Ten arguments against ISO 9000

“Criticizing quality is like criticizing the Queen Mother” according to one contributor to John Seddon’s research for this attack on ISO 9000 ‐ commonly viewed as the quality standard to aspire to but, in Seddon’s view, a process which actively handicaps those companies which adopt it, and takes them further away from “quality” as it should be understood today. Lays down ten major arguments against the ISO standard, with case examples of what happened as a result of implementation and how those outcomes impacted on customer‐defined quality. Gives some background to the development of the standard, and argues that it is, at best, inappropriate and, at worst, a serious threat to organizational performance.