A Model Framework for Developing Industry Specific Quality Standards for Effective Quality Assurance in Global Supply Chains in the New Millennium

The most important element of a quality assurance system is the quality standard, which is considered as the guideline for comparing the performance of a system for monitoring and control. The quality standard often involves a series of requirements set by customers, and stakeholders which must be met for their total satisfaction. Over decades, multitudes of companies belonging to various industries have developed numerous quality standards and quality systems requirements for their quality assurance activities until in early 1990s ISO -9000 series of standards was developed for harmonization of quality assurance activities in global supply chains. However, ISO-9000 was designed as a generic standard using prevention based total quality management approach and failed to address specific requirements of many industries, including automotive, aerospace, defense, chemical, and electronics. Consequently, within a few years from the emergence of ISO-9000 series of quality standards, QS-9000 series of quality systems requirements was introduced by US automaker, and from a Delphi survey of practicing quality auditors the author foresees that many other industry-specific standards are going to emerge in this new millennium.This paper attempts to provide an model framework for facilitating the process of developing an industry-specific quality standard for effective quality assurance in a global