ISO 9001 on the Rebound in the US?

by Christopher Paris
Since about 2002, I have been calling on ISO to address the fact that US uptake of ISO 9001 has been shrinking. For quite a few years, we published the “Oxebridge Report on the ISO Survey” which analyzed the annual numbers of ISO 9001 certificates provided by ISO, and spun them out from ISO’s PR propaganda. We reported, accurately and year after year, how the United States’ adoption rate of ISO 9001 was falling, and would soon entire what we called “negative territory” – the point at which the number of companies which had dropped ISO 9001 would be more than those who adopted it.

ISO never officially responded, despite many attempts by Oxebridge to get Roger Frost to say something about it. Instead, they stopped reporting on “withdrawals”entirely, claiming that it was just too hard to do. mind you, they had the data — they had reported it for years prior to the Oxebridge Reports. It was obvious that as soon as the data was going to clearly show that in most developed countries ISO 9001 had lost its sheen, they rigged the reporting.

We even reported that in one year, ISO was boasting about an increase in ISO 9001 certificates when their own data had shown a decrease. They were either mathematically inept, or lying. Take your pick.

The only thing that saved ISO from shame on this front?

China.

The massive growth of ISO 9001 in China, and India in close second, meant that ISO could keep reporting an increase in the worldwide adoption of its flagship standard. But meanwhile, in the United States, companies were abandoning ISO 9001. The argument was that “sector specific” standards such as AS9100 were overtaking it, but the numbers don’t bear this out. Companies weren’t seeing value in maintaining the certification. Many I spoke with opted to keep their “ISO systems” running, but to just drop the third party certs.

Meanwhile, US industry adoption of ISO 9001 was slowing. Two years ago, the ISO Survey showed the US’ adoption rate had matched that of Kazakhstan. Yes. Borat’s country.

And so, purely speaking from anecdotal evidence, I have watched as Oxebridge’s contracts fell almost entirely into AS9100, driven by mandates from aerospace primes who want their suppliers certified to that standard. (The data does not prove, by the way, ISO’s contention that the decline in ISO 9001 certificates is partially due to the uptick in sector specific standards like AS9100, especially when each AS9100 certificate is paired with an ISO 9001 one.)

This remained the case for the past few years, and in the last two years Oxebridge almost exclusively performed AS9100 implementation and consulting, with the occasional ISO 13485 medical device or ISO 17025 cal/test lab work.

2012 is showing some interesting reversals. The reception to the new AS9100 Rev C has been lukewarm amongst both CB auditors (overwhelmed with new paperwork) and end users (who resist the OEM’s pushy-shovey mandating). In the fourth quarter of 2011, and now onto the first quarter of 2012, Oxebridge has seen the majority of outgoing quotes, and incoming contracts, for “plain old vanilla” ISO 9001.

I think this is a welcome thing. In the words of the internet hipster, it’s pretty damn awesome. Despite all the problems and failure to abide by its self-proclaimed “8 Management Principles,” ISO 9001 still remains an incredible standard. As always, I feel that adopting the standard — whether you certify to it or not — helps streamline processes, reduce inefficiencies, increase profits, improve jobs, and even make society a better place. (When people have stable jobs with advancement opportunities, this reflects in better family life at home, better neighbors, more spending power… you get it.)

Maybe it’s a glitch in the system, or maybe we are seeing a return to the true purpose of ISO 9001: companies adopting a universally recognized QMS standard for the purposes of improving their companies, not just to meet a mandate from a huge, monolithic customer.

I say, welcome back, ISO 9001. We missed you.