By John Bingman

Over the past year or so, comments have been made to management system auditors that amount to a giant warning sign:

“I hope you understand that I'm new at this management representative thing and I’m not sure I’m aware of all the standard- and certification-body requirements,” confessed one executive tasked with making sure that their company’s corporate quality initiative is effective and working as planned.

“I’m the third management rep in two years and I don’t know anything about the standard,” confessed another executive in a similar position.