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Compliance success with Achiever Plus at Parlex UK operation
The Client :PARLEX UK Background :
Parlex UK is part of a multinational corporation with headquarters in the USA and plants across the USA and Asia. The corporation designs and manufactures a wide range of electronic solutions for medical, defence, automotive, household appliance and measuring/monitoring applications. The company’s customers include a significant number of multinational corporations. |
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The Challenge As a supplier to major companies in industries such as automotive and medical, Parlex UK. is expected to achieve exceptionally high standards of quality accreditation. Going beyond ISO 9001:2000, the company needed to meet ISO TS 164949:2002 to satisfy customers in the automotive industry, and ISO 13485:2003 as a medical standard. Quality also plays a role in compliance with the financial and good governance recommendations of the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Quality control through documents such as work instructions and manuals is key to achieving and maintaining standards. Before the introduction of Achiever Plus, Parlex UK. was struggling to maintain consistency and control over hard-copy handbooks. Each department had its own handbook, and updating was time-consuming and expensive. It was additionally difficult to ensure that only the latest versions were in use at any time.
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The Solution Having read about Achiever Plus in a trade magazine, the general manager at Parlex UK took a key team to a presentation about the system at an IBM centre. Parlex UK’s Quality Systems Manager, Mike Hillcock, reports that Achiever Plus provided the solution that the company was looking for. "I have seen a number of systems since we chose Achiever Plus, and not found any that are better".
Achiever Plus removes much of the administration burden around the requirements of Sarbanes Oxley, applying the same integrated compliance management system principles around the financial controls that have been delivered for many years against multiple areas of compliance.
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The Solution - continued
With the help of Achiever Business Systems, Parlex UK has implemented a wide range of the modules available in Achiever Plus, including Document Control, Objectives and Targets, and Audit Management. Trained editors across the organisation now take responsibility for writing and managing documents, and for training operators to work on the workstations set up in each department.
In some cases Parlex UK has chosen to retain its own in-house system rather than implementing an Achiever Plus module, as in the case of calibration. In these cases Achiever Plus can still be used to manage the associated documents such as work instructions.
| As well as the Document Control module, the Objectives and Targets database has been helpful in providing information to assessors and driving the efficiency of the business. Mike Hillcock explains: "If an assessor asked us for our targets and objectives before Achiever Plus, we would have had difficulty providing evidence of anything other than corporate objectives. With the Objectives and Targets module we can set out targets for everyone from the MD to team leaders, monitor progress against targets across a 12-month period, sign off those targets, and then set new targets for the next period."
This easy visibility enables greater accountability, and is proving highly successful. "We have 90 objectives on the database at the moment", says Mike Hillcock, "and only three of those are slightly behind the measurement schedule."
Yet another benefit of the Objectives and Targets module is its highly graphical nature – conforming with the strict requirements of the automotive industry standards.
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The Benefits
The benefits have been numerous, as Mike Hillcock reports. "Achiever Plus has been instrumental in our successful accreditation. We transferred from ISO 9001 to QS9000 in just eight months. Soon after that the company also gained the ISO 14001 environmental standard and OHSAS 18001 health and safety standard, making three major accreditations in the space of 12 months. We have now also achieved the ISO 13485 Medical standard. Our progress would have been far more difficult without the benefit of Achiever Plus".
Working to standards and regulations involves regular inspections by assessors. During an audit in preparation for Sarbanes-Oxley assessment the auditor was impressed by what he saw. Says Mike Hillcock: "The assessor actually remarked to me that it was the first time that he had been able to view all the information he initially needed in the Achiever Plus databases, rather than searching through a range of folders and hard-copy files. "Achiever Plus is helping to both reduce audit time and fees, and provides the auditors with a greater confidence that the controls are in place, tested, and, where required, that remediation is taking place. A great deal of the information that the auditor requires is there in one integrated system." |
The Future
Parlex UK is probably one of the more advanced users of the Achiever Plus Objectives and Targets module, and the company is continuing to develop its use, working in partnership with Achiever Business Solutions.
The company has recently been successful in accreditation to ISO 13485:2003 Medical standard. Having already met the demanding automotive industry quality standard, it was a relatively straightforward step for the medical standard.
Mike Hillcock comments: "Our customers expect us to achieve high quality and financial standards, and compliance to standards could make the difference when a potential customer is deciding whether to buy from us or a competitor. Achiever Plus enables us to meet these needs more easily and faster than any other system we have tried. At the same time, Achiever Plus is delivering greater efficiency and clearer accountability in our business, driving continuing business improvement."
Achiever Plus is helping to both reduce audit time and fees, and provides the auditors with a greater confidence that the controls are in place, tested, and, where required, that remediation is taking place.
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