• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.228-244
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• 2008

ISO9000 set of standards has been widely applied in Iranian Automotive manufacturing industry. Regarding the effects of TQM and ISO9000 set of standards various studies have been conducted and different quantitative conclusions have been made. Due to lack of quantitative information, in many of the cases, using qualitative information becomes the best option. The qualitative nature of data in such cases, requires qualitative analysis methods that might lead to some challenging computational issues. This paper examines the impact of ISO9000: 2000 certification and its perceived benefits for an automotive manufacturing company. Using an empirical approach, the paper seeks to ascertain if certification has indeed improved the performance of the company. Our null hypothesis rotates around the effect of ISO9000: 2000 on the 4W's of an enterprise. To carry out the research, first we developed a couple of questionnaires including all criteria of ISO9000 and 4W's. Second, the questionnaires were discussed with two researchers knowledgeable in the field, and then submitted to the quality practitioners and executives of Iran Khodro Enterprise-a leading company in Iranian automotive manufacturing industry. Finally the null hypothesis was tested and the technology improvement dimensions were ranked through nonparametric tests. The results illustrated a reasonable cause and effect relationship, suggesting that ISO9000: 2000 has positive effect on the 4W's of company result. In this work we investigate the effect as technology improvement viz., the improvement of techno-ware, human-ware, info-ware, and organ-ware.