Small scale sector should adopt ISO standards, say experts

The small scale sector in India, which will face stiff competition in the post-WTO era, will urgently need to adopt quality management and production practices so that they can leverage the advantages of the new order, said experts at a day-long seminar on the use and advantages of the International Organisation of Standards (ISO) certification.

"Quality consciousness has increased in industrial units in India after economic reforms and liberalisation polices of the governments. The Importance of improving quality of production has also increased because of India's membership in the World Trade Organisation. The objective behind the workshop is to popularise the ISO standards so that more and more industrial units adopt them," said a senior official of the Small Industries Service Institute in Ahmedabad.

Satish Mallapur of ICL Certification Ltd said, "ISO standards have been so far adopted by about 50 countries in the world. ISO 9000 was introduced in 1993 and at present, more than eight lakh organisations have received certificates for this."

D N Kapoor, deputy director of the Small Industries Service Institute, gave a detailed presentation about training facilities provided by the institute to industrial units to obtain ISO standards and subsidies for exports, production and finance.

The ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certifications are among ISO's most widely known standards. ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 standards are implemented by some eight lakh organizations in 160 countries.

ISO 9000 has become an international reference for quality management requirements in business-to-business dealings, and ISO 14000 is well on the way to achieving as much, if not more, in enabling organisations to meet their environmental challenges.

The ISO 9000 certification is primarily concerned with quality management.

This means what the organization does to fulfil the customer's quality requirements and applicable regulatory requirements, while aiming to enhance customer satisfaction and achieve continual improvement of its performance in pursuit of these objectives.

The ISO 14000 family is primarily concerned with environmental management. This means what the organisation does to minimise harmful effects on the environment caused by its activities and to achieve continual improvement of its environmental performance.

The vast majority of ISO standards are highly specific to a particular product, material, or process.

However, the standards that have earned the ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 families a worldwide reputation known as generic management system standards, the participants said.