Flying the Iranian standard
With 70 million people scattered over a vast area, standardization and maintaining quality levels was always going to be a hard task for Iran. But, as Farzin Entessarian discovers, with the help of growing ISO certification and well-trained auditors the country is rapidly bringing quality to the forefront of the cultural agenda
Iran is over 1,650,000km squared in area with a 70 million population. It therefore makes up a large domestic market which, because of the vast area of the country, is scattered over a large area. The country is highly industrial and among the top industrial countries in the developing world. Its gross domestic product, considering the purchasing power parity factor, is US$517bn. The largest of Iran’s industries are the automotive, oil, gas and petrochemical industries, and entirely run by Iranian personnel. This is different from most oil producing countries in the region, where from the top level of management to the lowest level of labourers employees are mostly from overseas.
The fourth five-year socio-economic and cultural development plan of Iran approved by the parliament as law, which began at the beginning of 2005, foresees a productivity growth of 2.5 per cent. There are several clauses in the law addressing quality and productivity as being an important issue in development plan. The economy is predominantly run by the state and, therefore, many of the country’s production or service organizations tend to be very large - many times the size of an average similar organization in the west.
The Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran (ISIRI) writes the national standards, and has thus far written approximately 7,000 standards in various fields. The drafting of writing management standards began in 1992 with the translation of ISO 9000:1987 but was soon replaced with the drafts of the new version launched by ISO and it was finally issued under the titles of ISIRI-ISO 9001/2/3:1994.
At present there are shadow committees in ISIRI to act in line with committees in ISO, such as the shadow committee for ISO/TC 176 for management system standards and shadow committee ISO/TC 207 for environmental management system standards. They work simultaneously on the development of the international standards as well as on the translations. Thus, new versions of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 should be issued in Persian at the same time as the English versions are issued by ISO.
Up until 2000, Iran had no national accreditation body, but in that year the High National Council for Standardization approved the establishment of an Iranian accreditation body and thus the Iran Accreditation System (IAS) emerged. This organization:
- has implemented related standards such as ISO Guide 58 and ISO Guide 61
- is a member of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC)
- has commenced the accreditation of certification bodies, laboratories, inspection firms and consultants, on the basis of the relevant standards
- has organized two rounds of the National Quality Award, based on the EFQM excellence model
- is preparing to join the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory of Accreditation Cooperation on the basis of a multilateral agreement
Getting businesses on board
It is very common among all organizations in Iran - particularly public ones - to seek ISO certificates. In fact, it is one of the major policies of all government organizations to obtain such certificates. Thus far, the following certificates have been issued for Iranian organizations, among which are certain administrative organs such as provincial governors’ offices, ministries etc:
- 4,208 ISO 9001 certificates
- 650 ISO 14001 certificates
- 443 ISO/TC 16949 certificates for the automotive industry
- 102 HACCP certificates for health and safety
- 236 OHSAS 18001 certificates for health and safety
In 1994, ISIRI undertook to register all ISO certificates issued for Iranian firms and in the same year the process began with the registration of a number of companies that had been granted the ISO 9001/2 certificate after some checking and revisions. This process ceased towards the end of the 1990s by which time about 700 companies had been registered.
From 1994, when the first audit was performed by an Iranian for the ISO 9001 certificate, until now, auditing has made great advances in Iran. At present there are now about 250 Iranian auditors working on behalf of 22 certification bodies that are engaged in Iran. Out of the 250 Iranian auditors, about 100 are full-time professionals employed by various certification bodies and the rest work on a freelance basis. There are also 200 trainee auditors or experts in the auditing process (assistant auditors).
Sticking points
Unfortunately, as in most other countries, issuing management system certificates comes with certain difficulties, such as economic problems, which lead to unhealthy competition among certification bodies. In some cases certification bodies or their representatives are not properly controlled by accreditation bodies, and issue certificates without having carried out proper audits and at very low rates.
This has resulted in serious decline in the rates that certification bodies charge generally and in the quality of audits among almost all certification bodies. When, in the mid-1990s, ISIRI registered certificates and had effective quality control, the profession was robust and healthy. But since this process has ceased, the soundness and good reputation of management system certification in Iran has been damaged.
Another problem that endangers the state of management systems in countries like Iran is the absence of effective consumer protection laws. In the UK, for example, there is a Product Liability Act, which forces producers to ensure quality products or face consumers and serious consequences. Although Iran lacks such a law, management systems are a great help in eradicating such problems.
The quality culture in Iran is now, fortunately, spreading, which is facilitated by the advent of new quality and productivity concepts. Today the Quality Management Society of Iran, the Audit and Inspection Society of Iran and a number of other non-government organizations are seriously following up the concepts and attempting to raise quality and productivity levels, as well as environmental protection standards. For example, in January 2006 Iran will hold its first international auditors and lead auditors conference on the achievements of quality audit in Iran during the past ten years.
About the author
Farzin Entessarian has a master’s in mechanical engineering, and has 35 years of experience in the fields of ship and cargo surveys as founder of an inspection firm, the Iran Group of Surveyors (IGS), and 20 years of experience as an expert in quality management. He is presently the chair of quality management society and vice chair of the Audit and Inspection Society of Iran, and the MD of the Experts Group, comprising ten companies specializing in various fields all related to inspection, quality, safety and management. For more information about IGS, visit www.igs-iran.com
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