ISO 9000 as a complement to the Balanced Scorecard
Summary: The Balanced Scorecard is making its way into the business world, but many wonder how it will match with systems and tools already in place. The relationship between the BSC and ISO 9000 of 2000 is one of the questions of businessmen and specialists. This work describes how the BSC and ISO 9000 of 2000 coincided in an inspection services company (Intermar-Cienfuegos).
Sumary: Balanced Scorecard is being introduced in enterpriser world, but might it be coincident with another usual systems ?. The relation between BSC and ISO 9000/2000 is the question of managers and specialists. is described how BSC and ISO 9000/2000 coincided in the Inspection Services Agency Intermar-Cienfuegos.
Keywords:
Balanced Scorecard: Strategic alignment methodology.
Balanced Scorecard: Balanced Scorecard.
ISO 9000 of 2000: Quality Process Management System.
Fuzzy Logic: Theory for the measurement of intangible indicators.
Strategic Objectives: Management Paradigms through perspectives.
INTRODUCTION.
ISO 9000 of 2000 are quality standards that have become requirements to compete in the market. Companies that are preparing to implement the BSC try to adapt it by complying with quality regulations. This writing is the analysis based on practical experience of how Intermar Cienfuegos combined the BSC and ISO 9000 of 2000.
DEVELOPMENT.
Since its inception, the BSC philosophy impacted the business world due to its strategic alignment, aided by its cause-effect relationships and its tangible and intangible indicator measurement systems. Initially, the Executives understood that this tool provided them with the integral control that they suffered in the past and that having an automated system on their work table, with a program that gave the information of the moment for timely decision-making was something totally new. If to that we added the communication and feedback processes that were triggered by inertia, there was no doubt that we were facing a revolutionary tool within Business Management.
However, there were some doubts about how this new philosophy combined with the canons of ISO 9000 and especially when its latest version with its process approach came to light. In my time as an executive, the company that I directed was audited for the transition from the old quality standard to the more renewed and business ISO 9000 of 2000. By having a BSC implemented, I had perfectly defined the necessary measurements for the fulfillment of the strategic objectives that were also called quality, although it did not have a very defined process statement and therefore its measurements.
Many companies that begin to comply with the formation of indicators for the measurement of quality objectives face difficulties due to the lack of habit of measuring objectives through result indicators. In our inspection and breakdown adjustment company (Intermar- Cienfuegos) with experience in creating indicators, this new challenge was overcome, and in fact we had defined the fundamental indicators helped by the BSC of the most important process, which was the Strategic Management, the others Defined processes would provide new indicators that could be considered within the fundamental indicators or not. That is to say, having worked the BSC in a meridian way, we had made great progress in determining the processes and how to measure them.
The determination of the process indicators was not difficult, aided by a magnificent article by Dr. Jesús Enrique Arape regarding the determination of soft measurements within the BSC and by the experience we had in the application of fuzzy logic.
Certainly our experience is very common for those companies that are in the transition from ISO 9000 to ISO 9000 of 2000 and have a BSC, in the same way for those companies that decide to implement a BSC and have a favorable culture of ISO 9000.
The learning process that we went through in the implementation of the BSC was very valid when we readjusted our Quality Management system, so understanding this new process scheme was relatively easy.
This experience led us to understand how congruent the BSC and ISO 9000 of 2000 were. With the help of our quality specialist, Ing. Plinio Arano Alvarez, we created very explanatory diagrams that we present to you for comparison and analysis.
Having defined the strategic objectives under the canons of the BSC allowed us to later declare the Strategic Direction as the fundamental process of the company. Finally, it was no problem to declare these strategic and quality objectives, since they were ultimately the most important in the organization. These strategic and quality objectives are accompanied by their cause-and-effect relationship.
Our processes were defined in the following map based on the strategic processes that were supported by a Strategic Direction with the application of the BSC as an alignment tool.
The strategic and quality objectives respond to most of these processes (operational and support), but it is possible that in the future more will be changed or added, as a result of the learning and growth process of the organization. The ISO 9000 2000 Process Management is very beneficial for the successful development of the BSC in any organization. If the measurement of the effectiveness of the processes is one of the requirements of ISO 9000 of 2000, there is no doubt that Quality Management standards play a fundamental role in the application of the BSC. The following diagram demonstrates this:.
The incidence of ISO 9000 of 2000 is very marked from the perspective of internal processes, although it also influences the perspectives of Clients and that of Growth and Learning.
CONCLUSIONS.
• The measurement of the processes declared by ISO 9000 of 2000 are compatible with the creation of BSC results indicators, there is a perfect combination.
• The BSC is a strategic alignment tool that is applied by organizations with an advanced corporate culture for which it is unlikely that the companies that decide to develop it do not have a contemporary Quality Management awareness.
• There may be organizations with Quality Management Systems implemented and not applying the BSC techniques, but it is unlikely to see otherwise.
• ISO 9000 of 2000 is a very important complement to the application of the BSC and taking advantage of the combination of both is an opportunity that only companies privileged by their advanced culture have.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The Balanced Scorecard, Norton and Kaplan, 1992, Implementing and Managing the Scorecard, Nils-Goran, 1999.
ISO 9000 of 2000 standard.
Implementation of the BSC in Intermar Cienfuegos. Soler, Santos, Henry, 2003.
Download the original file
