BUSINESS STANDARDS
is the quarterly magazine of BSI Group, highlighting the vital role that standards play in today's business environment. Regular features include interviews with leading business figures, as well as news on the latest developments in management systems and standards.
Santa Clara Valley Water District: The Water's Fine
04 Mar 2008
Topics: Quality management, ISO 9001, Environment, ISO 14001, USA
Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) of San Jose California has become the first water district in the US to have been awarded certifications to both ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004.
"This is an extremely important milestone," says Mary Ann Ruiz, the water district's Strategic Development Manager. "Having ongoing management systems in place will help all the different divisions to achieve our common goals of focusing on the products we deliver and helping to have a sustainable city."
Water district board of directors chair Rosemary Kamei agrees: "ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification is a huge accomplishment for the water district and reflects our continued commitment to make a positive contribution to the community we live and serve. Both quality and environmental stewardship are important in all that we do, including providing water, flood protection and protecting the environment of Santa Clara County. Becoming certified to both ISO standards provides our customers and partners with even more assurances about the quality of our products and customer service."
As its mission, the water district enhances its community through watershed stewardship and comprehensive management of water resources. SCVWD is one of the largest water agencies in California, and this certification represents a significant step on its journey to make the organization more efficient through a consistent process-oriented approach.
"The water district board of directors and the employees are committed to quality and environmental stewardship and this successful certification is part of an agency-wide team effort that we are proud of," adds water district CEO Olga Martin Steele.
According to Pat C Arace, vice-president of Sales Western Region for BSI Management Systems Americas, "Santa Clara Valley Water District has taken its organization to the next level by not only implementing these quality and environmental systems, but undergoing and successfully passing an in-depth, third-party assessment performed by BSI."
The water district demonstrated a high level of internal collaboration and team effort to put this in place, says Arace. They have taken a holistic approach to managing their business by integrating their systems under one set of processes and procedures which provided an enhanced business focus, improves internal communications, reduces duplication and ultimately reduces costs.
For more information, visit www.bsiamericas.com/Quality/index.xalter
Business Standards © 2008. Editorial produced by Caspian Publishing in association with the British Standards Institution. Editorial opinions expressed on are not necessarily those of BSI Group or Caspian Publishing. Neither Caspian Publishing nor BSI Group accept responsibility for advertising or editorial content, nor for that appearing on linked third-party websites. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden without written permission from BSI Group or Caspian Publishing.
Sustainable events standard takes off
Manchester-based Out There Events is among the first companies to participate in a pilot programme, launched by BSI Management Systems in April, to assess the opportunities for creating official certification for BS 8901, the sustainable event management standard.
The Newport call centre for the Yellow Pages 118 24 7 directory enquiries service from international directories business Yell, has achieved certification to the CCA Global Standard.
Driving change in the bodyshop industry
High Wycombe-based Motofix has become the 100th bodyshop to earn certification to the Thatcham BSI Kitemark, having demonstrated that it conforms to Kitemark standards. These include skills, repair methods, equipment and materials. The bodyshop was assessed by BSI inspectors and met stringent benchmarks in order to achieve Kitemark status.
More than 100 years after BSI was founded - based in part on its work on the standardization of tramway rails - the Group continues to work with the railway industry to maintain and improve its services and equipment. BSI does so by providing assessment and certification services against IRIS (International Railway Industry Standard), the quality standard for the railway industry.
The London European Partnership for Transport (LEPT) has engaged BSI British Standards to develop a new Publicly Available Specification - PAS 500 - for travel plans, designed to encourage more environmentally friendly transport.
Question: Can you really measure customer satisfaction?
The simple answer is yes. Two years ago, BSI Management Systems took our customer- focused strategy to the next level by introducing a satisfaction survey for our clients.
Have a standards-related question for BSI or a comment on the website? We'll find the right person to answer.
