Quality assurance system in a small surveying firm

Abstract

This dissertation examines the application of the ISO9000:2000 series to a quality assurance system in a small workplace environment. The environment of choice is a small surveying and engineering partnership based in Port Macquarie N.S.W. The partnership has six full time and three part-time employees. The goal of this application was to improve the overall efficiency and productivity of the workplace while also maintaining or raising the level of quality assurance for the customers. The methodology that was used was the process of gap analysis, which involves looking at current processes and filling the “gap” to reach the required level for the ISO9000: 2000 series. The objective is to allowing a greater access to other customer areas and governmental sectors that will only deal with an ISO9000: 2000 approved business. After a series of proposed changes to the workplace, a set of new systems have been introduced which have met the ISO 9000 standard and achieved a level of efficiency required by a small business to remain profitable while still assuring quality. Many of the changes considered were found to be unsatisfactory and were unsuitable for the workplace, but using the dynamic approach to finding alternatives, solutions eventually presented themselves and were an improvement on the former systems.