ISO 9000 and TQM: substitutes or complementaries?

TLDR

Although ISO 9000 is often viewed as a stepping stone to TQM, its principles can conflict with TQM philosophy, potentially reducing benefits when both are implemented together. Analysis of 442 Spanish manufacturing firms shows that while TQM alone improves operating performance, combining ISO 9000 and TQM does not produce greater benefits than using either system alone.

Abstract

After analysing a sample of 442 of the Spanish biggest manufacturing companies, some evidence about the influence of total quality management (TQM) on the companies’ operating performance has been obtained. However, companies applying TQM together with the ISO 9000 standards did not show positive results. This fact leads to the consideration that, despite the beliefs about ISO 9000 as a good first step in the way of implementing TQM, once implemented, some of the ISO 9000 principles are contradictory with TQM philosophy. These not congruent systems applied together would drive the company to obtain less benefits than the use of only one of them. The study concludes that when ISO 9000 and TQM are applied simultaneously, the resultant benefits to the company are not better than those experienced if either system were applied in isolation.