Sector Scheme Accreditation Celebrating 25 years of success in the sign industry, Morelock Signs Ltd becomes one of the first UK companies to gain Sector Scheme 9A accreditation In August 2006 the company added another arm to its ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS) with the addition of the National Highways Sector Scheme 9A accreditation. Introduced to the industry in January 2006, Sector Scheme 9A is a standard specifically for manufacturers of permanent and temporary road traffic signs. It builds on the Quality requirements of ISO 9001, particularly addressing the standards of employee training in the sign manufacturing industry. "We needed to get the standard to stay at the forefront of the industry and continue to develop our core business with National Highways road projects," says Quality Assurance Manager Ron Fletcher. "Our Chairman Eamon Guilmartin and Managing Director Keith Chester had the foresight to see this, and feedback from our larger customers convinced us it was the right way forward." SGS United Kingdom Ltd played a significant role in helping More lock achieve the new accreditation. In fact, SGS is one of only a few certification bodies assessed to register a company to Sector Scheme 9A. "We were fortunate, our SGS auditor had experience in general sign manufacturing and was qualified to conduct the assessment. What's more, he dealt with our ISO 9001 certification in 1996 so he was fully conversant with our management systems," says Ron. In January 2006 Morelock made a formal request to SGS to assess the company for Sector Scheme 9A accreditation. The agreed assessment date enabled Morelock to set themselves a six-month preparation target for the audit. SGS completed the assessment over two days in July and August 2006 with no disruption to normal business. Future bi-annual visits are now planned to coincide with 9001 surveillance audit work. Sector Scheme 9A requires a proportion of a company's workforce to achieve NVQ Level 2 and 3 qualifications in Sign Manufacturing. The qualification focuses attention on four key areas: design, development, manufacturing and health and safety issues. Each issue is key to improving the QMS underpinning ISO 9001. "With Sector Scheme 9A in place, the customers who are using the signs for National Highways Schemes will look for suppliers with ISO 9001 and Sector Scheme 9A accreditation," adds Ron. "Manufacturers without the two standards will be unable to tender for this new business." "Morelock would like to thank SGS for their support and their assistance. With our registration to Sector Scheme 9A, we can now look forward to being at the forefront of our industry and expanding our business well into the future." For more details please contact: Sophie Needham
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---Morelock Signs Ltd 2007---