| As organizations evolve and business models change, management frameworks and quality tools that served well in the past may no longer meet the organization's needs. In the expanding global economy, companies must now compete with both foreign and domestic companies that are not only certified to ISO 9001:2000, but have successfully implemented improvement models that have increased the quality of their products and services, reduced development cycle time, and decreased development and production costs. To determine which of the competing approaches to quality are best suited to an organization's business model and competitive position, each candidate model or strategy must be understood and the relative costs and benefits weighed. Though a wide range of quality tools and frameworks is available to assist companies in developing, implementing and improving quality management systems, this study will limit its focus to an examination of ISO 9001:2000, CMMI, and Six Sigma. |
