Are you curious what it's like to be ISO 9001 certified for 24 years and ISO 14001 certified for 13 years? Then read the interview with Erik below Vanderlinden, business manager of The Compost Bag Company and our customer since the turn of the millennium.
The story behind The Compost Bag Company
Why certificates?
We have always been concerned with quality and the environment, but then moved to certification in 1997 for two reasons:
1. To communicate in an objective way that we are working around quality and environmental impact. Anyone can say they offer a quality product, but the fact that we could demonstrate that allowed us to differentiate from the competition. In the early years that was a huge competitive advantage, but today it is less so. If you are not certified now, then you simply cannot participate.
2. Giving more structure to our operations. Before, we organized regular one-off actions, but we noticed that a systematic approach would be better. We were not looking for a mere paper system that comes up once a year when it is audited. We wanted to integrate quality and the environment into our operations, and give more structure to that as well.
And so we actually ended up, in terms of both quality and environment, with the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards.
what benefits does your certification bring?
Our certifications create a lot of trust with our customers. Some clients have specific contract requirements, but if you can show that you are ISO certified, you often already meet those requirements. This way, you immediately give the client confidence that you are operating in a standardized manner.
What does the customer want and how do we translate that into production? The customer has to specify what they want, but we can't just present our 70 or so specifications. ISO 9001 helps us translate certain customer expectations/requirements into our parameters, resulting in better communication.
Our environmental impact has been reduced. The ISO 14001 ensures that as an organization you Are concerned with the environment and your impact on it. This has already led to concrete actions. For example, we have moved away from solvent inks and are more economical with our process water. We will continue to make many improvements in the coming years.
Where does Phronesys in this picture?
Since the early 2000s, quite a long time by now, we have been supported in our management system by Phronesys. We have even known the first version of the software. Before that, everything was on paper, and that management was time-consuming, you made mistakes easily.... The software actually came as a tool and that solves all that. It's phenomenal! The people who work with it with us all think it works well.
Moreover, our employees often have multiple caps on as well, and then it's good thing we have the Phronesys consultants to provide support. And especially in the things you really have to specialize in. You follow up on those things, and so that forms an efficient way of working for both of us.