A Survey of SMEs and Their Attitudes towards the Implementation of ISO 9001:2000
By Mike Stone

1. Background
Much criticism was attached to the 1994 versions of 1SO 9000 by small businesses. Indeed, the standard was never designed for small businesses and has often been criticised, legitimately, for the added control of operation that it implies for small enterprises.

It was thought that the implications of addressing the necessary changes in ISO 9001:2000 might be particularly acute for small businesses, for whom the commercial needs of compliance can be greatest, but many of whose current registrations only just meet the current requirements of the 1994 versions of ISO 9000. With scarce management time and resources, this group would be expected to find the transition process to ISO 9001:2000 expensive and problematical.

Against the above background, the purpose of the survey was to investigate the potential impact that ISO 9001:2000 is likely to have upon small and medium sized companies. The particular focus concerns the appropriateness of the revised standard to SME's, the likelihood of continued or new registration, difficulties the SME's are likely to experience with the changes, the type of support they will need and the support packages which would be most effective.

During August and September 2000, LRQA and SGS Yarsley sponsored a survey by Leicester University into the attitudes of small and medium sized businesses into the above issues.

These two organisations have kindly allowed the data collected from the survey into the public domain and this article reports on some of the more interesting findings.

The survey took the form of a postal questionnaire and the 6 main sections of the survey covered:

• status of certification
• company details
• objectives for obtaining quality system certification
• knowledge of the then proposed changes to ISO 9000
• detailed knowledge of the proposed changes to ISO 9000
• attitudes to the proposed changes to ISO 9000

1066 certificated organisations responded to a postal questionnaire on the subject.

The survey also questioned organisations on their current quality systems and some important data was collected concerning attitudes towards ISO 9001/2, 1994.

A brief summary of survey results and an analysis of some key issues is given here.

2. General Comments and Notes on the Survey Population
91% of respondents to the postal questionnaire have been certificated for over 12 months and 58% for over 5 years.

71% of respondents to the postal questionnaire had less than 100 employees and 10% less than 10 employees.

Approximately 30% of respondents were service sector organisations and 63% in engineering, chemicals and construction. In general, the survey covered a very wide spread of industry sectors.

3. Motivation for implementing ISO 9000
72% of SMEs responding to the postal questionnaire were primarily motivated to implement ISO 9000 to improve quality.

Marketing, whilst very significant, was not the main reason for the majority of SMEs deciding to implement ISO 9000 in the first instance.

Only 8.7% stated that implementing ISO 9001/2 had not met their original objectives for deciding to attempt certification.

7% of postal questionnaire respondents stated that they had introduced or were introducing ISO 14001 and 15% said they had introduced or were introducing formal Investors in People programmes. Only 4% of postal questionnaire respondents claimed to be introducing EFQM.

18% of respondents were negative about the changes to ISO 9001/2 as they knew them.

4. Benefits of Implementing ISO 9000
ISO 9001/2 has been remarkably successful in achieving the objectives originally hoped for by those implementing it (ie quality improvement - see 3 above):

5. Awareness of Changes to ISO 9000
All companies responding to the questionnaire knew that ISO 9001/2 was changing and that they would have to review their quality system to bring it into line with ISO 9001:2000.

77% of SMEs had first learned about ISO 9001:2000 from their Certification Body.

6. Briefing Material on ISO 9001:2000

80% of those postal questionnaire respondents who had received briefing material on ISO 9001:2000, had obtained it from their certification bodies.

94% of respondents who received briefing material on the changes to ISO 9000 thought the material ineffective or only partially effective.

On average, 9% of SMEs claimed to have a good detailed knowledge of the changes to ISO 9000. However, responses to specific questions on the changes suggested that this figure should have been much lower!

7. Certification Body Support
Whilst 82% of SMEs (responding to this part of the postal questionnaire) would like support from their Certification Body, only 13% expect that support; and 18% considered that they would not gain from Certification Body assistance.

There is scope for the Certification Bodies, therefore, to explain further what they can do to help their clients upgrade to ISO 9001:2000.

What is clear is that SMEs see their certification bodies as much more significant than consultants when it comes to their future development of quality matters.

51% of respondents want to implement changes inside 12 months and 45% within 24 months

8. Support to Implement the Changes in ISO 9000
89.4% of SMEs stated that they needed some form of support to implement ISO 9001:2000.

74% of respondents expect support to implement ISO 9001:2000 from their certification body. However, of these 74%, 'many' said that they would expect support from other sources too (eg TECs, Business Links, Consultants).

51% of respondents want to implement changes inside 12 months and a further 45% within 24 months.

9. Attitudes towards the Changes
On average, just under 400 respondents answered this part of the questionnaire, the number varying for each question.

With the exception of electronics, construction, medical, cleaning and security services, few organisations were concerned about the lack of perceived benefit to the company in introducing ISO 9001:2000 changes! It was considered 'necessary'.

Certification Bodies have taken the lead by a large margin in presenting ISO 9001:2000 change seminars. Of those attending seminars, 63% stated that certification bodies had organised these, 7% stated that consultants had organised them (and 26% couldn't remember who had organised them!).

Approximately 14% of questionnaire respondents used other management models than ISO 9001/2 (including ISO 14001, EFQM, QS 9000 etc). This figure was consistent across all companies regardless of how long they had had certification.

Companies with longstanding ISO 9001/2 certification were no more likely to use other models than companies certificated much more recently.

Size of company and the use of other management models showed a notable correlation:
4% of companies with less than 10 employees used management models other than ISO 9001/2.
Just under 11% of companies with 10 to 99 employees used management models other than ISO 9001/2.
24% of companies with 100 to 499 employees used management models other than ISO 9001/2.
40% of companies with more than 500 employees used management models other than ISO 9001/2.

10. Additional Comment / Note
2 businesses stated that Certification Bodies had been prepared to accept very poor performance and still allow certification to continue.

11. Summary Table of Results

To back up the findings of this somewhat anonymous questionnaire, face to face interviews with 32 SMEs were undertaken. These interviews generally supported the findings of the above survey.

top of page