EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ISO 9001:2008 QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND ITS TRANSITION TO ISO 9001:2015 IN HORIZON ADDIS TYRE COMPANY

Abstract

In the quest to achieve superior performance and business results, organizations have extensively adopted models such as ISO 9001 Quality Managements Standards. Research supports that Quality Management System brings significant benefits for organizations competitiveness and success. In a world of increasing complexity and interconnection, the revised ISO 9001:2015 International Standard aims to ensure that Quality Management Systems are flexible while remaining reliable. Horizon Addis Tyre Company is the sole tyre manufacturing industry in Ethiopia with small amount (26%) local market share. To face the competitive challenges from local tyre importers and to increase its product quality, time to time different strategies came into action. The latest Horizon Addis tyre company strategy to face the competitiveness is the implementation and certification of ISO 9001 QMS as the company has been certified of the 2008 version which has expired since 2018. The aim of this research is to analyze the benefits and challenges of the implementation of ISO 9001 in Horizon Addis tyre industry. A descriptive research approach was employed using a self-administered questionnaire and unstructured interview to get primary data from employees of HATC. Thirty-five participants from different management level in the company were interviewed and ninety-five respondents participated in questionnaire survey. With respect to perceived benefits, the result revealed that better documentation, higher quality awareness of employees and increase Tyre product quality are the most important benefits that ISO 9000 QMS certification brought to HATC. The results of the study also revealed that most respondents agreed that ISO 9001:2008 certification has faced two main challenges i.e. biased internal audit and Work procedures do not comply with the ISO 9001 requirements. Finally, a theoretical (conceptual) framework mainly developed for successful transition to ISO 9001:2015at the horizon Addis tyre company.