Keops Altech, a member of the multibillion-rand JSE Securities Exchange-listed Altech group of companies, has been awarded the latest and most coveted quality certification, ISO 9001:2000.
The company decided some time ago that quality conformance, due to its increasingly important role in all South African industries, would provide it with a competitive advantage when tendering on new projects.
Very few IT companies can claim full compliance without exclusions to ISO 9001:2000. Management decided to streamline cumbersome formal procedures and formalise very entrenched informal procedures, while following a more customer-focused approach in developing the quality management system.
This approach supports the company goals of minimising project risk for the customer through strict project and scope management principles, the prevention of quality deficiencies through continuous analysis and improvement of internal processes, and continued customer satisfaction through consistently delivering solutions that conform to customer requirements including time, scope and budget.
According to Keops Altech Consulting Manager and Quality representative, Gerhard Greeff, the SABS was chosen as a certification body because SA remains Keops Altech`s major centre of operation and the company wanted to express its support of the local economy by obtaining a South African quality listing with international recognition.
Keops Altech traditionally operates in a virtually paperless environment with all policies and procedures such as standards, templates and forms available in electronic format to all employees, at all times, on the company network. The compilation of a quality assurance document conformant to ISO standards was therefore a not too daunting task.
Greeff says: "The real challenge in any certification exercise is to provide proof that the system has in fact been implemented and is effectively being used to meet the quality objectives. This is an area which received significant attention during our implementation and it is with pride that we can report that during the first assessment, SABS representatives were complimentary on how ingrained the quality system was in the daily operation of the company and its employees.
"Few companies can boast a first-time audit without any findings and this proves our uncompromising culture of customer focus and repeatable results that we have been promoting for the last couple of years. We will consciously keep refining our quality system as this will result in measurable benefits like shorter lead times, better delivery and improved overall service to our customers. We know that our new quality status will provide our clients with additional confidence in our competence."
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Keops Altech delivers fit-for-purpose solutions for the manufacturing industry and integrates operational, management and control requirements with the best technology to ensure maximum value delivery. We continually refine our customers` operational processes, adding real business value through the creative use of globally recognised process and system models, combined with a clear understanding of business and process issues.
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