The findings of a Federation of Small Businesses survey of l0,000 members found that 57% of businesses believe that energy efficiency can provide their business with cost savings, but that there is insufficient advice for small firms to help them understand their potential role in the transition to a low carbon economy.

More than half (57%) have changed the way the business operates because of concerns about climate change.

Nearly half (47%) have recycled waste with 32% reducing energy use and 24% buying energy efficient appliances.

The FSB is calling on the government to introduce three measures to help small businesses be more environmentally friendly:

• An effective smart meter roll-out to small businesses.
• Setting commercially viable rates for feed-in tariffs for micro-renewable energy facilities.
• Extending the scope of the Carbon Trust loans programme for small businesses.

David Caro, chair of the FSB Environment and Energy Committee said, “With the start of the Carbon Reduction Commitment on 1st April – a mandatory carbon emissions trading scheme for large businesses – small firms are worried that similar tough measures will be forced upon them in the future.”

Other actions taken by smaller organisations include reducing the amount of rubbish they send to landfill (25%) and raising awareness of waste with staff (23%).

Chartered Quality Institute
Quality professionals have voted the Conservatives as the political party with the greatest appreciation of quality principlesin the run up to the UK’s general election closely followed by the Liberal Democrats.

A third of quality professionals agreed that the Tory party had the policies that most reflected an understanding of quality in a OW Express poll following the release of the main party manifestos.

The Liberal Democrats, seeming to benefit from Nick Clegg’s performance in the first televised leadership debate were backed by 27% of those who responded, leaving the Labour party trailing in third place with just 16.4% quality professionals supporting them, despite promises to “spread excellence” in their manifesto.

One respondent backing the Conservative party which has pledged to cut “wasteful spending” by £6bn. said, “None of the other parties have a clue about lean management” At the same time. however, a Liberal Democrat supporter argued, “The Tories criticism of targets indicates that they do not understand the basic quality principle of plan-do-check-act.”

More worrying was the number of respondents that believed none of the parties truly understood quality.  One said, “Political parties espouse quality principles but that is not reflected by an understanding of proper implementation.  Most instances are knee jerk reactions to failure, never from promotion of best practice or excellence.”

Another said, “One important are that the Conservatives do seem to understand is removing the Whitehall staff paid huge salaries to tell the public sector what to do.  Getting rid of these people will save the country millions of pounds in salaries and result in bigger savings when public sector managers no longer have to comply with bad ideas.”

UKAS

The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) has been formally appointed as the National Accreditation Body for the United Kingdom, under a new EU Regulation.

Since its formation in 1995, UKAS has been the sole accreditation body recognised by the UK Government to assess, against internationally recognised standards, organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services.  The new Regulation, which comes into force on 1 January 2010, requires each member state to appoint a single national accreditation body.  UKAS has therefore been appointed under a statutory instrument providing, for the first time, a legal basis for its role.

In a Written Statement to Parliament, Lord Drayson, Minister for Science and Innovation said: “Since 1995, the government have recognised UKAS as the sole national accreditation body for the UK. Since its establishment by the Department of Trade and Industry, UKAS has played a significant role in the operation of national, European and international accreditation.

“The Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) has a long-standing and effective relationship with UKAS that both parties value highly. We will continue to work together not only to ensure that the requirements of the EC Regulation are fulfilled but to improve the quality and breadth of accreditation in the UK.”

The new Regulation is intended to improve the consistency of accreditation services across Europe by setting common requirements for national accreditation bodies and requiring them to be monitored by member state governments. The new Regulation includes requirements relating to independence, impartiality and technical competence The Regulation also requires national accreditation bodies to operate on a not for profit basis and not to compete with other national accreditation bodies.

The Regulation recognises the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) as the co-ordinating organisation for accreditation across Europe. National accreditation bodies will be required to be members of EA and to participate in the peer evaluation programme operated by EA as the preferred means of demonstrating compliance with the Regulation.

Paul Stennett, Chief Executive at UKAS said: “UKAS has for many years worked with the UK government and our European counterparts to provide confidence in the conformity assessment services on which business and society rely. UKAS is delighted that this appointment has codified into law this long established relationship and looks forward to continuing to work with BIS and EA to ensure that accreditation services in the UK fulfil the high standards set out in the new Regulation.”

in today’s complex, demanding, and ever-changing environment.

ISO 9004:2009, Managing for the sustained success of an organization – A quality management approach, is the third edition of the standard first published in 1987. It is intended to support the achievement of sustained success by any organization, regardless of size, type or activity, by a quality management approach.

Bob Alisic, leader of the task group responsible for the ISO 9004:2009 comments: “While the goal is initially to ensure the production of ‘good’ products and services, leading to the achievement of customer satisfaction, the longer-term purpose is to ensure the economic survival of the organization. The new edition gives guidance on how an organization should adopt a systematic approach to achieve this.”

ISO 9004:2009 provides guidance for the continual improvement of an organization’s overall performance, efficiency and effectiveness based on a process-based approach. It focuses on meeting the needs and expectations of customers and other relevant parties, over the long term, and in a balanced way.

Compared to ISO 9001:2008 which ensures quality management of products and services, while enhancing customer satisfaction, ISO 9004:2009 provides a broader perspective of quality management, particularly for performance improvement. It will prove useful to organizations whose top management wishes to move beyond ISO 9001, in pursuit of ongoing improvement, measured through the satisfaction of customers and other stakeholders.

ISO 9004:2009 allows organizations to enhance the quality of product and service delivery to their customers by promoting self-assessment as an important tool to enable organizations to:

* Benchmark their level of maturity, covering leadership, strategy, management system, resources and processes
* Identify their strengths and weaknesses
* Identify opportunities for either improvements or innovation, or both.

The self-assessment tool may become a key element during the strategic planning processes in any organization.

Jose Dominguez, a leader of the ISO 9001 task group comments: “The objectives of customer satisfaction and product quality are extended in ISO 9004:2009 to include the satisfaction of interested parties and the performance of the organization. The combination of ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 will allow you to get the most of your quality system.”

ISO 9004:2009 replaces ISO 9004:2000. It makes substantial changes to its structure and contents of the earlier edition based on eight years’ experience of implementing the standard worldwide and introduces changes intended to improve consistency with ISO 9001 and other management system standards. An example of an important (maybe the most important one) change in the structure of ISO 9004 is that the “body” of the standard starts with the chapter giving guidance on how to manage an organization aiming for sustained success and not how to build a quality management system.

Although ISO 9004:2009 complements ISO 9001:2008 (and vice versa), it can also be used independently. It is not intended for third-party certification, regulatory, or contractual use, nor as a guide to the implementation of ISO 9001:2008. To help users get the best out of the standard, an annex gives a clause-by-clause correspondence between ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 9004:2009.

60% of small and medium sized enterprises surveyed, all certified against standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, were optimistic that their firm would emerge from the economic downturn in a stronger position than their rivals, compared to just 36% of those with no certifications.

The research, Managing with Certainty, surveyed the directors of 250 UK SMEs. Results revealed that those with certifications were better able to plan for the short term (72%) than those without (31%), were more able to respond to a changing marketplace (79% against 53%) and were rated more highly as places to work (86% against 74%).

The directors also confirmed that certified businesses felt more able to access new markets, had higher levels of customer satisfaction and were more likely to be legally compliant.

NQA carried out the research to explore whether the recession would diminish the need for certification. Catherine Golds, head of NQA, said: “The results show that firms with business certifications such as ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 are in a better position to survive difficult economic times.”

“This seems to be largely because directors of such firms look at the business as a whole and don’t pinpoint one or two areas to focus attention on in tough times. This balanced viewpoint enables firms to adapt to the changing demands of the market.”

Paul Simpson, Chartered Quality Institute technical manager, said: “There is no doubt that effective use of management systems enables organisations to focus on their important processes. This research indicates that SMEs are seeing the benefit both of using management systems standards and of the external overview that certification provides. This confidence could be an indicator of organisations having achieved real advantages.”

ISO 9004:2009 provides guidance to organisations who are users if ISO9001 to support the achievement of sustained success by a quality management approach. It is applicable to any organisation, regardless of size, type and activity.
ISO 9004:2009 is not intended for certification, regulatory or contractual use.
The objectives are:

• To facilitate improvement in users’ quality management systems.
• To provide guidance to an organisation for the creation of a quality management system that:
  - creates value for its customers via the products or services it provides,
  - creates value for other interested parties,
  - balances all interested party viewpoints.
• To provide guidance for managers on leading their organisation towards sustainable success.
• To provide forward compatibility to allow organisations to build on existing quality management systems.

The guiding principal for ISO9004:2009 is to continue to use the “eight Quality
Management Principles”, but also take into account:

• Ethics /social aspects.
• Mission and Vision of the organisation.
• Adaptability / agility (ability to respond to changing opportunities / threats).
• Management of knowledge.
• Alignment with other management systems.
• Linking objectives and actions to results.

There is no fixed release date as yet.

ISO/TS 16949:2009 replaces the 2002 edition which has been used by the major automotive manufacturers to approve more than 35,000 organisations worldwide that produce and supply parts for the sector.

The review of ISO/TS 16949:2002 resulting in the 2009 edition was carried out by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) and ISO technical committee ISO/TC 176. The generalised implementation of ISO/TS 16949 quality management systems by automotive suppliers is seen as an opportunity to improve quality while reducing costs.

ISO Secretary-General Rob Steele commented: “With the global nature of the automotive industry quality management systems based on ISO/TS 16949:2009 throughout the supply chain will serve to streamline operations, and thus help organisations cut costs while improving efficiency. The publication of ISO/TS 16949 will assist the sector and to reassure consumers and ensure significant benefits for automotive suppliers amid the challenges facing the industry.”

The new document aims at the development of a quality management system that provides for continual improvement, emphasizing defect prevention and the reduction of variation and waste in the supply chain. Incorporating the requirements of ISO 9001:2008, ISO/TS 16949:2009 also includes detailed, sector-specific requirements for employee competence, awareness and training, design and development, production and service provision, control of monitoring and measuring devices, and measurement, analysis and improvement.

Joe Bransky, a member of the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) comments: “In today’s lean manufacturing environment, huge contingency stocks of inventory have given way to just-in-time logistics and delivery. The foundation of certainty that ISO/TS 16949:2009 provides in terms of improved productivity, quality, and delivery in the supply-chain, is probably more essential than ever.”

The 2009 edition results from the amendment of ISO/TS 16949:2002 to ensure its compatibility with the requirements of ISO 9001:2008, Quality management systems – Requirements. There are no essential changes to the technical requirements. The modifications relate mainly to the management requirements in the document to reflect the content of ISO 9001:2008, and those that are intended to improve consistency with the environmental management system standard, ISO 14001:2004.

Up to the end of December 2008, at least 39,300 ISO/TS 16949:2002 certificates had been issued in 81 countries and economies. This represents a 12 % increase over 2007.

The IATF has set a transition period of 120 days from date of publication of the new edition – 15 June – for organisations to comply with the standard’s requirements.

In these economic conditions, certification is recognised as being a differentiator as well as demonstrating regulatory compliance. An increasing number of both public and private sector organisations are specifying certification by a UKAS accredited body in many of their contracts. In addition, a growing number of regulators are rewarding businesses with accredited certification through regulatory relief.

Whilst accredited certification isn’t a legal requirement, it delivers many benefits. Many businesses are finding that more and more of their customers want to see evidence that their suppliers are compliant. This trend was confirmed by independent research carried out by Databuild in April 2009. Of the organisations surveyed, 58 per cent of small businesses stated that their suppliers stipulated accredited certification in pre-qualification questionnaires. This trend was mirrored in the public sector who stated that they are seeking greater confidence from their suppliers by specifying UKAS-accredited certification.

One of the reasons for this increased use can be traced to the Regulators’ Compliance Code, a central part of the Government’s better regulation Agenda, which was published in December 2007. It aims to embed a risk-based, proportionate and targeted approach to regulatory enforcement. A core element of the guidance requires Regulators to use recognised accreditation systems in their enforcement and monitoring activities.

There are clear signs of this happening with UKAS accreditation being a central pillar of demonstrating quality assurance in sectors such as forensic science and healthcare. UKAS accreditation and certification are also being used to underpin market confidence in new sectors such as microgeneration, energy efficiency certificate, financial advisors, business continuity and carbon measurement and labeling. In addition, from 1 January 2010, EU Regulation 765/08 establishes a legal framework for the provision of accreditation services across Europe.

For businesses who seek certification, whether to demonstrate compliance to potential customers or to realise greater benefit from the certification process, business intermediaries such as the CBI, the Federation of Small Businesses, Business Link and the Institute of Directors recommend that certification should be obtained from a Certification Body accredited by UKAS.

UKAS is the sole national accreditation body recognised by government to assess organisations that provide evaluation services. It is a non profit-distributing organisation and operates under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government through the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills. Accreditation by UKAS demonstrates the technical competence, impartiality and performance capability of these businesses, which provides purchaser confidence in their choice of supplier.

There are many organisations in the UK offering certification, however they do not all have the same level of recognition. Some organisations offer a service that may appear to be cheap and usually offer a package that combines consultancy with certification. Some offer to provide their services on a “no certificate – no fee” basis, but businesses may find that their certification is not accepted by potential customers.

It has recently come to UKAS’ attention that a number of organisations are creating and issuing fake UKAS certificates. These certificates come in the form of forged accreditation certificates or, often, certificates for either QMS or EMS certification bearing the UKAS accreditation symbol.

UKAS is aware that an organisation called Biotit, based in Spain, has been allegedly offering UKAS accredited services and is purporting to back up claims to potential clients with a falsified UKAS accreditation certificate.

Forgeries can often be spotted by their incorrect use of accreditation symbols (go here for details on correct usage). It is recommended that end users of accredited services check the UKAS website to ensure the accreditation status of organisations rather than relying solely on certificates that may be out-of-date or falsified.

UKAS is the sole licensee for use of the accreditation marks (Marks) which belong to HM Government. It constitutes an infringement of UKAS registered rights to use a UKAS mark on a certificate implying that you are accredited by UKAS and/or to use any marks which are substantially identical to our registered trade mark and are therefore deliberately misleading.

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and the IAF (International Accreditation Forum) have agreed on an implementation plan to ensure a smooth transition of accredited certification to ISO 9001:2008, the latest version of the world’s most widely used standard for quality management systems (QMS). The details of the plan are given in the joint communiqué by the two organizations as follows.

Implementation of accredited certification to ISO 9001:2008
ISO and the IAF have agreed an implementation plan to ensure a smooth migration of accredited certification to ISO 9001:2008, after consultation with international groupings representing quality system or auditor certification bodies, and industry users of ISO 9001 certification services.

ISO 9001:2008 does not contain any new requirements
They have recognized that ISO 9001:2008 introduces no new requirements. ISO 9001:2008 only introduces clarifications to the existing requirements of ISO 9001:2000 based on eight years of experience of implementing the standard world wide with about one million certificates issued in 170 countries to date. It also introduces changes intended to improve consistency with ISO14001:2004

The agreed implementation plan in relation to accredited certification is therefore the following:

Accredited certification to the ISO 9001:2008 shall not be granted until the publication of ISO 9001:2008 as an International Standard.
Certification of conformity to ISO 9001:2008 and/or national equivalents shall only be issued after official publication of ISO 9001:2008 (which should take place before the end of 2008) and after a routine surveillance or recertification audit against ISO 9001:2008.

Validity of certifications to ISO 9001:2000
One year after publication of ISO 9001:2008 all accredited certifications issued (new certifications or recertifications) shall be to ISO 9001:2008.

Twenty four months after publication by ISO of ISO 9001:2008, any existing certification issued to ISO 9001:2000 shall not be valid.