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TL 9000
In February 2001, an overwhelming
majority approved the revised editions of the TL 9000
Quality Management System Requirements Handbook Release
3.0 and the TL 9000 Quality Management System Measurements
Handbook Release 3.0. The new revisions make the telecommunications
industry the first to complete the alignment of its
sector-specific quality management system requirements
with ISO 9001:2000. It also gives industry suppliers
a green light to pursue ISO 9001:2000 registration.
After the 1984 breakup and reorganization of AT&T
into the seven regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs),
there was a revolution in the telecommunications industry.
A customer/supplier forum, the Quality Excellence
for Suppliers of Telecommunications, or QuEST Forum,
was created to develop quality systems for the industry.
This was a radically new approach to standard development.
Suppliers and telecom service providers had an equal
vote in developing the new standard. By adopting the
ISO 9000 system and the existing infrastructure of
registrars, trainers and consultants the QuEST Forum
could take advantage of existing systems in the same
way the automotive industry had with QS 9000. The
resulting product was the TL 9000 standard.
Who is getting registered
to TL 9000?
The TL 9000 will be applicable to an estimated 10,000
suppliers around the world. Major organizations in
this industry such as ADTRAN, Lucent Technologies,
Motorola, Nortel Networks, Marconi, NEC, SBC and Unicap
Electronics Industry Corp. have already gotten registered
and it is expected they will be requesting suppliers
to follow.
What’s different about
TL?
QS 9000 asks suppliers to benchmark trends in customer
satisfaction and key indicators of customer dissatisfaction
to be verified by a third party auditor. TL 9000,
in addition to third party audits, requires suppliers
to anonymously report standard measurements to the
University of Texas at Dallas. Benchmarking reports
are generated for the supplier and QuEST Forum members
to use for self-comparison purposes. In this way both
the supplier and the customer are involved in a communication
loop to assess and improve their industry and relationship.
A great deal can be learned about an industry when
measurements are standardized by supplier and product
type. Companies can readily identify weaknesses they
can correct to improve their business and customer
satisfaction.
In addition to compliance
to ISO 9001:2000 and the telecommunications sector
specific requirements of TL 9000, QuEST is expecting
companies to continuously improve by developing the
Business Excellence Acceleration Model (BEAM) program.
The BEAM is based on the Malcolm Baldrige National
Quality Award criteria and drives a company to the
next level of performance. This changes the quality
system from being conformance driven to being performance
driven.
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