ISO prompts streamlined system for engineers
29th October 2009
The boss of a Guisborough civil engineering firm has instant access to all the information he requires thanks to a system introduced to help them achieve an internationally recognised standard of working.
“I can see what materials have been ordered; what security has been implemented on our sites – anything I need to know,” said Antony Henderson, MD of Henderson Campbell.
“We now have a procedure that everyone follows, whether they work in the office or on site, and that means that any member of staff can pick up where another left off because they all understand and use the system.”
It took the company only three months to be certified with ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) 9001 – thanks to the experience of working in partnership with a larger firm that had already achieved the standard.
“When we first teamed up with Caledonian Building Systems to erect new prison buildings for the Home Office, we experienced its management procedures first hand and it made sense for us to implement and work to the same system. When we brought in a consultant for help in achieving ISO 9001, we therefore found we didn’t have to improve too much,” explained Antony.
“Local Authorities and many other major organisations – all potential clients – are increasingly looking for assurance of quality from the contractors they use and ISO 9001 is a well-recognised indication of this.
“The changes we implemented have made us more efficient and, hopefully, given existing and future clients even more confidence in Henderson Campbell as a consistently reliable company.”
ISO 9001 contains a generic set of requirements for implementing a quality management system that can be applied to any organisation, whatever its size, product, service or sector.
Henderson Campbell, which received a grant from Business Link North East to help with the cost of achieving ISO 9001, is now working towards ISO 14001 – another world recognised management system but this time focused on responsibility toward the environment.