ISO 9000 & TQM: substitutives or complementaries? An empirical study in industrial companies.

Abstract

After analysing a sample of 442 of the biggest Spanish 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 us to believe that, despite the beliefs of ISO 9000 as a good first step in the way of implementing TQM, once implemented some ISO 9000 principles are in contradiction with TQM philosophy. These non-congruent systems applied together would cause the company to obtain fewer benefits than only one of them. The study concludes that when ISO 9000 and TQM are applied simultaneously, the resultant benefits to the company are no better than those experienced if either system were applied in isolation.