ADOPTABILITY OF ISO - 9002 TO ARMY REPAIR WORKSHOPS

Abstract

Customer satisfaction, profitability and market leadership are driven in large parts by delivering quality products and services to customers. For an organization to survive and flourish in the present day competitive world, quality has to be given top priority. All over the world, realization has come that achievement of quality cannot be ensured through inspection and test alone. Every department and individual has a contribution to make in achievement of quality. Systems and procedures must exist to make such a contribution possible. This, in essence, is the concept of ISO-9000 series of standards. In India with the liberalization of the economy accomplished by reduction in import duties, there will be more competition from global players. With the decision of European Economic Community Market to make ISO-9000 compliance compulsory for exporters into their market countries after 1993, has made ISO-9000 certificate a necessity in Indian industries. The ISO-9000 guidelines, as issued by the International organizations for standardization, form the basis for certifying the quality management system of an organization. While it has three models, the intent of ISO-9000 is that a company must be self-accountable for its stated quality goals and procedures. In order to gain accreditation, a company must be able to prove ISO-9000 adherence to a group of outside auditors. Under ISO-9000, there has to be a set of documents and procedures for each handling cycle of the products : Marketing, R&D, Production, Purchase, Personnel, Quality Assurance, Planning, Sales and dispatch. No company can gain accreditations unless these records are properly kept and any major slip can mean loss of accreditation. Thus, documentation plays an important role in registration. Developing such documentation takes time and money. Normally a certificate has validity for a period of 3 years and a surveillance mechanism is exercised over the certificate holder to ensure consistent operation of the installed system. I have done this thesis work by studying various workshops providing repair cover to diverse eqpt of Army. After going through system existing in both field and peace workshops it was .found that ISO-9002 standards are more adoptable to Equipment Depot Workshops and Army Base Workshops of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME). I have identified procedures and wrote quality manual and procedures for Equipment Depot Workshop at Agra for implementation of ISO-9002 standards in Army Repair workshops. I found for Army workshops ISO-9002 is more suitable and can be implemented easily with excellent results. (