Can Small Business get ISO 9001 Certified?
The pressure comes from Small Business industries like automotive, medical and environmental for their subcontractors to become registered. The customer to such small companies adds to the dilemma by requesting certification as a token of trust and reliability. These days it just seems like a double whammy.
A small business as understood by department of commerce is one that employs less than 500 people. That means a Machine shop to Sheet metal manufacturing all come under the umbrella of Small Business. For a relatively bigger organization it becomes easily justifiable to get certification and seems a viable option since most of the companies recover their investment in 3 years (studies from McGraw Hill and Dun & Bradstreet) but for a machine shop which does the contract and specialty work for one of these bigger companies is hard since their main product/service is that machine which they have invested in. With few resources, fewer incentives and inconsistent contracts pouring in, smaller companies have tough time justifying the cost and effort for registration. (more…)
