----- Original Message -----
From: Burgess Howell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2002 4:16 PM
> Have you tried the Tru Power Stepless from Monark? They mention ISO9002
> compliance on their site. Maybe the tolerances are better than the Eltas.
I have always been somewhere between skeptical and hysterical when it comes
to ISO 9000 compliance. ISO 9000 was intended to assure quality, but all it
does is assure adherence to some process -- whatever the manufacturer
decides is his/her process.
Consider two companies:
Company A builds what the engineer designs after meeting with the
customers. The engineer writes up the specs that the product is supposed to
meet. There is a test department that tests the manufactured product and
rejects anything that does not meet the specs.
Company B has a carefully-documented process that involves a marketer
writing requirements after meeting with the customer. There is a
requirements review, where marketing, the customers, and engineering must
sign off on the requirements. Then engineering designs it; a detailed design
document is the result. There is a formal design review, where marketing and
engineering must sign off on the design document. Then the product is built
and shipped, never tested.
Because company B has a process that is documented, has clearly defined
intermediate "products" (documents) which are reviewed, and their process is
[presumably] enforced, they could get ISO 9000 certification. (Their process
is very clear that testing is not included.)
Company A probably puts out a "better" product (better in the sense that it
was tested to ensure that it meets the specs that some engineer thought it
should). But, because the process is more loose and informal, and doesn't
include tracking and reviews, the company will never get ISO 9000
certification.
I've exaggerated and simplified, but only a trifle. I've worked for ISO-9000
and non-9000 organizations. The ISO organizations certainly had a lot more
formality in their process. Sometimes that led to better quality, and
occasionally to worse quality. The correlation was not really strong.
Back to our previously scheduled programming.
DaveT
