Albwardy Marine Engineering/Damen Shipyards Sharjah has recently received two important quality management certifications. The first involves the new ISO 9001:2015 Management System Certificate awarded by Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance (LRQA). The second is the American Petroleum Institute’s API Specification Q1, the Dutch shipbuilding group said.
At a recent presentation at Albwardy Damen’s facilities in the Sharjah Hamriyah Free Zone of the United Arab Emirates, representatives from LRQA awarded the yard with the ISO 9001:2015 certificate. The presentation was the fruitful outcome of an intensive nine man-day auditing conducted by seasoned LRQA representatives.
The accreditation represents an update from the existing 9001:2008 Standard to the new ISO 9001:2015 Standard. While there are numerous core changes to the certification, a key aspect is that the Quality Management System is now positioned in the company’s Business Assurance and Management System.
Helpful revisions
“We are pleased to see this revised ISO standard. The increased focus on risks and KPIs makes it more of a business tool. This is especially helpful in the current economic climate,” comments Lars Seistrup, Managing Director of Albwardy Damen. “We are very proud to receive this certification.”
The fact that Albwardy Damen has gained the newly introduced ISO certification in such a short period of time is particularly worthy of note. The yard is one of the first organisations in the Middle East Region to achieve this.
Second certification
The busy auditing period continued with a visit from the American Petroleum Institute (API) to review the yard’s management system. The outcome of this was the granting of the API Specification Q1. This verifies the yard’s quality management system regarding provision of ship repair services, shiplifting, transfer and undocking, building of new vessels and oil & gas unit repairs and conversions.