Independent truck and van repairer Sapphire Vehicle Services has been rewarded for its commitment to quality management, with accreditation to the ISO9001:2015 standard.
ISO9001:2015 is recognised as the world’s leading quality management system and achieving this benchmark means Sapphire customers can be sure the company is dedicated to providing the highest levels of service.
Meeting the required standard to gain the coveted ISO status means going through an exacting evaluation process. In Sapphire’s case, two auditors from the British Assessment Bureau spent six days scrutinising process and management controls, visiting sites across the national network and interviewing employees.
Declaring themselves happy with the Sapphire’s “inspirational leadership” and high level of “staff engagement”, they awarded the ISO9001:2015 to cover the head office in Appleby Magna, Derbyshire, and all 14 of the company’s workshops around the UK.
The British Assessment Bureau approval – given on behalf of UKAS, the government backed National Accreditation Body for the United Kingdom – allows Sapphire to use the ‘Crown and Tick’ logo, which is considered to be the gold standard in ISO certification.
Sapphire Process & Compliance Manager Kevin Buswell led the team responsible for submitting the company’s application and then seeing through all the steps that led ultimately to accreditation.
“This is a major achievement for Sapphire, with very few independent motor vehicle repairers holding the ISO9001:2015 accreditation and even fewer with UKAS accreditation,” he said.
“It has only been achieved thanks to the dedication and hard work of colleagues at all levels, from our engaged leadership and management team to the people on the workshop floors.”
He continued: “Our workshop teams, led by Operations Manager Dave Williams, really bought into this project. The systems we put in place for all managers to engage, feed back and share best practices have allowed us to markedly improve our quality management processes across all 14 of our sites. And it doesn’t stop here – we’ll continue to push forward to deliver the best customer experience possible.”
To maintain the drive for improvement Sapphire has recruited Compliance Auditor Ben Cotton, who joined Kevin’s team in June and will spend much of his time touring the company’s network of workshops to support and engage with managers and their technicians.
Dave Williams added: “Ultimately, as well as improving internal management processes, we believe that achieving ISO9001:2015 accreditation will help us stand proud from the competition and win more business. Customers are already giving us highly positive feedback about our service levels and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to show more operators how effectively we can care for their fleets.”
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