An Investigation of the Effect of the Iso 9001 Quality Management System on Small and Medium Enterprises in Gauteng, South Africa

Abstract

The implementation of quality management systems (QMS) is central to the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). At present, there is a lack of information about the level of adoption and implementation of QMS by SMEs in Gauteng Province, even though that province has the highest number of SMEs in South Africa (SA). This study therefore aims to investigate the effect of the ISO 9001 QMS on SMEs in Gauteng. Quantitative research was conducted, and an online survey was used to collect data. An inferential statistical data analysis involving the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyse the collected data. The chi-square and Fischer’s exact tests were applied to validate the statistical significance of four hypotheses. The inferential analysis showed that there is a relationship between ISO 9001 implementation and SMEs’ sustainability, as well as a direct relationship between the implementation of ISO 9001 and the performance, growth, and life span of SMEs in Gauteng Province. In addition, the results indicated that 64 per cent of the surveyed SMEs are aware ISO 9001, while 36 per cent of SMEs were not aware of QMS. The survey indicated that SMEs face several challenges, such as the ineffective implementation of QMS, poor funding, a low level of human capacity development, a lack of adequate resources, poor working environment, and poor work organisation, a lack of necessary materials, and the use of inappropriate work methods. It is envisaged that, if a culture of QMS were to be adopted and implemented by SMEs, there would probably be an improvement in operational efficiency, leading to improved customer satisfaction and increased turnover and profitability.

Qualitative-environmental aspects of products improvement in SMEs from V4 countries

“…As reported by the authors of the articles (Palacios Guillem, 2019;Santos et al, 2011), the mentioned ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and EMAS systems are the most frequently implemented in SMEs. According to the literature review, it was shown that research in the area of ISO 9001 in SMEs mainly concerned: motivation and benefits from implementation (Khan and Farooquie, 2016;Magodi et al, 2022;Vasilevska and Rivza, 2018;Zimon et al, 2018), main problems occurring during implementation and certification (Unterreiner and Gisbert Soler, 2019), as well as the impact of increasing customer satisfaction with product quality (Usman et al, 2019). In the case of the ISO 14001 system and the EMAS system in SMEs, the research concerned, for example: the impact of the system on the substantive results of the company (Johnstone, 2022), type and application of sustainability controls (Johnstone, 2021), factors, barriers and benefits of implementation (Salim et al, 2018).…”

Proposals for the life cycle thinking approach in the materials engineering course

“…The implementation of the ISO 9001 standard in small and medium-sized companies tends to improve product quality, and increase productivity and customer satisfaction (Magodi et al, 2022). Based on the proposal, engineers have the potential to contribute technically and play a strategic role in this context.…”

Panorama teórico de la adopción de la sostenibilidad en la industria automotriz

“…Similar al estudio sobre el efecto del ISO 9001 en las empresas pequeñas y medianas en Sudáfrica (Magodi et al, 2022) se validó la hipótesis con significancia (p-valor < 0.05) estadística acerca de la relación entre la implementación del ISO 9001 y la sostenibilidad de las empresas pequeñas y grandes.…”