ISO 9001 and supply chain quality in the USA

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of ISO 9001 certification and diffusion in the USA in relation to organizational supply chain position, quality maturity, and supplier quality maturity. Design/methodology/approach - Data for comparison in this study comes from an e-mail survey questionnaire of supply chain professionals across the USA. A pilot survey was initially e-mailed to 100 supply chain professionals and preliminary data from 27 respondents were used to revise the questionnaire. Respondents to the revised questionnaire returned 565 e-mailed questionnaires out of 2,924 active e-mail addresses. Findings - The results suggest that companies adopting ISO 9001 are likely doing so as part of an overall quality management program more so than from direct market pressure. It appears that ISO 9001 certification rates differ by organizational position in the supply chain. ISO 9001 certified organizations are more likely to have quality programs of greater maturity and suppliers with greater quality maturity than organizations that are not ISO 9001 certified. Certified organizations are also more likely to use suppliers that are ISO 9001 capable or certified than non-ISO 9001 organizations. Research limitations/implications - Not all industry groups or supply chain positions were well-represented due to some small sub-group sizes. Practical implications - The study of ISO 9001 certification in US organizations has been lacking in the literature. Given the weak adoption rate of ISO 9001 in the USA, this study helps characterize ISO 9001 certification from a supply chain perspective and explores possible reasons for low certification rates. Originality/value - This research extends the knowledge of quality management in the supply chain by studying ISO 9001 certification in relation to supply chain position and differences in quality maturity between certified and non-certified organizations in the USA.