Re: Re Assurance and Improvement

[John Dowd <jsdwd@netcom.com>]

Mr. Blair says that ISO 9000 is a standard; only that.  I agree.

He also says that it can be compared to taking an exam on which one must 
receive a 100% or take it again.  I don't think that's really the case.  
First one's "score' depends on compliance with one's own procedures and 
not an external derived criterion so what means 100%?

Secondly the rating method (check by auditors) is not at all standardized 
that I am aware of.(I'm no expert), so even if there were an externally 
derived meaning to '100%', an organization's ability to receive that 
score would be highly dependent on was doing the scoring.

The curve drawing exercise suggested in his email doesn't seem to me to 
have much basis in theory.

John Dowd
jsdwd@netcom.com
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