Quality

As part of the adjustment processes of the companies to the internal crises and to the new competitive conditions, both in the internal and international markets, the concern with quality became an important element of the business strategies in the 90`s in Brazil. Together with the implementation of productive, managerial and organisational restructures, the industrial companies have been adopting quality management systems in accordance to the ISO 9000 standards. Instruments which played an important, although not decisive part in that, were: the implementation of the Brazilian Program for Quality and Productivity, which promotes campaigns of awareness and dissemination of modern methods of business management concerned with quality improvement and productivity increase, and the role of public incentive agencies which started to offer more favourable conditions on the concession of tax incentives and credit to firms qualified by the ISO 9000.

More recently, with the breakdown of ISO 9000, the car makers suppliers have been pressurised into certifying themselves by the QS 9000 standard, and the environmental quality certification ISO 14000 regulated at WTO level is becoming international requirement in many industries.