Cement, Energy and Environment

The cement industry grew at about 10 percent in 2001-02 after a decline in growth by 0.6 percent in the previous year. At present the cement industry in India has a total capacity of 145 million tonne and produced 107 million tonne in 2001-02. Currently, there are abou t 109 major cement producing countries with their individual standards. Courtesy: Indian Cement Review May 2002, P 25, Fax: 91-22-2072102 FROM THE DESK OF SECRETARY GENERAL , QCI The quality management systems certification in accordance with the ISO 9000 seri es of s tandards has been with the Indian industry for more than a decade. The new version of ISO 9000 series of standards was released in December 2000. Three years have been given by the Internationa l Organization for Standardi zation (ISO) to the industry for updating their management systems from ISO 9001: 1994 to ISO 9001: 2000 s tandard. The International Accreditation Forum. Inc. (JAF) today reminded a ll o rga ni za tions currently holding accredi ted certificates to the 1994 editions of ISO 9001, ISO 9002 and ISO 9003 that their certificateswill expire on 14December 2003, now only twenty months away. In 1999, the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) in conjunction with ISO/TC176 and ISO CASCO issued a communique defining the policy for organizations certified registered to the 1994 versions of ISO 9001, 9002 or 9003 to make the transition to ISO 9001:2000. Item 3 of tha t communique states: "Certificates issued to the 1994 editions of ISO 9001. ISO 9002 or ISO 9003 shall have a maximum va lidity of 3 yea rs from the date of publication of ISO 9001: 2000. Hence this is the best opportuni ty for the Jndian Indus try to conso li date the gai n s o f the certifica tion to ISO 9000 series of s tandards and to upgrade their systems to the 2000 version of the s tandards. Over the period of last 12 years in Ind ia, the certifi cation agains t ISO 9000 standards has evolved mixed response from the industry. In the initial stages, the indus try that ach ieved ce rtifi cation used to take a lot of pride in achieving a certificate agains t ISO 9001 or ISO 9002 s tandard. Now the scenario appears to have changed. This change in scenario has possibly been brought about partly by familiarity of the Indian industry with the standard but largely by some of the certifica tion bodies that have been too willing to give a cer tificate wi thout ensurin g that the requirements of the s tandards are being met or not. The certification process that was being followed for the 1994 version of standards has also brought out the shortcoming of the standa rd a nd the auditing process particularly the method of verifying compliance by the auditors only on the basis of the records. This has helped in bringing about changes in the ISO 9000 series of standards towards making it less bureaucratic and more result oriented. The background of eight quality management principles and process approach provides the basic structure for the indus try. Focus on the role of Top management, Customer perception, business results and continuous improvement has given a totally new look to the ISO 9000 series of standards. ,.... . • :: ' •