Revision Workshop with DQS Ethiopia
DQS Ethiopia and the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce present "The new ISO 9001:2015: Opportunities and Challenges"
In his welcome and opening keynote remarks, Secretary General of the Chamber Mr. Getachew Regassa underlined the importance of implementing international standards to improve quality and safety of products and services, and create trustful business partnership local and global. He added that the Chamber itself has not only benefited from implementing ISO 9001 standard as certified by DQS, but also provided technical and financial support to enable and encourage its members and the business community at large to implement ISO standards on quality, environment and food safety management systems. He concluded that this workshop will be a good opportunity for exchange of latest information to raise awareness on the main changes and benefits of the revised international standards as well as to further enhance partnership among stakeholders.
Discussion and feedback sessions during the event as well as personal contacts and networking were very important as well. The workshop and recorded interviews were given coverage on the Addis Chamber TV and Addis Business Newspaper, February 2016.
The presentation by DQS Ethiopia focused on the new ISO 9001:2015, opportunities and benefits, main changes, transition rules and DQS support packages including information and webinar, gap and transition audits.
Mr. Legesse Gebre, Standards Development Director at the Ethiopian Standards Agency, presented the role of standards for sustainable development. He noted that both the new ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 published in September 2015 were adopted to Ethiopian Standards in October 2015 and made available to users in order to promote and facilitate implementation of these most popular international standards in Ethiopia.
Actively participating in the workshop were more than 30 managers and executive delegates from the Chamber, Ethiopian Standards Agency, certified companies, industry and industry associations, key institutions of the national quality infrastructure. They all agreed this was a great experience and a. successful achievement. To cite just a few:
Mr. Tewodros Mitiku, Deputy CEO of AFRICOM Technologies: "The ISO 9001 certification by DQS helped us to acquire skills and tools to manage and improve our business much better."
Mr. Tesfahun Demissie, GM of TSD Engineering: "Implementing ISO 9001 and having DQS certify our QMS helped us to be more confident and gain trust of our partners to deliver installation and commissioning of electromechanical and communication works to international quality standard."
Mr. Aemro Haile, MD of Aemro Motor: "We thought our customers were satisfied by our services until DQS suggested the first satisfaction survey, which revealed a different story...ISO 9001 helped us to be much closer to our customers."
In his closing remarks, the Chamber Quality Management Service Manager, Mr. Gebeyehu Zerihun, added that “the Chamber will continue to enhance the partnership and support more companies in the future”.