CW wrote:
More than office visits? They walked around the plant once, pretending that
they had a clue. The pile of paperwork required makes extremely expensive to
be ISO certified. In a one off shop, this would be hard to do and, unless
forced to do so, they woud not waste that much time and manpower. Paper
pushers love ISO. It gives them a reason to exist.


I agree with you, but I will say that some auditors are more thorough
than others. Some actually try to do a good job. But most are just like
you say, meaningless paper pushers.

It's really a conflict of interest. The company hires the auditor to do
the audit.. The auditor wants return business, so usually they only
find a couple very minor things, but pass the audit.. If an auditor
came and reamed out the company, chances are the company would hire a
new audit firm.

And I agree. ISO 9001 is meaningless. Definitely don't let it help sway
a tool buying decision.