"CW" wrote in message
ink.net...
No, it doesn't. ISO is not a set of standards as the advertising
(advertising being the only real benefit of certification) would have you
believe. In a nutshell, you tell them what your company standards are and
they drop by from time to time and make sure that you have the
documentation
to show that you are fallowing those standards. As long as it is on paper,
you have satisfied their inspectors. If your company standards say that
every third part is crap, as long as you have the documentation to show
that
that is the case, you meet standards. They do not, nor are they capable
of,
dictate any manufacturing process or procedure. We recently had an ISO
audit
(yes, our shop is certified). At no time did the inspector come into the
shop area. They stayed in the office and looked over the documentation.
Even
if they had come into the shop, they would not have any idea what they
were
looking at. ISO certification has two benefits. (1) It is good
advertising.
People don't know what it is but it sounds technical so they think it must
mean something. (2) It provides jobs pushing meaningless paper. Our
largest
customer builds heavy jets. They do not require us or any of their
suppliers
to have ISO certification. They know it is BS and would never rely on that
to ensure quality, they can't afford to be that lax.

Then either the inspectors are not all consistent or things have changed
drastically in the last 4 years. My sister in-law was the operations
manager for a high end electronics company that built job specific one of a
kind electrical tools and equipment for extreme environment conditions.
Their product did not exist until commissioned and they carried no inventory
of products ready to be sold. About 7 or 8 years ago they were having to
make specific operations changes to become ISO certified. They had
apparently been trying to be certified for several months prior to hiring my
sister in-law.
Any way to make a long story short they had more than office visits.