Tire life

Dori A Schmetterling

ISO 9000 doesn't ensure reproducibility - it ensures that you do what is documented, and you document what you do. The content of the documents and the design of the product could be as bad as you can imagine - as long as the paperwork is in order, you remain 9000 compliant. ISO 9000 compliance means you will have more information at hand to go back and figure out what happened if something doesn't go right. (And that is the basis of quality improvement). On developing a new product, ISO 9000 plays a much smaller role in product quality - taking a back seat to good design. While ISO 9000 is a nice idea, and it covers some important groundwork that really shoddy companies should have but don't have in place, 9000 is mostly a label. It can be useful to skim down a field of suppliers when the numbers are overwhelming, but to say that ensures a good product is a mistake, IMO. So as for tires, ISO 9000 means nothing to me. I still rely on good brand names. Crappy tires are an insult to everything rolling on them.

Dave