Toward a World-Class Engineering Organization. Making ISO 9000 the Foundation to Quality Management

Abstract : If it is to continue as the world's preeminent engineering and design organization, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) must fulfill its customer's demand for total quality products and excellent service. To Corps customers total quality means engineering and design products that meet their functional and technical requirements, are completed on schedule and within the given budget, and are delivered with exceptional customer service. In response to its customer's challenges, USACE has already launched several quality-related initiatives (e.g., Total Army Quality). However, those quality initiatives, as a whole, could be much more beneficial to the field activities implementing them if they were made part of a broader and integrated quality management system that would minimize lapses in quality by preventing most problems. When problems do arise, the system quickly identifies and corrects the faulty systems or procedures.