PROBLEMS FACING QMS ISO 9001:2008 AS A PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT TOOL IN SUDANESE ORGANIZATIONS

Abstract

ISO 9001 management system is widely spread in Sudanese organizations. Many organizations invest a considerable amount of money and resources, acquiring implementation and certification of this standard to improve their operating performance and enforce their positions in market place as an internationally accredited organization. This survey aimed to highlight the problems that hinder the optimum use of ISO 9001 as an improvement tool. This research is a questionnaire-based survey for some ISO 9001 registered companies, conducted with the purpose of exploring the employees’ perception of their implemented quality management system. The questionnaire focused on four main areas that are affecting the quality management system implementation which are: management commitment, monitoring and measurement, process approach and employees’ perception. The results of the survey showed that employees see that there is a lack of commitment of leaders during establishment, implementation, measuring and monitoring of the system. They think that proper measurement and monitoring of performance is missing in their organizations where as some of them don’t know if there is any measurement or monitoring of performance activities. They agreed that leaders do manage the company processes but these processes are not linked to the organization objectives. The QMS is considered as a marketing tool rather than a business performance improving tool.