Video presentation: Do agility and ISO 9001 fit together?
Agility – this has been one of the major trends in the corporate and working world in recent years. For quality experts, the question has always been: Quality management and agility – do they even fit together? The DGQ addressed this topic early on under the title “Agile QM”.
During a presentation at the International Scientific & Business Quality Congress on 29 and 30 June 2021 in Belgrade, Patricia Adam, Professor of General Business Administration at the Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, addressed this question in a 15-minute presentation entitled “Practically Best Friends?! Agility and ISO 9001”.
DGQ honoured for 65 years of EOQ membership
In 1956, DGQ was one of the founding members of the European Organization for Quality (EOQ). The EOQ is an association of 28 national quality societies. The goal of this non-profit organisation is to promote the concept of quality in Europe.
The DGQ’s certification department hands out numerous EOQ certificates every year. The benefit of an EOQ certificate is that it is also recognised by member organisations in other European countries. It guarantees that the training and certification of quality and management professionals in Europe is carried out according to comparable criteria and standards.
As a national partner organisation, DGQ participates in the strategic and structural development as well as the conception of EOQ certification program for personal certification bodies. DGQ is regularly represented on the board. In 2020, Claudia Welker, Managing Director of DGQ, was elected to the board.
Having focused on the organisation of congresses enbabling international exchange, honouring of outstanding “Quality Leaders“ from Europe and encouraging international harmonisation of the certification of quality and management professionals for many years, the EOQ is currently intensifying and expanding its offerings.
For example, it has modernised its website and transformed it into an information and collaboration platform. In addition, new offers for quality professionals have been created for training providers and certification bodies. Regular representation of interests in ISO and CASCO committees ensures influence on standards and legislative processes. DGQ, represented by Thomas Votsmeier, acts as the EOQ representative in committees such as ISO TC 176, CASCO, IPC and EA.
A new EOQ blog informs about events from the Quality World of the member countries.
DGQ was honoured for its 65 years of membership at the EOQ General Assembly on 23rd June 2021.
ISO publishes results of user survey on the revision of ISO 9001
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) launched a global user survey on 29 July 2020. The aim of the survey was to identify current and future user needs with regard to the international standard ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems – Requirements. The question to be answered was to what extent a revision of ISO EN DIN 9001:2015 is necessary from the users’ point of view. The result: A majority of the participants voted against a revision.
The survey was prepared, conducted and evaluated with an intensive participation of DGQ representatives. The responsible ISO TC 176 Quality Management will take the results into account with regard to further development of the ISO 9001 family of standards. The German representatives involved will provide further information shortly.
ISO has summarised the main findings and results in a report and made it available for download.
New Secretary General of the European Organization of Quality appointed
On June 16th, Ulf Gustavsson has been appointed the new Secretary General of the European Organization of Quality (EOQ). The Swede prevailed against almost 300 competitors and can look back on more than 25 years of experience in quality management. The magazine Quality World has now published an interview with him. He talks about his experiences in the industry so far, his motivation and the future of EOQ and quality management.
The entire interview can be found on the Website of EOQ.
IPC releases specification on performing online examinations
IPC, the International Personnel Certification Association, released the new specification IPC-BD-20-001 titled “IPC Specification on Performing Online Examinations”.
Online examination systems are becoming increasingly popular and necessary. Many educational institutes, examination centers and certification bodies of persons are replacing the traditional examination methods by online testing technologies.
This specification was developed by IPC partialy at the suggestion of Thomas Votsmeier, DGQ Head of International Cooperation as DGQ’s representative on the IPC board. The DGQ supports nationally and internationally the creation of guidelines that promote a uniform and appropriate handling of certification and accreditation rules.
The IPC Specification on Performing Online Examinations has been developed to address the essential elements that should be considered during the development of any online examination application.
It aims to provide the base for the use of a secure, reliable and sustainable evaluation tool utilized during online examinations. This specification can be used for standalone online examination or for online examinations performed as a part of the process of certification of persons. The International Personnel Certification Association (IPC), is a non-profit organization, located at California, USA, established in 1995, under the name International Auditor and Training Certification Association (IATCA). IPC is the global association of personnel certification bodies and training providers, member of IAF (International Accreditation Forum). Through its membership IPC represents more than 80,000 certified professionals operating on more than 84 countries, all over the world.
Specification can be reached at https://rb.gy/flrgu8.
Requests for permission to purchase or reproduce this specification for commercial purposes should be addressed to IPC secretariat:
IPC – 14071 Peyton Dr #2701, Chino Hills, CA 91709, USA
email: secretary@ipcaweb.org, website: www.ipcaweb.org
ISO/TC 176 Launches Own Public Website
With the introduction of its own website, the Technical Committee 176 (TC 176) bundled a lot of information and made it available online. The subcommittee 2 „Quality systems“ of TC 176 has published the company Vision and Mission. This increases the transparency of standardization engagement for all target groups of the different standards. The lifecycles of the individual standardization projects are now available as well.
The Technical Committee 176 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) develops standards and guidelines in the areas of quality management and quality assurance, such as the ISO 9001: 2015 standard.
For more information, please click here.
First joint customer day of ENCONAcademy and DGQ in South Africa
The DGQ is continuously expanding its engagement in South Africa. For three years, the DGQ has been cooperating with the further education provider ENCONAcademy. In 2018, both partners decided to expand cooperation because of strategic discussions. The focus will be on trainings in the field of quality assurance and on further various topics in the field of the automotive supply chain. In February 2019, the first quality assurance licence training in the production environment including examination for the DGQ specialist quality control in South Africa took place.
Now the cooperation reached another milestone. The partners organized a customer day on June 12, 2019 in the South African city Port Elizabeth. The aim of this event was to introduce the common training concept and the service portfolio of both DGQ and ENCONAcademy to South African companies from the automotive sector
Around 100 participants accepted the invitation from DGQ and ENCONAcademy. This great response can serve as an indicator for the growing need for further education including quality-related topics in South Africa. Representing the DGQ Claudia Welker, Chief Executive Officer, and Andreas Heinz, Head of Product Management have attended the event.
Claudia Welker and Grant Lamprecht, General Manager of Encona for South Africa, opened the event by outlining the objectives of the strategic partnership as well as the planned joint activities. Claudia Welker continued with a company presentation and provided an overview of the international network of the central German quality society. Afterwards, she talked about the new requirements that Industry 4.0 places on quality management. It also became clear that the DGQ pursues current trends and developments that can affect quality management in order to develop solutions early on. After the lunch break, Andreas Heinz explained some qualitative aspects of the DGQ product development as well as selected training products and the didactic concept of the DGQ. In addition, he presented the colaboration with the DGQ personal certification and its organizational structure
Both partners want to expand their cooperation in the future. They are planning, that the ENCONAcademy will offer under license further training courses of the DGQ on management systems, quality assurance and auditing. The feedback of the participants was consistently positive and shows, that the companies are already looking forward to the extended offer in this area.
