Excellent environmental and quality practices were already in place at Magenta Print and Display in Taunton, but they wanted the recognition for this by gaining certification to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.
“We were confident about our environmental practices”, said Chris Tester, Managing Director, “but an independent view would make sure that we had not missed anything. In addition, gaining certification would be a major help in expending our business.”
Chris decided to use Phil Chambers of Strategic Safety Systems to provide support.
Phil set up a programme to examine the quality and environmental practices at Magenta and to come up with an integrated management system to cover both 9001 and 14001. “It’s important that systems must be simple, well structured and meet the wishes of the client company,” he said. “Rather than have systems which address the individual clauses in 9001 and 14001, you should have systems structured around how you actually operate, ensuring that 9001 and 14001 requirements are met within them. This ‘process approach’ in now promoted in both standards but it’s alarming how many unreadable manuals I have seen. Because there are many common requirements in both standards, an integrated approach avoids duplication. In addition, you should minimise any additional requirements if they don’t add value.”
The approach taken by Phil was to have systems which are based on flowcharts. This makes the systems easy to follow by both the users and external auditors from the certification bodies, a fact that was commented upon during an external audit.
Many people associate ISO 9001 with lots of paperwork, but we introduced INTACT management software into Magenta. This integrated system covers all HSEQ areas and enables the systems to be paperless and deliver management information with the minimum of effort. INTACT is available across the whole site so anyone can enter an issue, so we no longer have paper forms that someone has to then transpose into some other document. Magenta use INTACT’s “notice board” output so that everyone can see issues that have been raised and the actions being taken to address them. Once working with INTACT, Magenta personnel were able to identify other features they felt would give them added value. In common with other users of INTACT, Phil discussed Magenta’s specific requirements and incorporated them into INTACT.
Magenta were delighted with the ease with which they gained certification. Chris Tester commented “With Phil’s help and the use of INTACT, we have integrated systems that address the ISO standards (14001 and 9001), with a drastically reduced requirement for bureaucratic forms and minimal paper-work, we now have a system that is both auditable and adaptable to our changing needs.”
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