirements of quality systems in the market place. The new and improved version is aimed at making the standard business oriented and friendly for current users and potential users. There is very little known about management attitudes/perceptions in Egypt towards the new revised standard (ISO 9001:2000). Therefore, the focus of the present study was to examine management attitudes/perceptions of Egyptian manufacturing organizations toward ISO 9001:2000 standard. To achieve the goal of this study, mail questionnaires were sent to 200 manufacturing companies throughout Egypt, randomly chosen from those listed in the Egyptian telecommunications directory. A total of 70 questionnaires were returned representing a response rate of 35 per cent. The response rate is quite reasonable compared with other studies in the eld of total quality management (Dissanayaka et al., 2001). The study suggested that improving the efciency of the quality system and achieving customer satisfaction appear to the leading motivations for seeking ISO 9001:2000. it is clear that the standard is perceived to be a tool geared towards quality system efciency and customer satisfaction rather than achieving quality improvement as a direct outcome. The surveyed sample indicated a high level of ambition with regard to quality as well as their awareness and understanding of the possibilities of using the standard as a tool for organizational development. This observation was evident from the fact that the participants did not seek ISO 9001:2000 as a step towards total quality management. Moreover Egyptian manufacturing organizations are moving towards achieving organizational success and focusing on growth as a strategy by seeking certication, this is evident from the fact that maintaining and increasing market share ranked high on the agenda as one of the important motivations for seeking certication. With regard to the expected benets from ISO 9001:2000 implementation, improving the documentation and the efciency of the quality system appear to be the leading benets in Egyptian manufacturing organizations. These two benets were considered to be tangible direct effects since ISO includes mainly requirements for a better quality system. Moreover, the implementation of the standard was perceived to
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assist in the development of quality management. This is evident as organizations improve documentation of products and processes, new potential for quality improvement may become apparent. Furthermore, ISO 9001:2000 was not perceived as a product development tool, and this can be explained by the fact that the increased emphasis on documentation can be viewed as a potential drawback to the research and development process. The surveyed participants agreed that top management commitment, lack of qualied personnel, insufcient quality education and training, lack of nancial resources, and failures to dene responsibility and authority for personnel are regarded as barriers to effective implementation of the ISO 9001:2000. These ndings are extremely signicant for policy makers, whom can easily identify which barriers can be reduced or eliminated to produce an effective implementation of ISO 9001:2000. The ndings presented in this article have possible implications of Egyptian managers. Implementation of the ISO 9001:2000 will likely improve the documentation of products and processes within the rm. This enhanced documentation and processes will probably produced benets such as customer satisfaction and marketing organizational products in the international arena. Implementation of ISO 9001:2000 is a tool for understanding products and processes, but by itself it will not solve existing problems or guarantee quality. However, in order to achieve the true value associated with it, it should be made consistent with organizations strategic directions, should not stop at ISO 9001:2000 and also the identied barriers should reduced or eliminated in order to have an effective implementation and in turn will results in the expected outcome in time. Also in enhancing the level of the true value of the standard and effective implementation, the author strongly recommends that organizations need to focus on receiving training by professional organizations/institutions on the true meaning of the standard and the new changes and how these changes can impact organizations. In order for developing countries to have access to international standards and increase their participation in international standardization and conformity assessment activities to benet organizational and countries economic growth, the researcher recommends that ISO Central Secretariat should consider various issues within their action plan for developing countries and these issues include the dissemination of the results of the present study across developing countries to share experiences in order to achieve consistency and avoid making mistakes. The dissemination of the results of the present study will enable other developing countries to understand the benets achieved from implementing ISO 9001:2000 and the barriers which can be used as a focal point in ensuring the effective implementation. Through the dissemination of the present study results by the ISO Central Secretariat, it will lead to the knowledge transfer and cooperative partnership among developing countries in order to achieve standardization.
Note 1. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test (KMO) is an indicator of how well suited the sample data is for such analysis and its value is less than 1. The acceptable value should be between 0.5 and 0.99.
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Further reading Agus, A., Krishnan, S.K. and Kadir, S.L.S. (2000), The structural impact of total quality management on nancial performance relative to competitors through customer satisfaction: a study of Malaysian manufacturing companies, Total Quality Management, Vol. 11 Nos 4-6, pp. S808-19. Chan, A.P.C. and Tam, C.M. (2000), Factors affecting the quality of building projects in Hong Kong, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 17 Nos 4-5, pp. 423-41. Russell, S. (2000), ISO 9000: 2000 and the EFQM excellence model: competition or co-operation, Total Quality Management, Vol. 11 Nos 4-6, pp. S657-65. Singh, J.P., Feng, M. and Smith, A. (2006), ISO 9000 series of standards: comparisons of manufacturing and service organizations, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 122-42. Tsim, C.Y., Yeung, S.W.V. and Leung, E. (2001), An adaptation to ISO 9001:2000 for certied organizations, Integrated Management: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on ISO 9000 and TQM, pp. 93-100. Zuckerman, A. (2001), ISO 9000: 2000 now ofcial, World Trade, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 68-9. Corresponding author Hesham A.E. Magd can be contacted at: h.aboumagd@etqm.ae
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ISO 9001:2000 in the Egyptian manufacturing sector: perceptions and perspectives

ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing 173

ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing 175

Figure 1. ISO 9001:2000 process-based quality management system

ISO certication Certied to ISO 9000 standard

Source: Heras et al. (2002a, p. 776)

ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing 177

ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing 179

Research method utilized Questionnaires Questionnaires Questionnaires Questionnaires Questionnaires Questionnaires

Sample targeted 200 138 125 200 252 200

ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing 181

Table III. Prole of surveyed manufacturing organizations (n 70)

Table IV. Driving forces for seeking ISO 9001:2000 certication

ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing 183

Table VI. Perceived benets of ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing organizations

ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing 185

Improves product/service quality

Helps develop quality management

Improves export potential

Expansion to international markets Customer satisfaction

Present study Increase market share Greater staff retention

Chow-Chua et al. (2003)

ISO 9000:1994 Benets Pinar et al. (2000) Escanciano et al. (2001)

Reduces production time

Greater staff retention Product development tool

ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing 187

Product development tool

ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing 189

ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing 191

Table X. Factor analysis of ISO 9000:2000 benets in Egyptian manufacturing organizations

Table XII. Barriers to ISO 9001:2000 implementation

ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing 193

ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing 195

ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing 197

ISO 9001:2000 in Egyptian manufacturing 199

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