The effect of ISO 9000 implementation on flow management

This study proposes an innovative flow management system that includes product (product and logistics) and process (human, information and decision) flow management. We identify three levels of ISO 9000 implementation (basic, advanced and supportive) as enablers, and operational performance as the outcome. The model was tested using the data-set collected from 133 ISO 9001 certified manufacturing companies in Australia. The results show that advanced implementation is positively related to both product and process flow management; supportive implementation is only positively related to process flow management while basic implementation has no significant effect on either product or process flow management. The results also show that both product and process flow management are positively related to operational performance. This study provides managerial guidelines for companies that wish to improve their innovation capabilities through ISO 9000 implementation and flow management. It also contributes to the ISO 9000 and flow management literature.