IARC
1.6 STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION
The dissertation will be constructed according to five chapters. See Figure 1-10, Spray Diagram of the research paper
Fieure 1-10, Spray Diagram of the research paper
Chapter 1, Introduction, outlines the entire project in brief and will be constructed according to six sections, Introduction, Problem Statement, Implementation Strategy, Purpose Statement, Structure of Dissertation and finally Conclusion.
Chapter 2, Literature Review, will be structured into nine sections; Introduction, Accredited Bodies, ISO Quality Management System specifically ISO 9000:2000 family, Implementing ISO 9001 :2000, Total Quality Management, Change Management, Organisation Culture, Decision Making and Conclusion.
The second and third sections will be concentrated on understanding the various accreditation and certification bodies and then finally the ISO 9000 family QMS will be discussed. The next five sections will concentrate on the implementation process.
Accredited Bodies looks into the world wide structure of such bodies and traces back how SABS is linked to SANAS and how in turn SANAS is linked to the IAF Inc. The Multi Lateral Agreement (MLA) is discussed to see how this affects all the IAF's peers.
A direct link between the IAF and World Trade Organisation (WTO) is realised in order to help eliminate trade barriers. The importance of an organisation such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is discussed and what benefits it offers to world trade. Standardisation is taken for granted by many that do not realise the benefits that such a process offers. ISO 9001 :2000 certification is the first phase in customer satisfaction, only once the system is in place can it be bettered. Standardised processes do help organisations especially where high staff turn over is the norm. ISO 9001:2000 certification plays an important role in an organisations future. It appears that there is no standardised implementation process. Each organisation learns about the process as they implement it.
Total Quality Management (TQM) stresses the importance of introducing and maintaining continuous improvement, "KAIZEN' a Japanese (word for incremental quality improvement) within the organisation and the benefits that can be achieved by Implementing TQM. TQM is arguably the most significant of the new ideas that have swept across operations management. This is mainly due to two reasons, most of us want to be achieving high quality and improvement can often lead to increases in operational effectiveness.
Change Management discusses the importance of change within an organisation, for an organisation to remain competitive today in a world global market; change has to be accepted positively and enthusiastically by all through out the organisation. The rate at which an organisation can successfully and continuously implement change within itself and to thereby pass on all its improvements to its customers is a definite advantage.
Organisations of the future need to become learning organisations and must realise that when you learn you change.
Each organisation is dependant on the culture instilled within itself hence the importance of creating a Quality Culture within the organisation. Culture modification is not on the resources themselves eg a single person, but on how all the staff are interlinked (relationships) and mobilised. A good example of this is that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
The second last section covered in this chapter will focus on Decision-Making - how does one make a decision is very important to the success of the project. Decisions are not only about the success of projects but of the organisation as a whole. The important fact about Decision Making is to try and ensure that you scan the facts that are available and thereby reduce the uncertainties. The more information and facts that one has at his / her disposal will help in the correct decision being made. Lastly but definitely not least is that decisions need to be based on facts.
Chapter 3, Research methodology and design, will be structured into six sections;
Introduction, Research Methodology, Research Design, Data Collection, Data Analysis and Interpretation and finally the conclusion.
This information will be considered to be the primary data and the information researched in chapter 2 will be the secondary data. Before any problem can be analysed it is important for one to understand the process and to determine the correct strategy to follow.
The Research Methodology followed for this research paper was that of mixed methods, using both the Qualitative and Quantitative designs. The reason for adopting both designs was the fact that both the harder and softer issues had to be addressed. The strategy followed was based on Action Research as the research was conducted during the design and implementation phase. This phase was done by a work group of four people that were considered as co-researchers.
The Research Design phase was based on a Gap Analysis (Quantitative, hard information) and the conducting of interviews (Qualitative, softer information) with people both internal to and external to the Industry Association Resource Centre.
The Data Collection phase describes the methods used for the data collection. Three methods were employed; observation, Gap Analysis and Interviews.
Data Analysis and Interpretation, once all the information has been collected it then needs to be analysed and interpreted. This was achieved by analysing the Gap Analysis, Interviews and by the Literature Review.
Chapter 4, Body of Knowledge, will be structured into five sections' Introduction, , Literature Review, Gap Analysis, Interviews and Conclusion.
ISO appears to be universally accepted standard that has a structure in place which is further linked to the International Accreditation Forum Inc. Their however is no generally accepted implementation process laid out. ISO 9001 :2000 certification is the first phase in the Quality Management System the real benefits come with the implementation of quality management. Change management, corporate culture and Decision making were also analysed. An interesting observation found is the general misunderstanding of the Japanese Quality Management System.
Due to the fact that the Industry Association Resource Centre had implemented the TESCOD process years ago the gaps found between the existing system and the requirements of ISO did not cause major problems.
The interviews also hi-lighted the fact that no formal implementation process exists for ISO 9001:2000 certification. A further fact that was identified is the opinion that all registrars are not deemed to be equal.
Chapter 5, Findings and Recommendations, will be structured into four sections;
Introduction, Findings, Recommendations and Conclusion.
The importance of a fourth dimension "Utility" was discussed over and above the three normal dimensions of a project namely;"Time, Cost and Quality."
Due to the fact that no universally accepted ISO 9001 :2000 certification implementation process exists a new process is recommended. The recommended process consists of four stages and is based on the IARC existing process. The major changes occurring in the first two stages where activities were repositioned, redefined, redefined and repositioned and finally a new activity was added.