1.1 EQMS Methodology

USABCO has implemented a Quality & Environmental Management System (EQMS) in 2016 in line with its strategy to grow the USABCO brand, build the business and provide consistent customer service to its current and future customers. USABCO took the strategic decision to align its EQMS to comply with the International Standards Organisation (ISO) requirements and achieve ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certification. Management have extended the existing EQMS and adopted the Seven Quality Management Principles as the basis for an efficient, effective and adaptable Quality & Environmental Management System. The quality management principles are: –

• Customer Focus,

• Leadership,

• Engagement of people,

• Process Approach,

• Improvement,

• Evidence based decision making,

• Relationship management.

All efforts are undertaken to ensure consistent customer service and satisfaction, in order to achieve this guiding principal, USABCO has defined the following key Processes and Procedures as part of the EQMS

• Control of Documentation

• Internal Audit and Management Review

• Control of Non-Conformance

• Corrective and Preventative Action

• Risk Management

• Context of the Organization

USABCO has adopted a process approach for its management system. By identifying the top-level processes within the company, and then managing each of these discretely, this reduces the potential for non-conforming Services discovered during final processes or after delivery. Instead, non-conformities and risks are identified in real time, by actions taken within each of the top-level processes.

The following top-level processes have been identified for USABCO

1. R&D Marketing Process

2. Production

3. Finance

4. Sales

5. Maintenance

6. HR

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

The purpose of the ISO 14001 International Standard is to provide organizations with a framework to protect the environment and respond to changing environmental conditions in balance with socio-economic needs. It specifies requirements that enable an organization to achieve the intended outcomes it sets for its environmental management system.

A systematic approach to environmental management can provide top management with information to build success over the long term and create options for contributing to sustainable development by:

— protecting the environment by preventing or mitigating adverse environmental impacts;

— mitigating the potential adverse effect of environmental conditions on the organization;

— assisting the organization in the fulfilment of compliance obligations;

— enhancing environmental performance;

— controlling or influencing the way the organization’s products and services are designed,

manufactured, distributed, consumed and disposed by using a life cycle perspective that can

prevent environmental impacts from being unintentionally shifted elsewhere within the life cycle;

— achieving financial and operational benefits that can result from implementing environmentally

sound alternatives that strengthen the organization’s market position;

— communicating environmental information to relevant interested parties.