Human factors and quality procedures in research laboratories

The word "quality" is polysemous, i.e. it has several meanings, creating a source of ambiguity and confusion . Similarly, the term "quality approach" is not always well understood, as evidenced by the misinterpretation that systematically equates the quality approach with a certification process . What's more, the 1994 revision of the ISO 9000 standards gave the term a rather negative connotation, tainted with cumbersomeness and constraints, by focusing quality approaches on the drafting of procedures and operating modes, to the detriment of the human factor. Fortunately, the advent of the ISO 9000 version 2000 standards marked the transition from a quality approach based on a technical culture founded on the exact sciences — often referred to as "qualitician" and illustrated by the formula "I write what I do, I do what I say, I prove what I do" — to a quality approach centred on a management culture relating to the human and social sciences . This relatively recent development takes account of men and women, integrating each player in the process into the quality management system and encouraging the implementation of the relational management approach advocated by William Edwards Deming as early as 1950 .

Throughout this article, we will draw on the experience of two chemical research and analysis laboratories, IRCELYON and ISA-SCA. These two joint research units employ an average of 230 and 80 people per year respectively. They are affiliated to the same supervisory bodies, the CNRS and the University of Lyon 1, and report to the CNRS for their overall management delegation. In both cases, a quality approach based on the ISO 9001 standard has been...