Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2018 22:09:38 -0700
From: Charles Farr <cefarr@hughes.net>
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] HyGain Antenna Quality control issues: Let's
Put MFJ in Perspective
<In all this palaver I haven't seen anything mentioned about ISO9000.
<This process and quality control system at one time was considered
<critical for world market companies. I've bee out of the workplace for
<10 years, so I don't have a current perception, but I recall that we
<couldn't even market, much less sell our products without the ISO9000
<certification. Has something changed?
<73
<Chuck, W6AJW
## ISO 9000 and ISO 9001 has NOTHING to do with quality control period
!
Both are strictly a regulated process control. The kicker is.... you get
to define
the various.....process controls. At the telco I worked at for 34 years, we
spent
millions of $$ to get ISO certified. At the time, back in the mid 90s....
ISO-9000/1
was all the rage..and everybody got sucked into the scam. The reason given
was
govt contracts + military contracts demanded that all contractors.... + sub
contractors
be ISO certified.... or dont bother submitting a bid. Soon everybody and
their dog demanded
that anything from janitorial to a muffler shop be ISO certified.
## I looked after the entire ISO certification for all the test gear used in
my tech dept.
All test gear had to have calibration stickers on them with date clearly
marked. All the
test gear was only good for one year, and had to be sent back to the
calibration lab, before
the year was up.
## Meanwhile, one floor above, they wrote up their ISO test gear specs
as.... re-calibrate
when tech feels like it.... IE: never. Some other depts simply tossed
90% of their little used
test gear, so they would not have to deal with it.
## Our small dept with just 5-6 guys got off.. easy. KPMG gave us a....
bargain. Normally they
would charge $45,000.00 for the babe to come out and get us certified.
They gave us a deal..
at only $36,000.00 Then she has to come out every 2 years so we can
maintain our certification.
For $36,000.00 every 2 years, I coulda ordered much needed test gear at
a fraction of the ISO amount.
IE: hey boss, I require a HP DVM. Sorry, no money left in the budget, we
blew it all on the ISO tab.
## In 2000, the telco in VE7 land merged with the Telco in VE6 land.
The Telco in VE6 land was
never certified. In order for the new merged company to maintain the ISO
certification, all of VE6
land had to get ISO certified..and fast. Management decided to dump the
entire ISO program,
BUT maintain all the good aspects of the process and control..and standardize
ISO like requirements
for all depts in any region.
## You seldom hear of ISO these days. The only ones that ever benefitted
was outfits like KPMG,
who we essentially gave all our trade secrets to..... and made millions of $
in the process.
ISO is no longer required for govt contracts either. Even the Govt dumped
their own ISO programs.
## Plenty of small outfits that employed 6-50 employees that got onto
the ISO bandwagon, either
went broke in the process, or later dumped the program.
## Folks were under the delusion that ISO = quality. When the purported
quality never happened, and nothing changed,
and it was later explained to em that ISO had NOTHING to do with quality,
the light bulb finally came on.
## ISO originated in Europe..and later spread to north america, where it was
embraced. Heck even Behringer who makes
dirt cheap audio products and rack gear is still ISO certified. Meanwhile
the quality of their products is next to non existent.
If they fail, they are tossed into the nearest dumpster. Cost more to fix
than to replace with a new unit.
## Having said all that MFJ could still benefit from a simple process control
procedure...without having to be ISO certified.
Jim VE7RF
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