I am an ISO 9000 consultant, in the past 10 years my firm has helped 15 small companies become ISO certified. I think that teams on both side of the question presented good arguments. I am disappointed in a lack of primary research.

It has been my experience that of the companies that we served none had any formal management systems in place. One had written work instructions that were badly outdated.

At this writing, all but one of the companies are profitable, long term data required by ISO section 8.4 showed significant increases in Customer Satisfaction, improved process performance, a reduction in process variation and improved supplier performance.

In response to the issue of cost of implementation, the largest of the companies we served estimated that they spent about $150,000, a cost benefit analysis of the improvements under the Corrective and Preventive actions showed a reduction in operating costs of about $325,000. Most of our customers spent between $50,000 and $75,000 on consulting fees, training time of their employees and costs for the Registrar. Some are now incorporating Lean and Six Sigma efforts within their ISO structure.

Is ISO worth it? For the smaller enterprises I have worked with, ISO has provided them with the framework to approach business more systematically, with greater discipline and with greater confidence. For them I would have to say yes.

Thomas Arneson, 25-Jan-2009