Blog

Continuous Improvement – Plan, Do, Check, Act

– 25th Jun 2010

A great blog from Tom Gaskell looks at the fundamental principle at the heart of many quality management systems, “Plan – Do – Check – Act”, first championed by Deming in the 1950’s.

Read more

Health & Safety and Environmental Compliance Climb the Corporate Agenda

– 24th Jun 2010 by Alex Briggs

Health & Safety Managers are increasingly seeing Environmental Management (EM) duties becoming a part of their role. The National Examination Board in Occupational Health and Safety (NEBOSH) carried out research on UK Health & Safety managers and found that over 40% of them now have EM included in their role profile.
“We’ve seen a dramatic change [...]

Read more

Food Industry needs to be proactive - in both actions and communications

– 21st Jun 2010 by Alex Briggs

Jon Poole, the recently appointed new chief executive of the Institute of Food Science & Technology (IFST), told FoodNavigator.com that the industry needs to be pro-active and not reactive. In this FoodNavigator article, Poole said, “There’s a lot we can do by being pre-emptive.”

Read more

What can LRQA’s Business Assurance do for you?

– 25th May 2010 by Alex Briggs

The aim of LRQA’s Business Assurance is to ensure clients:
- have the capability to deliver on the promises you make, enhancing your reputation, creating confidence in your capabilities, helping you to substantiate claims and differentiate yourself
- see the tangible benefits of the value of management systems, linking these benefits to financial performance or improvements in effectiveness and efficiency
- develop your capability to manage a range of non-financial risks
• feel confident that management systems are meeting stakeholder needs and that you are getting a return on your investment.

Find out more about Business Assurance here

Read more

LRQA Business Assurance Quote of the Day, May 25, 2010

– 25th May 2010 by Alex Briggs

This quote is taken from the recent Just off the Starting Blocks - Benchmarking Sustainability and Carbon Assurance in the FTSE 350 report:

Verified data is the only credible way to assess whether we are lowering our emissions and meeting our targets as a country.

Ben Murray, managing director
Carbon Smart

Read more

LRQA Food Safety Link of the Day - April 28, 2010

– 28th Apr 2010 by Alex Briggs

Dr. James L. Marsden is Regent’s Distinguished Professor of Food Safety and Security at Kansas State University. His blog post, “Ten things government can do to help small plants improve food safety”, is our link of the day today.
Find out how LRQA is actively helping organisations manage their food safety risks,

Read more

Trust and Transparency - the new consumer buzzwords?

– 26th Apr 2010 by Alex Briggs

The 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer is out, and the results show that consumers want independent verification of corporate claims.

Read more

LRQA Business Assurance Thought of the Day - 3rd Party certification = Trust

– 14th Apr 2010 by Alex Briggs

Saffron Rouge, the first retailer in the beauty industry to focus exclusively on organics, has conducted a customer survey on the value of 3rd party certification of a company’s organic and sustainability claims. Saffron Rouge’s study found that 77% of their customers have trust and confidence in third party certification, whereas 72% did not trust natural and organic claims made by brand owners.

Read more

Business Assurance Thought of the Day, IT Security, Corporate Reputation and ISO 27001

– 12th Apr 2010 by Alex Briggs

Organisations are making the link between the security of their online data and the potential risk to their corporate reputation. In a recent Websense study 98% of organisations indicated that they are under pressure from clients to protect data.
So what tools are out there to help them deal with it?

Read more

Catherine Francois, Director of Food Programmes, Consumer Goods Forum, Interview

– 26th Feb 2010 by Alex Briggs

On the final day of February, LRQA’s Food Month, we bring you an interview with Catherine Francois, Director Food Safety Programmes, Consumer Goods Forum. Catherine is one of the most influential figures in the world of food safety. This podcast features her thoughts on certification, the GFSI’s role in harmonising global food safety standards and the Global Food Safety Conference.

Read more