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QMS

Diversity in management system assessments

– 5th Jan 2009

John Symonds describes how ExxonMobil developed a diverse assessment structure for its management system that led to value-added benefits.

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The Agenda 09

Event: 17th Mar 2009 – 27th Mar 2009

Next year’s theme for ‘The agenda 09’ will be ‘Organisation Resilience’. This will address how management systems can help your organisation mitigate risks to the business and improve its resilience and sustainability in the current market conditions.

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Brand Reputations and Food Scares

– 23rd Sep 2008 by Alex Briggs

The melamine scare that has engulfed China has spilled over into the rest of the world. Nestle spent yesterday responding to media reports that there were concerns with Nestle Growing Up Milk, a product that seeks to bridge a toddler’s move from mother’s milk to cow’s milk.
Nestle has been very proactive and firm in denying the reports that have appeared in Hong Kong media, stating “”Nestle is confident that none of its products in China is made from milk adulterated with melamine.”

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Auditors pay the price for Beijing Olympics

– 19th Sep 2008 by Alex Briggs

The tightening of visa restrictions around the recent Olympic Games in Beijing has had unintended consequences on the Quality Assurance industry, according to this Ethical Corp article.
Global brands producing in China have been unable to secure the auditors needed at Chinese factories to ensure that the quality of their products is right. A major fall out will be that people who have talked about moving production to other countries for some time are now actually having to do it to meet deadlines.

Even if (and there are no guarantees) things return to normal in September, it will be too late for these firms who need to get gear on boats in October for the holidays.
Now many are scrambling to find capacity in Vietnam, Bangladesh, etc., while any number of Chinese garment manufacturers (two thirds of whom operate on margins of less than 1.5% already) will go under.
A number of companies with production runs already underway are having to stall or delay work as they cannot get visas for their Quality Assurance (QA) staff to enter China.

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