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To provide a cross‐section of International Standardization Organization (ISO) 9000 quality certification diffusion over time and its impact on industrial systems.

The starting point of the analysis is “The ISO survey of ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 certificates” document. Available data concur to trace a synthesis of what has happened and what is in process all over the world. Five main aspects are discussed: the correspondence between ISO 9000 standards and total quality management strategy; the effects of ISO 9000 certification on business performance; the ISO 9000 certificates diffusion in the world; the comparison between economical and entrepreneurial structure of different countries and certificates diffusion; the proposal of a prediction model for the diffusion of ISO 9000 certificates.

The evolution curve of the number of certificates over time in each country presents a “saturation effect.” This behavior has been analyzed by a diffusion forecasting model. The analysis of regional share certificates evolution evidences a sensible increase of Far East countries. The analysis of ISO 9000 certificates' share by industrial sector highlights a growth for the most sectors; only a few of them show a negative trend in last two years. A relationship between ISO 9000 certificates and socio‐economic indicators of a country (human development index, gross national product) has been individuated.

The stunning growth of ISO 9000 certifications all over the world confirms a strong polarization of enterprises' interest in this practice. Looking at the empirical data, some questions come out about the future. Will the certification market go on? Will certified enterprises continue to be interested to the certification process?

This paper analyzes the worldwide evolution of ISO 9000 certification and suggests a new prediction model for the diffusion of ISO 9000 certificates.

Organizations often introduce performance measurement systems (PMSs) in order to evaluate the level of their performance, make comparison with competitors, and plan their future activities. Since indicators may affect the behaviour of the monitored system, the design and implementation of a PMS should always include the analysis of the impact it may exert on the organization itself. The aim of this paper is to suggest a methodology to evaluate this impact.

The proposed approach is based on an impact reference model derived from the balanced scorecard (BSC) framework. The different perspectives of the BSC are interpreted as areas of impact within an organization. Structured steps for impact evaluation are described and specific techniques of analysis are introduced.

A series of case studies, together with an analysis of advantages and disadvantages of the proposed method, are presented. Results show that, although many sets of indicators are usually able to meet the role of a PMS, they may exert a different impact on the context they are applied. The proposed methodology results to be a useful instrument for choosing the right set of indicators from the impact point of view. Finally, possible research paths to be undertaken for further developments of the proposed methodology are traced.

The application of the method is based on the assumption that managers charged with the analysis have a profound understanding of the specific contextual factors which may determine a reaction of the organization to a performance indicator or a PMS. Furthermore, at the moment, the methodology does not consider the possibility of interaction among different indicators in producing the impact.

This paper may be used to guide the selection of the most appropriate PMS from the impact point of view. The proposed methodology can be very helpful instrument for an organization involved in the design of new PMSs. It guides the decision maker through the various phases: indicators definition, analysis of their properties, impact analysis, and choice of the set with the preferable impact profile.

The issue of impact has been long debated in literature. Many articles try to analyse the operative and strategic consequences of the introduction of a PMS in an organization. This paper proposes a methodology for a more structured and objective evaluation of the impact of new PMS before introducing it in a firm. This can result in a significant help for manager who have to find the best set of indicators for the performance evaluation of their organization or have to choose between two or more sets of indicator satisfying, in principle, the same representation objective.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to provide a reference framework for the major properties of performance indicators, using the formalism of the Representation Theory.

Performance indicators shown are commonly used in many different areas of operations management in order to analyse process evolution. However, in practical applications many questions arise: “How many indicators should be used for representing a given process?”, “Is there an optimal set?”, “How to check whether the indicators used suitably represent the system investigated?”, etc. In the literature these questions have been addressed in relation to a number of different application fields. This has led to a maze of classifications and properties, which may create confusion in both the academic and the practitioner communities. In a previous work, the paper carried out an analysis of the existing literature, examining and comparing different approaches. This present work identifies and analyses the major properties which effective indicators should exhibit, and suggests an operational methodology to choose the “best” set of indicators.

The findings in this paper produce a detailed analysis of the properties of indicators and establish a schematic methodology facilitating the selection and verification of indicators. To make the process clearer, properties are explained by the use of practical examples.

Indicators are utilized in many different contexts for a variety of purposes (for example, logistics, business management, manufacturing, sports competitions, etc.). The paper provides a general analysis of the most important properties of indicators, without entering into specific application contexts.

The paper proposes an operational methodology to support the selection and testing of the best indicators for a given process. This methodology may also be used for integrating other existing approaches.

Properties of indicators are examined from a mathematical/symbolic point of view, using the formalism of the Representation Theory.

Outsourcing is a management approach by which an organization delegates some non‐core functions to specialized and efficient service providers. In the era of “global market” and “e‐economy”, outsourcing is one of the main pillars of the new way to conceive the relationships among companies. Despite outsourcing large diffusion, huge business cases and big deals of documentation available on network or press, there is no structured procedure able to support the govern of the evolution of a generic outsourcing process. In accordance with the principles of total quality management, this paper describes a proposal of a new approach for managing outsourcing processes. The model, which can be easily adapted to different application fields, has been conceived with the main aim of managing strategic decisions, economic factors and human resources. The approach is supported by different decision and analysis tools, such as benchmarking techniques, multiple criteria decision aiding (MCDA) methods, cost analysis, and other process‐planning methodologies. An application of the method to a real case is also provided.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and quantify the impact of product complexity, including architectural complexity, on operator learning, productivity and quality performance in both assembly and disassembly operations. This topic has not been extensively investigated in previous research.

An extensive experimental campaign involving 84 operators was conducted to repeatedly assemble and disassemble six different products of varying complexity to construct productivity and quality learning curves. Data from the experiment were analysed using statistical methods.

The human learning factor of productivity increases superlinearly with the increasing architectural complexity of products, i.e. from centralised to distributed architectures, both in assembly and disassembly, regardless of the level of overall product complexity. On the other hand, the human learning factor of quality performance decreases superlinearly as the architectural complexity of products increases. The intrinsic characteristics of product architecture are the reasons for this difference in learning factor.

The results of the study suggest that considering product complexity, particularly architectural complexity, in the design and planning of manufacturing processes can optimise operator learning, productivity and quality performance, and inform decisions about improving manufacturing operations.

While previous research has focussed on the effects of complexity on process time and defect generation, this study is amongst the first to investigate and quantify the effects of product complexity, including architectural complexity, on operator learning using an extensive experimental campaign.

The aim of this paper is to present the first diffusion analysis of ISO/IEC 27001, the fourth most popular ISO certification at global level and the most important standard for information security.

To achieve the purposes, the authors applied Grey Models (GM) – Even GM (1,1), Even GM (1,1,α,θ), Discrete GM (1,1), Discrete GM (1,1,α) – complemented by the relative growth rate and the doubling time indexes on the six most important countries in terms of issued certificates.

Results show that a growing trend is likely to be expected in the years to come and that China will lead at country level.

The study contributes to the scientific debate by presenting the first diffusive analysis of ISO/IEC 27001 and by proposing a forecasting approach that to date has found little application in the field of international standards.

This study bridges the gap in quality control strategies for high-volume production by balancing the cost and effectiveness of inspection strategies. Using the cost of quality (CoQ) to manage cost and external failures (EF) to gauge effectiveness, this research introduces an innovative inspection strategy chart that serves as a decision-making tool for optimizing inspection processes.

This paper presents a scenario-based framework designed to support strategic decision-making in inspection processes by integrating empirical data analysis with inspection strategy charts. This approach allows for a dynamic assessment and visualization of the relationship between CoQ and EF, facilitating more informed decision-making in quality management. Notably, it contrasts the traditional models with a novel approach that more accurately captures the uncertainty and correlation among key quality indicators, showcasing its potential for more refined decision-making in quality management.

Application of the framework illustrates its effectiveness in offering a nuanced understanding of the cost implications and effectiveness of various quality control strategies. This facilitates enhanced strategic decision-making, optimizing inspection processes and reducing external failures in high-volume production settings.

The study focuses on a single industry case study, limiting the generalizability of findings across different high-volume production contexts. Future research could explore the framework’s applicability in other sectors and refine the model based on additional empirical data.

The research introduces a versatile framework that navigates the unique challenges of high-volume manufacturing environments. Diverging from models optimized for low-volume settings, this approach provides a valuable tool for adapting inspection strategies to complex production demands, marking a significant contribution to quality management and control literature.

The purpose of this paper is to dissect the diffusion of the number of organizations that implemented multiple management systems (MSs), considering the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 standards (quality, environment and safety) in the South European countries: Italy, Portugal and Spain. In addition, based on the data collected, forecasting models were developed to assess at which extent the multiple certifications are expected to occur in each studied country.

Data concerning the evolution of the amount of multiple MSs in Italy, Portugal and Spain were collected for the period between 1999 and 2015. The behavior of the evolution of the number of MSs over the years was studied adopting both the Gompertz and the Logistic models. The results obtained with these two models were compared and analyzed to provide a forecast for the next years.

The diffusion throughout the years of the number of MSs presents an S-shaped behavior. The evolution of the amount of MSs in countries with a lower saturation level are properly fitted by the Gompertz model whereas the Logistic model fits more accurately when considering countries with a larger saturation level.

The data related to the early years are not available in some of the countries. To overcome this shortcoming missing data were extrapolated from the data set provided by the annual ISO survey. Additionally, the integration level attained by each company was not assessed and, on this regard and in the scope of this paper, an integrated management system is understood as implemented when organizations have multiple MSs implemented.

The results provide a cross-sectional portrayal of the diffusion of MSs certifications in the South European countries and enable a forecast for the trend in the next years.

This study aims for the first time, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to analyze the diffusion of multiple MSs throughout the years.

In a world characterised by increasing environmental and social awareness, the number of corporate social responsibility and sustainability initiatives has significantly grown. Among these, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) is one of the most important, involving more than 12,000 companies. The purpose of this study is to investigate the UNGC’s worldwide diffusion, both at country and industry level, to understand the reasons leading to the highlighted dissemination patterns, and to propose various future projections.

The study pursues its objectives by applying the logistic curve model to data provided by the United Nations. The analysis is complemented by adopting instability and concentration indexes.

Results suggest that, while human rights and environmental safeguard in some areas and industries will remain a controversial issue, UNGC adoption will continue growing and giving the participants the required legitimacy to compete in worldwide markets.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that analyses the UNGC’s worldwide diffusion and proposes a prediction model for its future dissemination. The findings are of considerable importance in extending the knowledge of the initiative and in understanding the potential values of its adoption.

The purpose of this paper is to verify a possible relationship between quality management system certification according to ISO 9001 standard and risk of failure of Italian companies.

A synthetic index which summarize the most crucial economic/financial aspects of the studied companies is assumed as the response variable of a statistical model for studying the effects of four specific factors: certification, company size, regional development and manufacturing sub-sector. The analysis is conducted on a sample of Italian companies belonging to different manufacturing sub-sectors. The used data are obtained from the database Aida® by Bureau van Dijk and from the database of the Italian accreditation body Accredia. The study is based on analysis of variance (ANOVA) and contingency tables.

Preliminary results of ANOVA show that only company size, regional development and manufacturing sub-sector can be considered fully significant. Furthermore, the major conclusion from the analysis of contingency tables is that ISO 9001 certification is connected to the legal status (active, not active) of a company only for a portion for the studied manufacturing sub-sectors. Hence, the scenario is quite variegated and a significant positive interaction between certification and corporate performance is not always confirmed.

Although the research shows some interesting results, it is liable to extensions and improvements. In particular, at the current exploratory level, it is limited to a specific period of time and considers only the Italian sector, but it could be extended to a wider number of years and to European and international level.

The study opens a way for a number of important questions about the meaning, usefulness and effectiveness of ISO 9001 certification. In particular, it may be time to ask whether the paradigm of certification actually needs a radical rethink.

This work represents a first exploratory attempt to correlate the risk of failure with the achievement of ISO 9001 certification. There are several similar works in literature which, however, focus mainly on sectorial aspects of the corporate background.