British Standard Bs 5750/1so 9000

Introduction:

BS5750 is a British Standard for quality assurance and ISO 9000 is the international equivalent. BS 5750 (1979) had some shortcomings because for world class competitiveness there has to be one common standard internationally.

BS 5750ASO 9000: different characteristics

Management responsibility:

1. Define and document policy and objectives;
2. Must be understood, implemented and maintained at all levels;
3. Organisation: responsibilities, authorities and interrelationships;
4. Identify verification resources and personnel;
5. Assign management representative;
6. Review the system at appropriate intervals.

Quality system:

• Preparation of documented quality system;
• Effective implementation of documented quality system.

Issues associated with implementation:

There are various issues associated with the implementation of BS 575O/ISO 9000:

1. In the wake of 1992, it is expected that market forces will intensify and therefore BS 5750 will become a prerequisite in doing trade;
2. The values from the implementation of BS 5750 can only be appreciated if it is used as a total quality system rather than for minimal requirements of products/ services compliance;
3. BS 5750 is customer driven. It is therefore important to involve customers at all stages of the product/service development process. Standards are those agreed upon at the onset;
4. BS 5750 has to be implemented with cost effectiveness in mind. Organisations have to look for the most economical solutions and changes which meet requirements and would not affect companies’ strength. Other changes can be carried out incrementally after certification approval;
5. BS 5750 emphasizes people issues such as training. Continued compliance can only be successful if people’s skills are upgraded every time there is a change in their job design or in some aspects of their tasks.

Benefits:

• Ensuring customer satisfaction by having quality built in at each stage of the business productive system;
• Various cost savings by having uniform working methods and by using auditing in a pro-active way, continuous improvement can lead to further substantial savings;
• Waste reduction/elimination by using knowledge work and simplifying processes

Problems

• BS 5750 as a quality system costs a substantial amount of money to implement without any definite financial returns to the organisation concerned;
• BS 5750 is replacing what has always existed and has been perceived as not as good as previous standards;