Where Have All the Certifications Gone?

Consultants have failed to teach companies the true value of a quality management system

Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:41

Back in the early 1990s, there was a saying, loudly heralded by one global registrar: “Certify your company, and the export markets will open their doors to it.” Well, the actual wording was a bit more rude, to get the message across to small companies.

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I guess this slogan still holds true, looking at the figures registrars boisterously declare for their Far East markets. Pity that, when European Union citizens buy Chinese, Indian, Thai, Korean, or Taiwanese goods, they don’t care if the supplier manages a certified quality system—assuming that EU buyers even know what a management system certification is. They buy these goods mainly because they are cheaper, even though “cheap” they may look—and be.

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Comments

I read only the first 3 paragraphs.  QSRs are a joke, because global manufacturing leadership is a joke.  Toyota, Apple (notwithstanding their labor issues), and possibly GE are the only global brands I know of that walk the walk.  To clarify my omission:  Ford, GM, and the old Chrysler, and any number of american aerospace giants, are not part of that group.

Consultants occupy an advisory niche, but how can they have failed when executives can choose to listen, as the Japanese did with Deming et al, or not listen?

I would be very pleased, as I'm sure you would, if consumers held the market power to drive excellence into global supply chains, but I believe there are too many barriers to that.  Most global brands are so labyrinthine they can't or won't do the right thing (case in point, the inclusion of lead in products from China;  I'm not aware that lead just falls into product streams, so its presence is the result of laziness, ignorance or malice) and no group of consumers can likely change that.

A few years ago, 60 minutes ran a segment about an american movie star whose twin babies nearly died after being given the adult analog of an infant-specific drug because, in part, the packaging was so similar.  The VP of consumer relations or marketing of the manufacturer, a well known pharmaceutical giant, appeared on camera to explain that her company was under no obligation to differentiate the packaging.  While that may be legally true, it struck me as a heinous abdication of accountability for a simple question:  What poka yokes can we put into our product to prevent misdistribution of this medicine?  Not to mention the steps that the medical community (eg, hospital) could have taken.  Leadership again.

I want to give kudos to a terrific european brand, Aldi, which I've read has carefully managed their branding and supply chain so that the brands they carry, while largely unknown to the TV-saturated American, are as good as or better in quality than the well known alternatives at the classic supermarkets.

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