Testing the ISO 9001:2015 Process Model: An Australasian Empirical Study

As part of an ongoing project on adoption of the ISO 9001:2015 quality management system (QMS) standard in an international context, this study empirically tested the validity of the PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT (PDCA) continual improvement sequence implied in the ISO 9001:2015 process model, along with the notion “ISO 9001 certification leads to customer satisfaction and product quality improvement”. The theoretical model was empirically tested using partial least squares path modeling, via questionnaire responses received from 93 ISO 9001 certified manufacturing companies in Australia and New Zealand. The study found that the major clauses of the standard are a good fit to PDCA cycle and that the process model predicts and explains QMS results to a sufficient degree (R
²
values corresponding to customer satisfaction, product quality improvement, and nonconformity reduction were 36.8% 40.1% and 44.2% respectively). The scope of this study will be extended to cover different countries to demonstrate the external validity of ISO 9001 and to test cultural effects on continual improvement based on ISO 9001.