 systems.
ISO 9000 deals with the fundamentals of quality management systems including the eight management principles on which the family of standards is based. ISO 9001 deals with the requirements that organisations wishing to meet the standard have to fulfill.
The study, jointly carried out by UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation) ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) and IAF (International Accreditation Forum) clearly showed that the implementation of accredited certification to ISO 9001 brings positive results to certified organisations, their customers, and ultimately to the economies themselves. The study, entitled “ISO 9001– its relevance and impact in Asian Developing Economies” involved a survey, interviews with purchasers and visits to certified organisations.
The value to an organisation of implementing the principles of ISO 9001are fairly well documented but in recent years some specific concerns have been expressed in Asian developing economies. It seems that although the core elements and philosophy behind ISO 9001 were generally welcomed by managers there were some questions about the effectiveness of the quality management systems employed within some of the organisations involved. Because these concerns were also being shared by ISO, IAF and other institutions the study provided an opportunity to address the concerns – particularly in the context of business-to-business transactions in the manufacturing and construction sectors.
The main debate in Asian countries has been about the effectiveness of accredited certification in terms of whether the focus has shifted from one in which organisations strive to develop an effective quality management system to one in which certification itself has become the ultimate goal (sometimes achieved by cutting corners). Similarly, other concerns related to whether or not organisations were deriving real tangible benefits from ISO 9001, whether the certification bodies were carrying out the certification process effectively and whether the varied expectations from different stakeholders were being met.
The study resulted in a number of key findings which can be best categorised as follows:
1) Economic benefits – there were clear empirical economic benefits derived from the implementation of accredited certified quality management systems.
2) Credibility of ISO 9001 – In general, the perception of accredited certification to ISO 9001 in the Asia region was encouraging and positive.
3) Positive purchaser perceptions – purchasers confirmed that they were satisfied with the performance of ISO 9001 certified suppliers which generally performed better or ‘much better’ than non-certified suppliers.
The Director-General of UNIDO, Kandeh K. Yumkella summarised his feelings about the study in the Preface to the report, noting that, “It is pleasing to see that the results have demonstrated (with some exceptions) that the implementation of ISO 9001 and the associated certification has been a good investment of resources. The project has, however, highlighted some areas of weakness and we expect that all the parties involved will take the necessary actions to ensure continued improvements.”
The report raised some interesting points, and in a future blog I’ll be looking at the findings and what can be learnt from them.Last. Germany lowered the speed limit on parts of the Autobahn, worried about buckling roads. And the heat set off the worst wildfires Spain has seen in 20 years with three major blazes burning throughout the nation. (One blaze started when improperly stored chicken manure combusted due to the heatwave.)
At least seven people died in France due to the heat with at least two fatalities in Spain and two in Italy. But that’s a far cry from 2003, when an estimated 70,000 people died in Europe, including 15,000 people in France, during a devestating heatwave, reports Sasha Ingber at NPR. After that, the French government implemented a series of measures to help protect people from the heat, including a warning system. The French weather service issued its highest warning for four regions of the country last week, leading to the closure of 4,000 schools. Public cooling rooms were also opened in cities across the country and public parks and pools stayed open for extended hours.
Though the French people seem to have weathered the heat fine, French wine is suffering. After three years of drought, many vineyards in France's southern wine country were already experiencing stress. The extreme heat pushed some over the edge, with vines withering and drying out in the oppressive temperatures. “I’ve been a winegrower for 30 years. I have never seen a vine burnt by a sudden onset of heat [until now],” Jerome Dempsey tells AFP.
On Sunday, the heatwave's grip finally broke in much of France and other parts of Europe—though it is expected to persist in Germany and parts of Eastern Europe for a day or two longer.
So what led to the massive early summer temperature spike? In an earlier article, Earther's Brian Kahn explains that the heat wave was caused by a weather phenomenon called a rex block. The weather pattern happens when stationary high pressure system over Greenland and a low pressure system over the North Atlantic contorts the jet stream, cutting off cooler air from northern latitudes from reaching Europe. The jet stream has also dipped down toward Africa, transporting hot air from the Sahara across the Mediterranean.
Karsten Haustein, a climate scientist at the University of Oxford who is affiliated with the World Weather Attribution Network, which tries to figure out how much weather events are tied to climate change, tells Carolyn Gramling at Science News that it’s hard to say how much this event is due to climate change. He says that some researchers believe the fluctuations in the jet stream may be linked to warming temperatures in the Arctic. In general, however, he says heat waves like this one are twice as likely to occur due to climate change.
Comment on this Storycomments powered by DisqusHow is "Any definition of the “education area” should mention in extremely positive terms the increase in the numbers of local authority operators and private actors present in prisons, and of institutions and public and private associations that are playing a part in re-educational activity in accordance with article 17 of the prisons code and article 68 of the implementation regulations, which reiterate the importance of the participation of the outside community in re-educational activities on the basis of the periodic programming of initiatives." said in French?
Toute description du « secteur éducatif » devrait signaler de manière extrêmement explicite l'augmentation du nombre des intervenants des pouvoirs locaux et des acteurs individuels présents dans les prisons, ainsi que des institutions et des associations publiques et privées qui participent aux activités de rééducation conformément à l'article 17 du Code des prisons et à l'article 68 du règlement d'application, qui redisent combien il est important que le monde extérieur participe aux activités de rééducation sur la base de la programmation périodique des initiatives.Even as the City Council unanimously rescinded a law Wednesday extending the so-called living wage ordinance to workers at Los Angeles International Airport-area hotels, council members ordered new legislation that would leave the door open to further expansions of the ordinance.
Both actions were part of a loosely worded two-page agreement negotiated late Tuesday with the mayor, council, labor leaders and two top officials of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.
The deal -- by preventing a business-led referendum on the living wage ordinance from going to the ballot -- was hailed at a morning news conference as a grand compromise that would spare the city a costly and divisive election battle.
But the exact details of the new legislation have yet to be drafted, much less negotiated. “This is a work in progress,” said David Fleming, chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.
An examination of the eight-point agreement, as well as interviews with a dozen participants in the negotiations, suggests that Los Angeles’ powerful labor movement has positioned itself to gain significantly when the new legislation is negotiated.
In the near term, labor gives up little. The new legislation, like the repealed law, would extend the living wage to all workers in the same dozen hotels near LAX. The increase would be phased in -- first a boost to $9.50 an hour on passage of the legislation, then a bump to $10.64 an hour July 1. Even if the original law had survived the referendum attempt, workers would not have received a raise until May at the earliest.
Councilman Greig Smith, a critic of the living wage extension, chided his colleagues for “the bait and switch of the decade” in rescinding one law while replacing it with something he saw as similar. “It gives us the same thing that you gave us with the first ordinance,” he complained.
The new legislation would create an “airport hospitality enhancement zone” that would make the hotels eligible for a variety of public incentives for infrastructure, marketing and neighborhood beautification. By tying the living wage to a zone whose businesses receive public benefits, the city could put the provision on a firmer legal footing.
But it is the fine print of the agreement that could have its greatest effect on the economy of the city. In essence, the legislation would establish a new system for considering expansion of the living wage, with the council having to study the economic effect under an elaborate process that would involve at least two economists, one selected by the chamber of commerce and one by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
Such a study might represent a considerable obstacle to expanding the living wage, but that would seem to fall short of what business demanded: a “quarantine” of the pay requirement to the airport hotels.
Despite all the pieces of the deal, the direct, immediate effect on workers’ wages may be less dramatic than hotels fear and living wage supporters promise. Many of the approximately 3,500 people who work at the airport-area hotels already take home a living wage: about half, according