A LEADING quality management consultant says the rush of construction companies winning ISO 9000 quality management certificates ''is just the starting point'' for quality management in the territory, and that interest is rising from other sectors.
Mr Robert McCrae, chief executive of McCrae Consultants, added yesterday that he was encouraging firms which had achieved ISO 9000 to move on to other quality programmes.
Mr McCrae's company has been running courses in ISO 9000 in partnership with the Hongkong Management Association.
ISO 9000 is an international standard setting down rules on how to measure and document quality within an organisation, from the receipt of an order to delivering the product.
Over the past few months there has been a flood of construction firms winning ISO 9000, which is awarded after an independent review, after the Housing Authority said from April 1 it would only deal with companies that had achieved this standard.
The Housing Authority itself is also seeking registration.
''We're going to see a fairly gradual but steady development of interest from areas other than construction,'' he said. Aerospace, electronics, toy companies and garment makers would be next, he predicted.
