Futurepast
Offers
Consulting &
Training
In TL 9000
Click Here to meet
Mark Kempf, Futurepast
Management Consultant
and TL 9000 expert.![[Picture of Mark Kempf]](mk-thumb.jpg)
Click Here to read
about SBC
Communications, Inc.'s
decision to require
suppliers to obtain
TL 9000 certification
Rel. 3.0 of TL 9000 Incorporates
New ISO 9001:2000 Requirements
The QuEST Forum has updated the TL 9000 requirements to incorporate the provisions of the ISO 9001:2000 standard. The new publication is called TL 9000, Quality Management System Requirements Handbook, Release 3.0. More than fifteen hundred suppliers in the United States representing annual sales in excess of $50 billion in the primary SIC code alone (3661) are potentially affected. The TL 9000 documents are managed by the Quality Excellence for Suppliers of Telecommunications Leadership Forum (QuEST Forum), an industry trade group.
The TL 9000 requirements document adds 80 requirements to ISO 9001. Unique among the sector-specific standards, TL 9000 also includes performance metrics in a separate publication called TL 9000 Quality Management Systems Measurements Handbook, Release 3.0. According to the QuEST Forum, measurements defined in the handbook "are selected to guide progress and evaluate results of quality management system implementation." Organizations that register to TL 9000 standards are required to provide performance metrics data to the QuEST Forum's measurements administrator, the University of Texas at Dallas. Members of the QuEST Forum receive reports indicating "industry mean," "standard deviation," and "best-in-industry" for such categories as hardware, software, and services. The measurements administrator does not disclose performance data from individual companies, though customers may seek disclosure independently through contractual requirements. One of the goals of the telecommunications industry is to reduce the cost of poor quality, which has been estimated to be as high as $10-15 billion per year.
Futurepast
Is Ready To
Work With
You Today
With TL 9000 now gaining wider industry acceptance, a growing number of organizations are transitioning their quality systems to meet the requirements of the new standard. Futurepast consultants are trained and ready to assist you now in any step of the process.