How do Quality Systems to ISO 9001 standards evolve with Industry 4.0?

Let's talk today about Quality Management Systems to ISO 9001 Standards to understand the past, present and future of the world's most widely used standard, which has about 150,000 certified companies in Italy alone.

Why talk today about Quality Systems to ISO 9001 standards? In a world characterized by unstoppable globalization and in an economy influenced by a pandemic situation that seems unwilling to let go, how can an international standard born in the 1990s help the entrepreneur?

To understand more, we interviewed an expert in the field.

1. What has changed in all these years in the certification world?

If we talk about the change in the ISO 9001 standard, I can say without fear of contradiction that in more than 25 years of its life the standard has changed profoundly. From being a document created with the aim of setting shared standards for companies from different nations to compete in the newly created European Common Market, marked by product quality, over the years the standard has turned into a powerful managerial tool, aimed at increasingly helping Companies to compete on an international scale through effective and efficient processes.

This important evolution still clashes with a methodological approach that has failed to evolve and has remained, in fact, in the 1990s. The most widely used technology is stationary at simple office tools, standard requirements are developed through a document approach. It's mind-numbing stuff, and in fact few entrepreneurs today have been enabled to understand the importance of management systems and therefore experience them as a necessary tax without reaping real benefits.

2. What in your experience is the natural evolution of the quality manager role in light of the evolution brought by the Industry 4.0 plan and in anticipation with the NRP?

I'll get straight to the point. ISO 9001, like all management tools, today calls for the creation of a Management System capable of producing useful information to help management make strategic decisions in order to reduce risks and seize opportunities.

Having information today means having effective digital tools and the ability to bring change to the company so that these solutions fit seamlessly into the day-to-day.

From my point of view, the natural consequence of these requirements is for the role of the "Quality Manager" to evolve from product technician to process innovator: managerialism stands to information as innovation stands to digitization.

This is a major leap that requires the Quality Manager, and the consultant offering business services, to equip themselves with new skills that are rarely part of their cultural background and toolbox today.

The now-defunct Industry 4.0 national plan and the new NRP highlight which direction a company that wants to be competitive must go!

3. ISO 9001 standards were born in the 1990s, does it still make sense in 2022, after almost 30 years, to talk about Quality Systems?

If we think about it, the topic of digital transformation was also born in the 1990s, yet in 2022 it is still the first of the items that the NRP puts on the agenda. What has happened over the years? We missed the train, that's what happened. The computerization that led to the introduction of PCs in the Company in the 1990s failed to bring the change that we are required to make today. The exact same argument applies to ISO-standard Management Systems. In recent years they have spread to the point of becoming a commodity, losing much of the original meaning for which they were introduced.

Now more than ever, in the current situation of great uncertainty and change, Management Systems, if used as organizational tools, can offer the solution to the challenges we are facing.

4. What is the recipe you would suggest to industry experts?

To help Companies achieve the change needed for growth, and in many cases for survival, there is a need for a new business model, one that blends advanced digital tools and human skills.

There is no shortage of technologies, there is a shortage of resources capable of grounding them, of integrating them into the "day-to-day," to make processes transform and turn them into business tools.

Management Systems are a pass-par-tout key to reaching all business processes in the organization, and business professionals have the opportunity to be the linchpin for change.

To do this, however, there is a need for professionals willing to put themselves out there to acquire the new skills we mentioned earlier.

5. How do you see the future of Management Systems?

I don't have a crystal ball, but based on my experience I believe that those who adopt Management Systems certified to ISO 9001 standards will have a twofold option in front of them that will become increasingly differentiating: spend as little money as possible to maintain a certification, or invest in tools to do organization, to compete, to bring about the necessary change with respect to the context in which you operate, in a word, do Quality.

I would like to think that one day this differentiation might be formally recognized, given that there are already many factors that would allow a company to understand what the "level of Quality" of the supplier it is dealing with is. An example is quickly given: many large companies now no longer trust the certificate that the supplier shows and conduct Part II Audits.

Quality Management Systems are very powerful tools that can contribute significantly to the success of an Organization, to think that they are no longer needed is to think of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.