ISO 9002 as the cornerstone for continuous improvement

"Quality management has a/ways played an important role at the Iron Ore Company of Canada; particularly since the early eighties when the iron ore markets favoured buyers as opposed to sellers.Since thot time, IOC's quality system has evolved from basic quality control to the Deming philosophy and its 14 points, and on through various other phases to the ISO 9000 series.ISO 9002 Registration was' first requested by IDC's customers and development plans were prepared in 1988. At this time, Quality System Registration was unheard of in the mining sector and TDC found itself struggling with the concept. The 1U!Xt three years saw the company develop a Quality System to meet ISO 9002 in a two phased approach, setting new standards for the mining industry when registration was achieved in December 1991.The company now sees ISO Registration as the cornerstone of its future quality efforts. IOC's quality system has been integrated with several other initiatives such as loss control and functional training, both of which focus on training and management the workforce to do the job safely, the right way.This paper addresses the steps required to develop a quality system for the mining industry within the guidelines of the ISO 9000 Series and the subsequent integration of other quality related initiatives."