I was the ISO 9000 coordinator at IBM Ft Myers. My thought is the whole "process" was designed to make it easier to consolidate jobs when they laid people off.
It was not a productivity tool, nor was it a quality assurance tool but it certainly made it easier to turn jobs skills and responsibilities into a well defined commodity.
Greg has identified the downside of any manufacturing improvement system. Companies that gave away the store during the 50's and 60's began looking for any excuse to cut earnings and eliminate workers in the 70's and 80's (not that they've stopped yet).
