Hax are committed to supply quality assured ingredients at competitive prices and pride themselves on being an ingredients provider developing innovative solutions with their partners.

Hax approached Clark Quality for support in developing their quality management systems to obtain ISO9001 certification. The project was completed on time and certification with BSI obtained in October 2009.

Their Director commented:
“As a Company engaged in the sale of food ingredients to the Food Manufacturers it had become essential that we very quickly obtained ISO 9000, before even being considered as a supplier to the industry.

The proliferation of paper-work to validate the integrity of the various ingredients and our ability to perform an efficient and problem-free supply of same, is of primary importance to the services we are expected to offer.

Clark Quality provided swift, efficient and effective help in obtaining ISO 9001 and installing the efficient management system we now have in place – ready for our annual renewal in October of this year.

Thank you for all your help.”

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.”

Its innovative and cost-effective products help growers, food producers and processors actively reduce their use of insecticides. Their goal is to assist growers achieve zero pesticide residues in their crops and produce high quality food for the consumer.  Their products are used globally in a wide range of sectors including crop protection, (agriculture, horticulture and stored products), apiculture, amenity and public health.

Exosect approached Clark Quality for support in developing their quality management systems to obtain ISO9001 certification. The project was completed on time and certification with LRQA obtained in March 2010.

Their Quality Manager commented:

“Clark Quality gave first class assistance in the final development phase of our quality system providing a gap analysis and assistance with several mandated procedures. They now provide ongoing support with internal audits and surveillance visits and the development of our Environmental Management System with a view to gaining certification to ISO14001.”

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.”

They selected Clark Quality to structure and document their Quality Management System and to manage their certification with the leading certification company, SGS.

The system was documented and ISO9001 certification achieved in November 2009 with a further requirement to prepare their Environmental Management System for ISO14001 certification in 2010.

Purvers General Manager commented:

“Just wanted to pen a few words to Lawrence and Heather of Clark Quality who have been our consultants through our ISO9001 accreditation, today we achieved our goal and have now been certified by SGS UKAS to ISO9001, a big thanks to the team who have made this achievement possible, kept things plain and easy to follow and have in many cases gone above the call of duty to ensure we were working towards and ultimately achieved compliance but ensured this was done in a manner that enabled us to continue with our day to day busy working schedules. I have and will continue to recommend Clark Quality in the future and very much look forward to working with you again on our ISO14001 in the new year.”

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.

With offices throughout the Uk and overseas, Gifford projects include prestigious civil engineering designs and land mark conservation work.

The Requirement.
The project management systems were paper based, complex and variable in approach. Clark Quality was initially asked to carry out a streamlining exercise capturing best-practice and defining a consistent, company-wide system using process maps. This requirement was then expanded to include implementation of a paperless, intranet based project management system derived from the process maps.

The Solution.
Company-wide process mapping was carried out to define the agreed approach for project management. Clark Quality produced a layered system of hyper-linked process maps allowing drill-down to required levels of detail. Working with the Gifford IT engineers, the required paperless system was developed together with a comprehensive training programme to support implementation.

Status.
The Gifford Management System (GMS) was implemented in two phases during June and December 2006. Following a ten day ISO9001 certificate renewal assessment during March 2007, the LRQA assessor summarised his findings as:
“The Gifford Management System (GMS) is a very effective project management tool. System effectiveness is also confirmed by the very satisfactory responses from clients.
Improvement is an integral part of the company “culture”. The development and implementation of the electronic GMS is an obvious example.”