The first challenge faced by DB was to choose a certification body. Cost was a key consideration and BSI was certainly not the cheapest. Competency however was the priority and having received a visit from an industry expert with a sound experience of ISO standards, the company made a decision to use BSI. Furthermore being associated with a business super brand could only add to DB’s commercial credibility. “To kick the project off BSI conducted a gap analysis,” says Bowie. “This provided us with a platform to understand what we were doing well and identify areas which required work. We met with all our site-based employees to explain the reasons for wanting to implement such systems. It was the openness and transparency that we adopted throughout the entire process both internally and externally with clients that allowed us to embed the management systems without major issue or compromise to business activities.” DB’s journey to certification required commitment across the organisation. Creating audit plans, corrective and preventive actions in a structured way seemed logical, however these things had always been done before but were not formally documented.
“We handled the whole process internally so it did take time and effort – particularly as none of us had had any ISO training prior to this experience,” says Bowie. “The effort to reward ratio though is great, and the new framework gives substance to the practices we already knew were there.”