I read with interest John Barr's Q-NewZ article (October 2015 pp7-8) in which he laments the stifling of quality and improvement in New Zealand during the 1990s by the quality movement, ISO 9001 and audits. Like John at Temuka Pottery, I was at PEC at the time and we were also one of the early adopters of the coveted ISO 9001 certificate. It was a great time for quality which was actively encouraged by central government. NZ along with Australia and the United Kingdom were among the highest in world-wide growth of ISO 9001 certifications at the time. So what went wrong? 

The 8 significant differences between internal audit against a standard, and assessment against a best practice 'ideal'...

Understand the differences so you know when to apply these powerful tools in your business.