When it comes to quality assurance, Canadian agri-food companies are finding out they have to go through the hoops to stay in the loop.
A quality management system called ISO 9000 is gaining popularity as companies find out it’s the only way to secure their place in an internationally competitive marketplace.
“They were basically told ‘if you want to play with us, this is the price of admission’, ” said David Uhrich, manager of registration services for KPMG’s quality registration arm.
Getting the ISO (International Standards Organization) accreditation cost a Manitoba seed co-operative $100,000 but chief executive officer Don Kostesky said it was worth every penny.
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“It’s an entire system of self-examination and self-evaluation to ensure your customers that in fact the product you’re supplying is done in such a regular fashion that if you see it once, you should be able to rely on that product being the same in one, 10 or 20 years,” said Kostesky, the head of Farmers Co-op Seed Plant Ltd. in Rivers, Man. It processes, tests, stores, treats and markets locally grown seed.
The co-op went beyond standards set recently by the Canadian Seed Institute to adopt the ISO registration, recognized worldwide as the optimum in quality control. It involves setting up a system of checks and balances throughout the entire process “right down to the way we make a cup of coffee,” said Kostesky.
Based on these methods, the system lists work instructions in a set of manuals that all employees follow to the letter. Any non-compliance is picked up right away, said Kostesky.
“If one guy doesn’t follow it, the next guy will pick it up.”
The system, which took about 17 months to design and implement, is assessed on a regular basis by the company and twice a year by an independent auditor.
Uhrich said Farmers Co-op Seed Plant is the second one he has registered under ISO 9000, and now he’s working with a Portage company that makes fibre.
There has been a 25 percent increase in the number of companies with ISO registration in 1997, Uhrich said. In Manitoba 110 business are registered and 2,700 in Canada, Uhrich said. He said the trend to ISO began five years ago.
“A growing number of government institutions and large manufacturing companies said ‘if you want to be a supplier of us, we want you to be registered to the appropriate ISO standard’. “
It was a method larger institutions could use as a screening tool that would also lower their cost of surveillance over their suppliers.
European requirements
Another reason ISO registration jumped in Canada was because of new standard requirements coming out of Europe.
“They’ve come out with a unified decree that EU countries will only import products that have been produced by organizations that can demonstrate they’ve met these ISO standards,” he said.
“It’s the same kind of logic but by a different source.”
But today, companies have their own reasons for jumping on the ISO bandwagon. It’s proven to be good for business, Uhrich said.
“Maybe it’s because of some success stories, but the word has spread that ‘hey wait, there are intrinsic benefits to having a standardized, organized way of doing business. I don’t care if the customers want it or not. It helps me do business’. “
Depending on the size of the company, it takes about 12-20 months to bring in the system, Uhrich said.
Most companies hire consultants to help design and implement the system, but the regulations are available through the Standards Council of Canada. The council accredits registrars, like KPMG, that take care of registering new companies.
ISO 9001 is the same as ISO 9002, but has the additional requirement necessary for companies that have to demonstrate control over their design activities offered to customers as an actual service.
