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Corporate
Optima leaving nothing to chance
It is not only the product that counts: These days, the decision to engage in business relations in the first place is often a matter of concrete measures, for instance, how a company protects its personnel and the environment. In order to fully meet these customer requirements, six companies of the Optima Group have not only been certified according to ISO 9001 (quality management), but also according to standards ISO 14001 (environmental management) and OHSAS 18001 (occupational health and safety) by the DQS (German Association for Certification of Management Systems) in March this year.This makes the Optima Group the first machine manufacturer in the packaging industry that has successfully completed all three certifications. The certified companies of the group are: Optima filling and packaging machine, Inova pharma systems, Kugler, Medicon, Autocon and Klee.
What exactly was the goal of the new certification and what was improved? All potential risks to personnel and the environment were systematically determined. Many things that are generally known to be an accident risk and are usually seen to be irresponsible can very quickly turn into a safety hazard in everyday work: For example, hazardous substances must be kept in specially marked containers and never filled or kept in something other than a hazardous substance container. In addition, before delivery of a hazardous substance, the material safety data sheet must be available, which can be referred to for information on safe handling of the substance.
The analysis of the risk potential and the measures to be taken concern the entire infrastructure of the company; in a first step, all escape routes were checked and clearly marked. And, of course, service technicians were thoroughly instructed to ensure that general precautions will also be taken outside of the company at our customers’ sites.
In the fields of environment protection and occupational health and safety, the main focus is on compliance with legal requirements. This includes objectives such as waste reduction, energy saving and also prevention of accidents. The management uses the resulting figures to conduct management reviews and discusses the measures that need to be taken to improve the results. Another important aspect: The annual DQS certification not only includes audits to review all documented measures, but also an analysis of the acquired data to find out if there is room for further improvement. Audit reports, management reviews and DQS audits will eventually reveal if the objectives have been achieved and what is the course to take.
The entire certification process including extensive employee training and inspections was completed within a record-breaking five months. In a voluntary inspection by the DQS it has recently been confirmed that the few weak spots that had been found in March have been eliminated.
