Organizations are in the constant pursuit of reliable strategies for increasing customer satisfaction. One of these strategies refers to the implementation of the ISO 9001 standard as a quality management system to ensure that products and services meet or surpass customer expectations. However, successful ISO 9001-based systems are possible only if companies count on a series of critical success factors that guarantee successful ISO 9001 implementation. This research aims at developing and validating a survey instrument to evaluate the degree of compliance with ISO 9001 critical success factors among manufacturing organizations. The research is conducted in Mexican manufacturing companies. The survey is designed by considering the quality management principles of the ISO 9001:2015 standard as critical success factors. We conducted an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis to identify the structure of the survey and confirm its validity. Our findings confirm that the survey instrument comprises four constructs, three of them associated with the quality principles of the ISO 9001 standard, and one associated with the benefits of said standard. In conclusion, the proposed survey is a valid, useful tool to assess ISO 9001 implementation in manufacturing companies and similar organizations.

The purpose of this research is to provide a current situation of the ISO 9001 standard in the manufacturing sector in Mexico identifying its critical success factors, barriers and benefits of its implementation. A survey with 55 items in a five-point Likert scale was used mainly focused on quality managers and provided by e-mail and the social network LinkedIn obtaining 172 complete responses. The ISO 9001 standard is one of the initial strategies to manage quality, however, results exhibit some barriers hindering its implementation. According to the seven quality principles for the implementation of the standard established by the International Organization for Standardization, results exposed that the leadership and customer focus are the main factors considerated for a satisfactory adoption of the standard in the manufacturing sector in Mexico helping this industry to achieve some benefits.

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