Development Of An Iso 9000 Implementation Quality Decision Support System

An expert system was developed to assist engineers, managers, and educators with ISO (International Standard Organization) 9000 series implementation. The decision support system is a viable learning tool for first time engineers and students involved with ISO 9000. ISO 9000 is an international quality system standard, which was released in 1987. Companies, which need greater access to the European Common market and other emerging global marketplace, must have a quality system certified to the ISO standards. By far, the most time consuming and costly step in ISO implementation is in documenting the quality system. Documentation must be performed first, before implementation, assessment, and registration. Documentation of a company’s quality system is usually delegated among employees with little or no knowledge of the ISO 9000 standards. Most engineering curriculums do not include introduction to ISO standards and procedure for certification. Employees involved in the certification process must have a good understanding of the elements of ISO 9000 and the steps required to implement a quality system. An instructional decision support system has been developed to: • Familiarize the user with the ISO 9000 quality standard and its elements. • Provide general guidelines regarding the implementation of an ISO 9000 quality system. • Provide guidance and recommendations in all aspects of certification. • Assist the user in documenting a quality system. • Provide examples of quality system documentation. • Give a contact list of registrars and other reference sources related to ISO 9000. The Decision Support System will help to save time in the quality system implementation process, assist users in documentation of the quality system, and provide an ISO 9000 learning tool for engineers and managers. It could also be recognized as a viable teaching tool in academia.