Choosing a consultant.

for Your ISO 9000 Implementation

The process of registration for an ISO 9000 standard in most cases forces the use of an external consultant. A consultant is required because much experience is needed in such a process, and also because internal employees often cannot be dismissed from

their duties for the sake of the registration process. The use of outside help is extremely important when the goal of the registration is not only the certificate itself, but also a true and meaningful improvement in quality Nevertheless, one must consider carefully the cost of an external consultant, compared with the benefits derived from cost reduction and methods improvement.

Because of a lack of regulation, companies that are considering hiring an external consultant are advised to learn about the considered consultant not only from brochures and handouts, but also from the opinions of former (and current) clients. Is it possible to avoid hiring an external consultant? The answer depends on your organization, its structure, and the factors that led to the decision to begin the registration process for an ISO 9000 standard. Large corporations can often afford to spare a few workers, send them to seminars regarding ISO 9000 registration, and allow them to work on the implementation process on their own. Small to average-size companies may be unable to create an in-house ISO 9000 team, and thus will have to hire an external consultant.

Identifying a qualified consultant

How do you determine who are qualified consultants? How do you determine if their services are vital? Before coming up with the answers, it is essential to understand how ISO 9000 quality consultants act in order to assist you. There isn't any one way or one method that quality consultants must adopt. Moreover, no two organizations require the same approach.

As much as possible, consultants must operate as contributors to an internal process in the company, and must encourage clients to help themselves. A good consultant will not try to take over the whole implementation process, as an all too greedy consultant will do. A good consultant understands that quality procedures must come from within the company, and should be an integral part of the company's work process. Consultants give directions and determine the manner in which they are applied; they make processes more efficient by recommending changes in the organization and methods of improvement.

Nevertheless, the company must adjust its process on its own, decide how to realize the quality procedures, and continue working according to the quality procedure after the certification has been reached. Thus, the quality procedures should be reasonable according to the company's long-term policy, and one should not adopt quality procedures haphazardly, but should instead consider them carefully.

A good IS- 9000 consultant will emphasize repeatedly that quality derives from the company itself and not from the consultant. The company should form its own quality procedures, while the consultant's role is only to guide the process. For that reason, one should avoid hiring consultants who sell more than they can deliver.

The company should be presented to the consultant in a manner that will enable him to assess if the company can benefit from ISO 9000 standards, and how well the company can operate under those standards. Furthermore, the consultant should be asked to perform a preregistration audit to determine the gap between ISO requirements and the company's current condition.

One should consider the difference between the current quality system and the ISO requirements. If such a difference exists, it should be converted to a series of activities that must be performed before the organization will go through a registration audit. Such a plan is sometimes called a realization program of ISO 9000. In this stage, the consultant may work in collaboration with the company's professional personnel to accomplish the realization program. This might mean establishing a personnel training program that will guide the relevant personnel on how to act according to the new quality procedures, writing new work instructions, giving advice regarding new equipment; recalibrating measuring equipment, or any other change that will lead to the specified requirements in the ISO standards.

The consultant may help to establish a check-up and balancing system in the company that will enable the employees to monitor quality from within the company.

Some consultants will perform a pre-audit to ensure that all the changes were indeed implemented. In such an audit, the consultant will assume the role of the external auditors and will examine the company according to acceptable standards.

Consultants should help the company answer several critical questions in the area of implementing ISO 9000. They will give the answers in accordance with their experience, their internal interests; and their knowledge. For example:

* Who will be responsible for following the implementation efforts?

* Which plants, departments, or products will be empowered?

* Who will perform the pre-empowerment inspection? When will this inspection be performed?

* Who will write the quality guide and who will review it? Who will write all the other documents?

* Who will do internal inspections and when?

The consultant is also needed to create a schedule for the implementation program, costs program (including internal costs), and training programs.

An important role of the consultant is to prevent the company from deviating from the right and efficient track for implementing ISO 9000 and to make sure there will be no mistakes on the way One of the frequent mistakes made by companies in the process of ISO 9000 empowerment is addressing every chapter of the standard as a separate one. One reason they may do this is because during the preparation of the "responsibility matrix" (who is responsible for what), chapters are divided into different departments without emphasizing that the preparation stage is a team and a joint effort. The problem with this approach is that every department is "looking" from a narrow perspective, or from the point of view of relevant paragraphs only. The best way to reach empowerment of ISO is to understand that the ISO standards offer a wonderful opportunity to work in special teams of internal clients and vendors to improve the total quality in all levels of the organization.

Implementation of ISO 9001, 9002, or 9003 as a quality system involves some changes. Because most people and organizations object to changes, stressful situations are created. To succeed in making changes in the organization, the consultant must lead all participants to cooperate in implementing the standards while making the unified factors prominent, not the separate ones.

The consultant must guide the managers to become the people of change, in the art of sharing needs and in leading a productive change. Consultants, or "change wizards," as they are sometimes called, must know how to link all the factors and how to explain to all concerned why the change is necessary.

Second, they must help management take an active part in the implementation of the ISO standard. This is often achieved by participating in ISO meetings or by giving a few minutes of introduction before every meeting.

Finally, to overcome the known psychological opposition to changes, the consultant must help in knocking down the inter-department partition in the organization. People from all departments should be convinced that installation of the ISO 9000 system is not another program that would pass if they could ignore it for enough time. As more people participate in implementing the standard, the chances to pass the first audit are greater.

The best advice that can be given to increase the chances of success is to work according to the ancient Chinese saying, "Tell me and I will forget; teach me and I will remember; involve me and I will learn."

Consultation and ISO 9000 - some warnings

Since there is such a wide range of "experts," how does a client know which one is right for that particular company?

Basically, there are seven types of consultant services:

* Management firms that have lately added ISO 9000 consultation to the list of their "expertise."

* Engineering consultation companies that need to reach a higher level and broaden their work scope.

* Guidance companies that join the ISO 9000 range. This is achieved by using an expanded guidance program to this issue.

* Individual consultants, with varying levels of academic titles.

* Organizations dedicated to inspection of products. They include a department that is responsible for checking the quality system. These organizations usually publish their services with companies that ease the implementation of ISO 9000 standards (e.g., they write and manage the quality system to provide for your needs).

* Third-party companies that, after a long search, decide to join the lines of consultants. Some of them do this by creating a separate sector for consultation within the organization.

* Consultation parties whose members are former testers and examiners. They offer seminars for training quality examiners and external/internal audits.

All of the services mentioned above generally offer any part or combination of these services:

* seminars out of or in house,

* quality examiners' qualification courses,

* internal audit courses,

* pre-empowerment quality system checks,

* written work procedures, and

* seminars in management and operation.

Before appointing a consultant, you should consider the following actions:

* Check the extent of the consultant's experience (e.g., number of years).

* Check the number of companies that have been served by the consultant.

* Visit some of the companies that were given consultation.

For what services is it worthwhile to hire a consultation company? I am convinced that companies should contact different subcontractors for different kinds of ISO 9000 standards, and that there are two basic things that a company should never ask a consultant to do: write the quality procedures and write the quality system. The reason is clear. If you hire a consultant to write the whole quality system, the consultant - the one with the most knowledge should be present during the audit. In these cases, your chances of passing the audit are not high, because the employees are not as knowledgeable.

Now for some final words of advice on using a consultant. According to my experience, a consultant can be most effective in the following areas:

* giving qualifications;

* giving recommendations on the basis of a wide range of experience;

* serving as a catalyst for motivation and guidance;

* "floating" among departments, which can be very helpful in cases of interdepartmental rivalry;

* leading and helping watch over the process by making periodic visits;

* answering difficult questions;

* documenting and editing, but not writing, procedures; and

* conducting audits before the edit and offering helpful reformation ideas, opinions, and recommendations.

The activities described above don't require an excessive number of planned workdays and, done properly, can significantly benefit a company's quality registration process. Working together, the consultant and client can achieve the smoothest and most effective registration process possible.

The Author

Moshe Dov is managing director of plant design with Deloitte Touche Consulting Group Israel Ltd., in Tel Aviv, Israel. He also serves as head of the industrial management department at Ariel College, head of the business administration for engineers program at Haifa University, and chairman of the Society of Industrial Engineers in Israel. He is a past award winner of the Association of Engineers and Architects for his promotion of industrial management in Israel.