Food Control 18 (2007) 10771085

www.elsevier.com/locate/foodcont

Implementation of a quality management system (QMS) according to

the ISO 9000 family in a Greek small-sized winery: A case study
D. Aggelogiannopoulos, E.H. Drosinos , P. Athanasopoulos
Department of Food Science and Technology, Laboratory of Food Quality Control and Hygiene, Agricultural University of Athens, 75, Iera Odos Street,
Votanicos, GR-118 55 Athens, Greece

Received 10 February 2006; received in revised form 28 June 2006; accepted 3 July 2006

Abstract

In this article we will review the planning and the implementation of a quality management system (QMS) according to ISO 9000 stan-
dards for a small-sized winery in Paros Island. Top Management of the organization seeks to gain all the internal and external beneWts
from the certiWcation of its QMS according to the requirements of the International Standard ISO 9001:2000 and also to increase the
share market and inWltrate into new markets. We will discuss the documentation of the QMS, the obstacles and the problems that the
organization faced during the implementation of the QMS, and the cost elements.
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: ISO 9001:2000; QMS; Winery

1. Introduction desire to provide information to organiz- ations about how

1.1. Short overview of ISO 9000 family
In recent years, the quality of manufacturing products
has become one of the most important factors that inXu-
ence national and international business and economic pat-
terns. Numerous quality standards have been developed
and adopted over the years, with the ISO family of stan-
dards representing an international consensus on good
management practices with the aim of ensuring that an
organization can deliver products or services that meet the
customers quality requirements. ISO 9000 standards origi-
nated in 1987 with a bulletin from the International Orga-
nization for Standardization (ISO) (Ferguson, 1996). Its
purpose was to provide a series of international standards
dealing with quality systems that could be used for external
quality purposes. Another important consideration was the
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +30 210 529 4713; fax: +30 210 529 4683.
E-mail address: edh@aua.gr (E.H. Drosinos).
to design their own quality systems based on individual
company marketplace needs. The standards in the ISO
9000 series intend to be generic standards for quality man-
agement and quality assurance. The standards are to be
applied to any type of organizations; independent to the
size of the organizations or the kind of products manufac-
tured or services provided, in private and public organiza-
tions, including government services. The original ISO 9000
series consisted of Wve standards: ISO 9000, 9001, 9002,
9003 and 9004, plus ISO 8402 (which was published in
1986 and it focused on terminology).
The ISO 9000 series was the fastest growing standards in
history and was very popular from the start (Bergman,
1994). By 2004 more than 136 countries had adopted the
series as national standards, and more than 650,000 facili-
ties had been certiWed by third-party organizations to ISO
9001:2000. Since 1987, were the ISO 9000 family was issued,
it is unlikely that any other standards had more impact on
international trade, on the relationship between suppliers
and their customers and on the management of quality. All
ISO standards are evaluated on a Wve-year schedule to

0956-7135/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2006.07.010
1078 D. Aggelogiannopoulos et al. / Food Control 18 (2007) 10771085
determinate whether they remain suitable for their applica-
tion or if they need to be revised or withdrawn. At the
annual meeting of ISOs Technical Committee 176 in 1990 it
was agreed that the series of ISO 9000:1987 should be
revised and that the revision should be done in two phases
(Tsiakals, 2002). This approach was adopted because a
great numerous of organizations were familiar with the
1987 standards and would likely be resistant to major struc-
tural changes. The results of these processes were a small
revision of the ISO 9000 family in 1994 and a greater and
more important revision with major changes to structure
and content of the standards in the year 2000. After the
2000 revision ISO 9000 family consisted of the following
three standards: ISO 9000:2000, ISO 9001:2000 and ISO
9004:2000. ISO 9000:2000 is the general standard that
serves as an overall guide to the other standards. Its pur-
pose is to provide deWnitions of terms and a basic explana-
tion of the ISO 9000 standards. ISO 9001:2000 consolidates
the former ISO 9001/9002/9003 standards into a single doc-
ument and is the only standard to which certiWcation is cur-
rently assessed. ISO 9001:2000 is written for all types of
organization, including service organizations. DiVerent
industries may have their own terminology, but the stan-
dard is written using universal, generic terms. Whether an
organization is fabricating, assembling, manufacturing,
arranging, consulting, or providing services, it will beneWt
from the implementation of the QMS requirements con-
tained in this standard. The 2000 version of ISO 9001 is
written to be more user-friendly to small businesses and ser-
vice organizations and yet to remain useful to large manu-
facturing organizations. The standards generic controls
and terminology allow it to be used by all organizations; it
is not speciWc to any one particular organization. In all
cases where ISO 9001:2000 was adopted by an organiza-
tion, the QMS must be customized to Wt organization
needs. ISO 9004:2000 provides further guidance for contin-
uous improvement of internal quality management systems.
The results of several studies showed that the most
important reasons for using the ISO 9000 family of quality
standards are: customer or marketing demands, needs for
improvement in process or systems, desire for global
deployment and lack of focus inside the organization. The
adoption of a QMS according to the requirements of ISO
9001:2000, should be a strategic decision of an organiza-
tion. The design and implementation of an organizations
quality management system is inXuenced by varying needs,
particular objectives, the products provided, the process
employed and the size of the organization.
1.2. Management systems for the food and drink industry
In the last decade, consumers have become very critical
about food quality and food safety due to several incidents
of contaminated food (Spiegel, Luning, Ziggers, & Jongen,
2003). In order to build and maintain the trust of consum-
ers in food quality and food safety, quality assurance and
food hygiene is of major importance in the food sector.
Quality, food safety and environmental management sys-
tems in the food and drink industry, a combination of
which, as well as with the support of the top management
of the organizations oVers an integrated system in the food
and drink industries that includes quality, productivity and
safety of the products.
ISO 22000:2005 is a HACCP-type standard based on
and Wts very well with ISO 9001:2000 especially developed
to assure food safety. Total quality management (TQM)
and ISO 9000 focus more on management aspects and also
aim to improve total quality. Furthermore, food manufac-
tures are obliged by legislation to apply HACCP, while the
other systems are applied voluntarily in the food industry.
The assurance of safe production and the supply of safe
food products appear to be the main aims of the food and
drink industry. These aims can be attained by adopting a
systematic and organizational structure, controlling activi-
ties, processes, procedures and resources according to the
standards which constitute the basis for the quality and
hygiene systems, including HACCP, ISO 9000 and 14000
series (Early, 1995). The implementation of a QMS, accord-
ing to ISO 9000 series in the Weld of food products, is
related to ensuring quality procedures for the food compa-
nies and reinforcing legislative requirements (Bolton, 1997).
Many food processing and packaging companies can
start on the journey towards world class quality by building
a solid structure using together GMP, HACCP and the ISO
9000 family (Surak & Simpson, 1994). From this point of
view, the organization can add the principles of TQM
which include modern leadership and human resource prin-
ciples, customer focus, strategic planning, fact-based deci-
sion making process, and modern process control
techniques. With this foundation the organization can
incorporate a high quality strategy into their business that
allows to enhance their competitiveness by continuing to
improve the value towards their customers and by system-
atically improving all of the companys operational perfor-
mances. These principles can eVectively transform the
company into a customer-driven organization which can
compete in the global marketplace.
ISO 9001:2000 focuses on customers needs and expecta-
tions. One of the most important customer expectations is
to have safe food products. ISO 9001:2000 allows an orga-
nization to integrate its quality management system with
the implementation of a food safety system. The most com-
mon, in the food and drink industries, is the simultaneous
operation of a QMS and a food safety system such as
HACCP. The application of HACCP within an ISO 9001
QMS can result in a food management system that is more
eVective than the application of either ISO 9001 or HACCP
alone, leading to enhanced customer satisfaction and
improving organizational eVectiveness (Sparling, Lee, &
Howard, 2001). In 2001, in order to facilitate the implemen-
tation of HACCP and ISO 9001 in food and drink organi-
zations, ISO published ISO 15161:2001 which provided
guidelines on the application of ISO 9001:2000 for the food
and drink industry. ISO 15161:2001 includes sourcing, pro-
 D. Aggelogiannopoulos et al. / Food Control 18 (2007) 10771085
cessing and packaging of food and drink products and it
explains the possibility to link the commonalities and the
communication between the two systems. It is important to
consider that ISO 15161:2001 is not a standard for the
implementation of HACCP and cannot be a reference doc-
ument at certiWcation, but these guidelines are intended to
provide a clear management system supporting HACCP
controls for an eVective food safety system, under the rec-
ognized framework of an ISO 9001 QMS. The eVective
integration of these two systems will improve the perfor-
mance of the organization and decrease the amount of
paper work for the eVective operation of the systems.
Efstratiadis and Arvanitoyannis (2000) mentioned that
HACCP as a part of a quality system not only manages to
provide safety to the products, but also assure a better and
more aVective implementation of the whole quality system.
The new standard ISO 22000:2005 oVers an alternative to
food enterprises that they do not implement ISO 9001 and
they want to have an eVective food safety management
system.
The quality of the wine is usually related to the prod-
ucts appearance, acceptability, taste, Xavor, color and
components (alcohol, acid), characteristics important for
consumer acceptance (Christaki & Tzia, 2002). Winemak-
ing is a very sensitive procedure and for that reason the
assurance of the quality during the whole processes is sig-
niWcant for the acceptance by the consumers. The imple-
mentation of a QMS according to ISO 9001:2000 and the
adoption of a food safety system such a HACCP in the
wine sector will provide a suitable frame to the organiza-
tion to ensure the quality characteristics and the safety of
the Wnal products.
2. Materials and methods
The following case study covers a small-sized traditional
winery in a Greek island named Paros. The winery founded
in 1917, occupies twelve permanent personnel while the
annual production of the organization does not exceed
600,000 bottles of wine. Top management of the winery
seeking to improve the interior operation of the organiza-
tion, to inWltrate in new markets and increase the market
share, decided that the implementation of a quality man-
agement system according to the requirements of ISO
9001:2000 will yield the desirable results. None of the mem-
bers of the organizations top management had previous
experience in plan and design of a quality system and had
limited knowledge about the ISO 9000 family. The Wrst
action of top management was to purchase the three main
documents which consists the ISO 9000 series (ISO 9000/
9001/9004), to purchase ISO 15161:2001 which provides the
necessary guidelines on the application of ISO 9001:2000 to
food and drink industry and to obtain as much more infor-
mation about ISO 9000 family. After a short period of time
top management realized that it was very diYcult to design
an appropriate quality system with the resources that were
allocated to the organization, and for that reason they hired
1079
an external quality consultant who had the know-hows
required for the design and application of the QMS.
3. Results
The winery that is being examined, due to its small size,
has some particular characteristics which are presented in
Table 1.
The development and the implementation of the QMS
was the result of a well planned programme of procedures
with its Wnal goal the eVective operation of the quality system
and its complete incorporation in the daily operation of the
organization. In Table 2 are presented the procedures that
took place from the time that the top management decided
to apply a QMS according to ISO 9000 family up to the cer-
tiWcation audit that took place from an external registrar.
Top management plays the key role in ensuring that the
QMS works as planned and applied. By its deWnition, it is
conWrmed that the QMS is a management responsibility. It
is conceived and driven by top management. The main top
managements responsibilities for an eYcient QMS are as
follows:
Top management shall be the recognized leader of the
QMS.
Top management must create an environment in which
the QMS can be eVective.
Top management must assure compliance with a docu-
mented QMS.
Top management must supply the resources, training
and support for employees implementing the QMS.
Top management must continually review the compli-
ance performance of the organization.
Top management must recognize the successful eVorts of
the workforce (Wilson, 2002).
Table 1
Singularly characteristics of the organization
Direct management from the chief executive (owner of the winery)
Instant contact between the personnel and the top management
Simple and eVective system for internal communication
Short number of permanent personnel
Great number of seasonal personnel
Great number of suppliers in grapes
Direct contact with the organizations customers
Short-range planning
Table 2
QMS certiWcation process
Decision making and commitment of the top management
Allocation of the available resources
Initial assessment of the organizations structure
IdentiWcation and analysis of the organizations processes
Documentation of QMS
Training of personnel
Trial of the system for a small period
Internal audit
CertiWcation audit
1080 D. Aggelogiannopoulos et al. / Food Control 18 (2007) 10771085
Fig. 1. Documentation of QMS.
The documented QMS identiWes the basic methodology
by which the winery operates. The quality management sys-
tem documentation includes documented statements of the
organizations quality policy and the quality objectives, the
quality manual, the quality procedures manual, the work
instructions manual, documents needed to ensure the eVec-
tive planning, operation and control of the winerys pro-
cesses and records required by ISO 9001:2000. The extent of
the QMS documentation is deWned according to the size
and the type of winerys activities, the complexity and inter-
action of processes, the competence of personnel and the
needs of the quality plan. The structure of the documenta-
tion is shown in Fig. 1. Quality records constitute the foun-
dation of QMS, while the quality manual constitutes the
most substantial document. Quality procedures manual
contents the documented procedures established for the
QMS and the quality assurance forms. The work instruc-
tions manual describes the most important personnel and
management activities for the QMS operation, such us indi-
vidual hygiene of the personnel, cleaning and sanitation of
facilities and equipment, evaluation and selection of grape
suppliers. The organization has established and maintained
a quality manual that covers ISO 9001:2000 requirements
and includes, between others, the scope of the QMS, includ-
ing the details and the justiWcation of any exclusions from
ISO 9001:2000, the documented quality policy, the organi-
zational chart, reference to documented quality procedures,
description of the interaction between main processes of the
QMS, and a processes map. The organizations QMS has
been designed and implemented in a way that covers the
requirements of ISO 9001:2000 and the following scope
Production and marketing of red wine and retsina in the
Greek and international market. The QMS is excluded from
ISO 9001:2000 requirement 7.5.4 Customer property, as
no customer property (asset, product, material, proprietary
information) is used in the product realization process.
One of the most important aspects of the 2000 revision of
ISO 9001 was the adoption of the process approach to qual-
ity management systems (Hooper, 2002). ISO 9001:2000
promote the adoption of a process approach when develop-
ing, implementing, and improving a QMS. The process
approach is one of the eight quality management principles
upon which the entire ISO 9000 series of standards is based.
The process approach is a powerful way of organizing and
managing how work activities create value. Whereas a more
traditional structure organizes and manages work activities
vertically by function, with quality problems frequently
occurring at the boundaries of the functional departments,
the process approach organizes and manages work horizon-
tally the way work activities create customer value. This
horizontal linkage between suppliers and customers is a
remarkable way to manage and continually improve the
eVectiveness, the amount of value created from the custom-
ers, and the eYciency of the process. Once the processes
needed for the QMS and their sequences and interactions
have been identiWed, it is necessary to establish management
responsibilities and accountabilities for the performance of
these processes. Furthermore top management shall estab-
lish suitable performance indicators for each of the main
processes of the organization in order for them to be moni-
tored and measured (Geraedts, Montenarie, & van Rijk,
2001).
Top management of the winery has identiWed the main
processes needed for the QMS and their application
throughout the organization, has determined the sequence
and interaction of these processes (Fig. 2), has determined
criteria and methods needed to ensure that both operation
and control of these processes are eVective, has set the
appropriate mechanisms for monitoring, measuring and
analysis of these processes and has implemented the neces-
sary actions to achieve planned results and continual
improvement of these processes.
For all of the main processes of the organization, top
management has identiWed the inputs and outputs of these
processes, the criteria through which these processes become
acceptable, the control measures and monitoring, and the
performance indicator for each process. All the above ele-
ments are presented in a suitable processes map (Table 3).
The perceived requirement for an excessive number of
documented procedures (20) has been one of the most criti-
cized aspects of ISO 9001:1994. ISO 9001:2000 gives to the
organization much greater Xexibility. In ISO 9001:2000 the
requirement for documented procedures occurs for just six
processes: (1) control of documents (clause 4.2.3); (2) con-
trol of records (clause 4.2.4); (3) internal audit (clause 8.2.2);
(4) control of nonconforming products (clause 8.3); (5) cor-
rective action (clause 8.5.2) and (6) preventive action (clause
8.5.3). These mandatory documented procedures are
thought to cover topics so critical to the nature of a success-
ful QMS that an organization cannot function properly
without having them available in writing for users. Other
QMS procedures may or may not be documented at the
discretion of the user organization. The usual criterion for
 D. Aggelogiannopoulos et al. / Food Control 18 (2007) 10771085
Fig. 2. Interaction of winerys main processes.
determining whether a procedure needs to be documented
is whether it must be in written form or not, for the proper
operation of the QMS. Almost all organizations have deter-
mined that some level of discretionary written procedures is
necessary to consistently maintain the intended operation
of the QMS. Procedures that aid in the deployment of the
policies and objectives of the organization or the satisfac-
tion of the customers requirements and other interested
parties, as well as regulatory requirements (i.e.: identiWca-
tion and traceability), are obvious candidates for being pre-
sented in written form. Documented procedures should
always be written with the reader and user in mind and
should use simple language. Most procedures should be rel-
atively short documents and should include only informa-
tion that is relevant to the process being described. Every
organization has the Xexibility to select the format and
structure of the documented procedures that best suit their
needs. Each procedure normally has administrative ele-
ments to provide for document control. These normally
include a title of the procedure, code number to identify the
document, revision status, editors name or signature and
approval. For each of the documented procedure the writer
should answer the following questions:
What is required to be done?
How will it to be done?
Any special facility or equipment needed?
Who has the authority?
Which records are essential?
Winerys top management besides the six mandatory
documented procedures has documented ten more proce-
1081
dures according to the special needs of the organization.
Documented procedures of winerys QMS which are
included into the quality procedures manual are presented
in Table 4. All documented procedures of the winerys
QMS are written in the same form. They include the scope
of the procedure, the Weld of application, the responsible
individuals for the establishment, implementation, and
maintenance of the procedure, the relevance to the proce-
dure documents and the analytic description of the proce-
dure.
In addition to the quality manual and the documented
procedures that describe the overall processes of the
QMS, organization is speciWcally required to prepare
other documentation needed for control of processes.
The type and extent of these documents is determined by
the organizations needs and special features. These doc-
uments are called work instructions. Work instructions
are to be used by the workforce to aid in performing
detailed tasks. Since these tasks must be performed in the
same manner each time, often with intervals between
applications, written work instructions for proper perfor-
mance are necessary. The extent of details in this type of
document is usually based on the training and experience
level of the personnel of the organization. Work instruc-
tions should exist when the process is complex, when the
skill level of the workers is low and when the absence of
such instructions would compromise the organizations
ability to meet requirements. Similar considerations
apply to the detail needed. If the process is simple and the
workers are highly trained, work instructions probably
need less detail. Top management of the winery decided
that due to the low skill level of its workers the work
1082
Table 3
Processes map
Inputs
Management responsibility
Process performance and
product conformity.
Results of audits. Results
from previous management
reviews. Nonconformities.
Results from corrective and
preventive actions. Customer
feedback
Resource management
Needs of personnel training.
Maintenance needs of
plant facilities and
equipment. Calibration
and maintenance needs
of monitoring and
measuring devices
Ordering procedure
Customers requirements
(by personal contact,
telephone or fax). Products
lists and price lists for
services and products
Purchasing
SpeciWcations and
characteristics of raw
materials, secondary
materials and packaging
materials. List of evaluated
suppliers
Product realization
Customers requirements.
SpeciWcations and
characteristics of Wnal
products. Work instructions
Sales distribution to customer
Final products. Distributions
schedule. Accompanying
documents
Customer satisfaction
Contact between the customers Corrective and preventive
and the organization. actions. Resolved complaints. worked out customers
Customers satisfaction SatisWed customers
questionnaire. Customers
complaints
instructions should in written form. Work instructions as
documented procedures; include the scope, the Weld of
application, the responsible individuals and an analytical
D. Aggelogiannopoulos et al. / Food Control 18 (2007) 10771085
Outputs
Decisions on changes
of the QMS. Changes
of the quality policy
and the quality objectives.
Provision of resources.
Corrective and
preventive actions
Decisions for the realization
of training programmes.
Maintenance of mechanical
equipment. Calibration of
monitoring and measuring
devices
Customers orders. Schedule
of orders. Planning of
product realization
Receiving of raw materials,
secondary materials and
packaging materials
Final products
Orders. Distribution of
Wnal products to
customers
Written down and
complaints
Acceptance criteria Monitoring process control Performance indicators
Solving customers Review of the QMS Maintenance of ISO
complaints. Achievement a time per year. 9001:2000 certiWcate
of quality objectives. Control of review for three years
Ascertainment of realization via
continual improvement proceedings. Control
of the QMS of supervisors
meetings via
proceedings
Trained personnel. Monitoring and Number of trained
Calibrated monitoring control of realization personnel on the
and measuring devices of training programmes. total. Number of
according to accredited Monitoring and control calibrated monitoring
procedures. Maintained of calibration and measuring devices
and well functioning programmes. Monitoring on the total
equipment and control of
maintenance
programmes
ConWrmation of telephone Monitoring and control Number of achieved
orders. ConWrmation of orders from sales orders on the total
of orders via fax manager. Maintenance
and control of the
appropriate records
Purchased products Quality and quantitative Number of disqualiWed
according to inspection of purchased products per purchased
speciWcations products. Evaluation supply. Percentage of
and scoring of suppliers suppliers that has
been marked as
excellent, on the
total of suppliers
SatisWed quality inspection Monitoring of control Number of nonconforming
of Wnal products measures during products
productive procedure
and inspection of
production records
On time distribution Quality and quantitative Number of customers
to customers inspection of the order complaints as for the
before it is forwarded quality of products and
to the customer. the delivery time
ConWrmation by the
customer that received
the products in even
condition, and in the
determined time
Control of questionnaires Percentage of very satisWed
sending. Evaluation of customers on the total of
answered questionnaires answered questionnaires
by top management
description of the instruction. The written work instruc-
tions that consist the work instructions manual, are pre-
sented in Table 5.
 D. Aggelogiannopoulos et al. / Food Control 18 (2007) 10771085 1083

Table 4 implementation process of a QMS. Nevertheless due to lack

QMS document procedures of Wnancial recourses, top management decided that it
Code Title would be better to design the QMS with its own human
SOP-4.2/01 Control of documents recourses. After a short period of time it was clear that this
SOP-4.2/02 Control of records was a very time-consuming process with questionable
SOP-5.6/01 Management review results, and for these reasons it was essential the collabora-
SOP-6.2/01 Personnel training
tion with an external quality consultant to ensure the right
SOP-6.3/01 Plant and equipment maintenance
SOP-7.1/01 Planning of product realization documentation and the initial operation of the QMS. Lack
SOP-7.2/01 Customer communication of ISO 9000 experience and knowledge, regarding all
SOP-7.2/02 Management of customers complaints personnel, was another important obstacle for the organi-
SOP-7.4/01 Control of suppliers and purchasing zation to overcome. This problem was overcome by con-
SOP-7.5/01 Storage of supplies and Wnal products
ducting both internal and exterior training programmes.
SOP-7.5/02 IdentiWcation and traceability
SOP-7.6/01 Control of monitoring and measuring devices Internal training was conducted by the winerys quality
SOP-8.2/01 Customer satisfaction manager and the quality consultant in the form of semi-
SOP-8.2/02 Internal audit nars. All the employees trained in two areas. First, they had
SOP-8.3/01 Control of nonconforming product an overall understanding of ISO 9000 vocabulary, the role
SOP-8.5/01 Corrective and preventive action
of the documents and records of QMS, individual responsi-
SOP: standard operation procedure. bilities and the beneWts that will be derived from the imple-
Table 5
mentation of the quality system. Second, they were trained
QMS work instructions in understanding the actual day-to-day process of upgrad-
Code Title
ing and improving processes and procedures. Furthermore
seminars concerning food safety hazards and food hygiene
W.I-1 Good agricultural practice
W.I-2 Selection of winegrower
and also cleaning and sanitation of plant facilities and
W.I-3 Collection of grapes equipment were organized. Another important action that
W.I-4 Cleaning and sanitation of plant facilities and equipment helped the organization, was the visits that were realized by
W.I-5 Personal hygiene the quality manager to wineries which already had a certi-
W.I-6 Duties and responsibilities of seasonal personnel Wed QMS according to the requirements of ISO 9001:2000.
W.I-7 Distribution of Wnal products
Productive time and recourses was another important area.
W.I: work instruction. Finally, another problem that faces the organization, even
now, is the training of the seasonal personnel. As it is famil-
4. Discussion iar, winemaking is a very complicated procedure. During
the grape harvest and collection season (September, October)
4.1. Problems and obstacles during the implementation the amount of work increases greatly and so the recruiting
period of extra workers is essential. This problem is overcome with
the conduct of a short-period seminar and the proper work
A number of organizations have reported substantial instructions.
problems during the planning and the implementation of a As it is known, ISO 9001 implementation requires a sub-
QMS according to ISO 9000 family. The most critical prob- stantial amount of time, resources and eVort. Productive
lems concern the documentation process, the lack of ISO time was, and still is, a very critical issue for the organiza-
9000 knowledge and experience, the lack of time and tion. The planning and establishment process, including the
resources, the commitment of top management and person- certiWcation audit, took about twelve months and during
nel and the creation of system ownership (Pallet, 1994; Ste- that period all of the winerys personnel worked overtime.
venson & Barnes, 2002). These obstacles, undoubtedly, are Financial and human resources, and also infrastructures
more obvious in small companies with the issues of produc- were issues that produced many problems to the organiza-
tive time, Wnancial and human resources being the most tion to deal with. The organization, due to its small size,
critical. It is recognizable that small companies are not in could not aVord to isolate employees or departments to the
position to qualify a satisfactory number of employees dur- exclusive responsibility of quality activities. Therefore the
ing and after the ISO 9001 realization project, nor they can responsibilities for the operation and the maintenance of
Wnance the cost of preparation, development and registra- the QMS and other quality responsibilities were included
tion (Aldowaisan & Youssef, 2006). among other responsibilities of the personnel. Lack of
After the initial assessment of the winerys structure it Wnancial resources by the organization for the wage of
was obvious that the organizations structure was far from quality consultant and third-party certiWcation was another
ISO 9001:2000 requirements. The results of the assessment considerable issue. The solution for this issue came from
showed main nonconformities in critical issues such as con- the Greek Ministry of Development, via a blueprint for the
trol of documents and records, internals audits and calibra- increase of competitiveness in SmallMedium Greek Enter-
tion of equipment. As mentioned previously, none of the prises (SME). SpeciWcally, this blueprint Wnancially sup-
winerys top management had previous experience in the ported SMEs with implementing and certifying a quality
1084 D. Aggelogiannopoulos et al. / Food Control 18 (2007) 10771085
management system according to ISO 9001:2000 require-
ments.
Another obstacle was that of gaining workforce commit-
ment to QMS implementation as the eVective systems
implementation requires the commitment and cooperation
of the workforce. To help gain this commitment, top man-
agement ensured that all employees were informed of how
the QMS would beneWt them. Top management, informed
the personnel of how the QMS would help the organization
in critical areas such as the reduction of defective products,
the improvement of internal communication, the increase
of customers satisfaction, the increase of share market and
the opportunities for inWltration in new markets.
4.2. Cost of the QMS planning, establishment and
certiWcation process
There were four factors that appeared to be the primary
concerns regarding the cost of the winerys QMS planning,
establishment and certiWcation. The main elements which
constituted the total cost are the expenses of the quality
consultant, the training costs, the registration fees and the
costs in employee time. Secondary elements that endorsed
the total budget were, among others, the investments in
equipment, the collaboration with exterior laboratories for
conducting essential chemical analyses and some functional
modiWcations. As mentioned a quality consultant was hired
to assist the organization in the design and the establish-
ment of the QMS and also to conduct a ten hour seminar.
The cost of the consulting service was estimated at D10,000.
Registration fees were estimated at D6000. This amount
included the registration cost of the CertiWcation Body
(D2000), and the cost of the initial audit (D4000). A great
part of both registrations and consultants fees were cov-
ered, as reported, by the Greek Ministry of Development.
Training cost was an important part for the total expenses
of the QMS implementation. Training courses were con-
ducted by the quality manager and external trainers.
The total training cost including trainers fees were esti-
mated at D4000. During the twelve months period that was
required for the QMS planning and establishment, winerys
quality manager occupied exclusively to that purpose. For
that reason qualitys manager annual salaries (D18,000),
were included to QMS design and application cost. The
compliance to ISO 9001:2000 requirements obliged the
organization to invest in new equipment and to make some
functional modiWcations. The organization realized the fol-
lowing actions:
Upgrading of the Wre Wghting system.
Improvement of the lighting system.
Upgrading of the winerys laboratory.
Establishment of programs for the elimination of rats
and insects.
Purchasing of working clothes and equipment for the
safety of the personnel.
Collaboration with an external laboratory.
The cost of the above actions was estimated at D10,000.
Finally there was a cost of about D500, which included
the purchase of the ISO 9000 standards, and the interna-
tional standard ISO 15161:2001 Guidelines on the appli-
cation of ISO 9001:2000 for the food and drink industry.
4.3. BeneWts of the QMS
QMS would help the organization in critical areas such
as the reduction of defective products, the improvement of
internal communication, the increase of customers satis-
faction, the increase of share market, the opportunities for
inWltration in new markets and global deployment. More-
over, implementation of the QMS gives additional beneWts
to winery such as decrease of the cost of quality and mis-
takes; higher quality of the wine, waste reduced, late deliv-
ery reduced, productivity improved, returns down and
advertising potential. The understanding of these beneWts
will be the motivation force for the winery to continue its
journey towards quality improvement.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the
owner of the winery for providing the appropriate informa-
tion for the conduct of this case study.
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