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Europc were awarded the ISO9001 award in 2007. The auditors report was extremely positive and noted that customer focus was evident at all levels within the company, with a large proportion of our business based on repeat customers or referrals. It was also indicated that our internal auditing and management reviews are comprehensive and effective, and strongly focused on identifying opportunities for improvement. No nonconformities were identified within the report.
Other areas in which we excelled included our strong communications and high staff retention and morale rate, as well as the encouraging outcome of Dells (one of our main suppliers) own audit.
Comprised of a network of the national standards institutes of 157 countries, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system, the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world's largest developer and publisher of International Standards.
The ISO is a non-governmental organisation that forms a bridge between the public and private sectors. On the one hand, many of its member institutes are part of the governmental structure of their countries, or are mandated by their government. On the other hand, other members have their roots uniquely in the private sector, having been set up by national partnerships of industry associations. Therefore, ISO enables a consensus to be reached on solutions that meet both the requirements of business and the broader needs of society.
When products and services meet our expectations, we tend to take this for granted and be unaware of the role of standards. However, when standards are absent, we soon notice. We soon care when products turn out to be of poor quality, do not fit, are incompatible with equipment that we already have, are unreliable or dangerous. Standards ensure desirable characteristics of products and services such as quality, environmental friendliness, safety, reliability, efficiency and interchangeability - and at an economical cost.
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