Standards and certification are, unfortunately, sometimes portrayed as barriers to market entry (which they can be) or as something for elite manufacturers.
There are five things you should keep top of mind as you read this article:
1. Quality is an investment you make if you want to build sustainability in any business and the economy.
2. Quality is a process and not a once-off event.
3. ‘Management systems’ is a fancy term for ‘business sustainability’.
4. In order to build a culture of quality, all actors in the value chain must demand it.
5. Because standards are the codification of minimum quality requirements, we must all embrace standards and standardisation as the minimum requirement if we are to achieve ambitions of localisation.
By discussing quality management systems, I will demonstrate that implementing standards is a necessity if we are to have any chance of building sustainable local industries, which can create jobs by competing in the export market. In the age of servicification (where the line between manufacturing and services is blurring) and with the exportability of services, we have to plan to invest limited resources in a concerted effort to build export-ready SMMEs.
Management systems standards
Many of you may have heard of, or will know about, ISO 9001 – one of the most recognised and implemented quality management system standard worldwide. But, did you know that ISO 9001 is part of a series of standards referred to as the ISO 9000 series? The aim of this 9000 family of standards is to provide guidance and tools for companies and organisations to ensure their products and services consistently meet customer’s requirements, and that quality is consistently improved.
In addition to ISO 9001 as a basic requirement, all organisations should meet the requirements of ISO 14000 and ISO 45001. The ISO 14000 family of standards provides practical tools for all kinds of companies and organisations to manage their environmental responsibilities. ISO 45001 is a standard that helps organisations improve employee safety, reduce workplace risks and create better, safer working conditions all over the world.
Both these standards are known as management systems standards. There are many more standards which have specific roles to play in supporting business management. However, these can be applied progressively as the maturity of the organisation and/or the dictates of the industry evolve.
According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), management system standards have two main purposes. Firstly, they help organisations improve their performance by specifying repeatable steps that they consciously implement to achieve their goals and objectives. Secondly, they support the creation of an organisational culture that reflexively engages in a continuous cycle of self-evaluation, correction and improvement of operations and processes. They do this through heightened employee awareness, management leadership and commitment.
The benefits of an effective management system to an organisation include:
– More efficient use of resources and improved financial performance.
– Improved risk management and protection of people and the environment.
– Increased capability to deliver consistent and improved services and products, thereby increasing value to customers and all other stakeholders.
In practice, my observation is that businesses with documented management practices (which is what a management system standard enforces) are resilient and sustainable.
This should explain why, as a minimum requirement, procuring entities should demand that their suppliers must, at the very least, be ISO 9001 certified. This certification means that the company has document management practices and is proof that they implement these practices in managing their business. This is one way of ensuring that the business has a life of its own, independent of personalities.
Product certification
Product certification applies when a product is being manufactured according to specific requirements. It is the process of certifying that a certain product has passed performance tests and quality assurance tests, and meets certain qualification criteria. These criteria are usually stipulated in contracts, technical regulations (if it is regulated product), or specifications such as the South African National Standards (SANS) or any other applicable standard.
With regards to specific industries, like mining for example, there are additional requirements which apply to products which are used in explosive environments. Where a product has IECEx certification, it means that it meets the requirements as set out in all mining safety regulations.
Based on this explanation, I think you’ll agree that sustainability of any enterprise is assured when it has the minimum management systems and product certifications in place.
Support for implementing standards
The SABS is one of the oldest standards bodies in the world and is a founder member of the ISO. We have a legislated mandate to develop standards, promote quality and conduct conformity assessments. Furthermore, the Department of Trade & Industry (the dti) has mandated the SABS as the entity to verify local content in both public procurement and the various government departments in implementing guidelines of that sector’s charter. They have specified that the SABS will conduct the required Local Content Verification.
a) In developing standards, the SABS can:
Support industry to develop original standards, which could potentially become international standards.
Adopt an international standard (ISO, IEC, CEN, CENELEC) and, where required, make allowable amendments for the standard to suit South African conditions if required by stakeholders.
Facilitate access to a compendium of relevant standards for stakeholders in the industry of their choice.
As a member of the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO), facilitate the harmonisation of a South African standard in such a way that it becomes a regional or continental standard.
b) To support the adoption and implementation of standards within SMME’s, the SABS can:
Provide training on any of the management systems.
Provide implementation guidance for SMMEs to implement management systems within their organisation, irrespective of size or complexity.
Conduct certification readiness assessment of organisations, irrespective of size and complexity.
c) Finally, once training and implementation have been completed, it is important to get independent verification that the products and systems meet the requirements of the relevant standards. In this regard, the SABS can:
Provide audit and certification of the organisation, irrespective of size and complexity.
Conduct on-going surveillance monitoring of the organisation to ensure that they maintain the level of quality required in the standard.
Provide independent testing of the product to ensure it complies with relevant specifications.
Provide certification to support the conformity assessment of the product.
Conduct verification of local content percentages of all products and provide ongoing monitoring of local content percentages.
The full value chain
In conclusion, it is important that we all champion and drive localisation efforts, which have quality and conformance to quality embedded in them. This will support us in changing mind sets which, unfortunately, still equate ‘locally-made’ with ‘poor quality’. This is how countries in the East have learned to win in the game of industrialisation and manufacturing.
A comprehensive localisation effort is also the only way that we can ensure that we see more “Made in South Africa” products competing on an equal footing on a global scale.
