*** ----> Quality, biz plans to be integrated in 3 yrs: Expert | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Quality, biz plans to be integrated in 3 yrs: Expert

Quality and business objectives will have to be integrated in all the government and private departments in the next three years, says international Quality Management Expert Tariq bin Zafar.

He was speaking to DT News on the last day of a five-day training programme conducted by Resource Inspections Canada Incorporated (RICI) for the quality professionals from different ministries including Works, Finance and Interior ministries and private sector at a local hotel here in Bahrain on Thursday. 

Bahrain is going to upgrade its quality management system in the next three years. The new system was launched in September and all the organisations will have only three years to transfer to the new system. The new system is an international standard for the whole world not meant for any individual organisation or a department. It would integrate all the interested parties - the owners, financiers, bankers, suppliers, employees and leaders.

Tariq said that previously the quality department and their employees were not given due importance because they were not involved in business planning and strategic management but now the new standard was integrating the quality with the business and it was indeed a big change.

“This revision of ISO 9002: 2015 is the first step towards the integration of quality plan and business plan,” he says, “Now the business objectives and quality objectives have to be aligned.”

He said that the new clauses added are risk management of change, risk management and contingency planning. It is based on risk-based process approach.

The RICI has conducted this course in Bahrain for the first time. Before this, only one company has run this course in Dubai.

RICI director Mazhar Hussain told DT News that the programme was part of the vision 2030 of the Government of Bahrain where all the government, semi- government, private and semi- private industries have to adopt the quality standardisation in their business processes in order to meet the international requirements.

“We have a plan for next three years where every month we will be conducting six courses through the platform of Ministry of Labour and Tamkeen,” says Hussain.

He said that it was a big opportunity for the Bahrainis to upgrade their skills as it is completely funded by the government. The individuals have to get themselves registered by explaining why they are taking the course and what value they can impart to the community afterwards. They must be very clearly defined.

There are almost 5,000 certified companies. However, there are more than 15,000 registered companies in Bahrain. From January 2016 onwards, there are exclusive plans where we will be certifying the companies, training the people about these new standards for quality, environment, health and safety 

and information security management systems and the energy management system which is the one of the leading and most demanding subject around the world, he adds.

“We will try to make an awareness campaign how we can optimise the cost of energy and utilisation of energy and will train the people in different ministries, oil and gas companies and engineering procurement companies,” he says, adding, “Then we will make awareness in the public how to get benefit from it.”

Management Engineer Ministry of Works Marwa Khalfan said that it was a wonderful programme and that she had learned quite new things and she hoped that it would upgrade their work at the ministry.

Senior Economist at Ministry of Finance Abdulla Abdulhameed Ali Al Aradi said that the value they had received from this training course was much higher than the competitive institutions that provide such training.

“It adds a lot of value to our capacity in the ministry and our ability to contribute to develop our systems. Also it has given us the international level of accreditation that we require to further enhance our capacity on a personal or on a professional level,” he says.

The instructor was more than professional who brought also a lot of expertise and experience from different countries and ethnicities that added to “our own ability” to perceive and deal with multiple sorts of situations, adds the senior economist.

Quality Specialist Ministry of Interior Rashid Abdul Rehman said that the training was very much important for them and it would enhance their capacity in their day-to- day works of the ministry and would definitely prove to be useful for the satisfaction of internal as well as the external customers.

Quality Management Specialist Ministry of Works Maryam Khaled Hayat said that she was quite happy and satisfied to have for the first time such a distinguished training programme and a chance to get the lead auditor certification. 

 

 

 

Photo Caption: Quality Management Expert Tariq bin Zafar with participants of the training programme