In an atmosphere of growing competition, possessing a quality management certificate from the ISO 9000 series, or another management certificate, is becoming not a matter of prestige for companies, but rather of survival.

In reality the lack of a certificate may mean the loss of additional points during bidding in a tender if not the chance for the tender itself. In order to avoid this, many companies introduce or plan to introduce a quality management system. In an era of bankruptcy among giant companies, no company can feel completely secure and safe on the market and a management system can improve a company's chances for market security.

Quality management systems are sometimes accused of leading to an excess of bureaucracy connected with additional documents or records. However, a properly introduced system can function with existing documents, after the introduction of minor changes, or forms that increase efficiency, including the flow of information.
The optimal efficiency which is attained following the introduction of a quality management system frequently leads to a decrease in costs.

The version of the ISO 9001 in force now provides companies with greater freedom in many aspects of the quality management system. Thus, the attitude, active participation and involvement of employees, managers in particular, are becoming vital factors during the introduction and constant improvement of the system. This also applies when an external advisor, who knows much less about the company than its employees, is hired to aid the process.
Consequently, the role of management cannot be overestimated-by its attitude and example, management should motivate employees to influence the shape of a system which is not meant to serve the auditor or consultant, but the employees themselves.

The most popular management systems are those based on the requirements of the ISO 9000 series of standards (quality management systems), ISO 14001 (environmental management systems), PN-N 18001 (work safety and health management systems), HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control point systems) or AQAP standards.

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is an international organization which has been establishing various standards in nearly all sectors of business, technology and industry since 1947. In 1987 the ISO 9000 family of management systems was established, and nine years later ISO 14000. Both systems have raised the interest of a large group of companies.

The ISO standard concerning quality management systems has replaced many state and military standards, such as the AQAP (Allied Quality Assurance Publications), on the basis of which it was formulated. The standards of the ISO 9000 series were initially introduced in the aerospace industries as well as in the army. Companies that supply the army or participate in tenders for supplies as part of NATO are obliged to have a management system consistent with the requirements of the AQAP-110, -120 or -130 standard-the NATO extensions or supplements of ISO 9001, ISO 9002 and ISO 9003 respectively. These documents specify the requirements for companies which supply the army, but they do not specify manufacturing and process requirements. The legal basis for the AQAP requirements is provided by the NATO-STANAG standardization documents. They were later also introduced by organizations active in other business areas.

ISO usually publishes a new, improved version of the standards about every five years. The current version that specifies the requirements of management systems in Poland and throughout the world is ISO 9001:2000-the third revision of this standard. A draft of the next version should be available in 2003.

Taking Poland's probable accession to the European Union into account, we can assume that Polish companies will have to adjust to the rules of the game on the European market. In many cases, this may even be required by customers both in Poland and abroad, since the certificate has already become a standard in many companies in the EU. In Spain, a country similar to Poland with respect to population and one to which Poland is often compared, over 12,000 certificates had been granted by the year 2000-six times more than in Poland. This fact confirms the distance that the Polish economy has to cover if it wants to be able to compete with the economies of other EU members. The struggle by Polish companies to exist on the
common European market can be aided by a certificate confirming consistency with an international standard.

Zbigniew Suchodolski
Polish Register of Shipping