We believe true market leaders need to demonstrate quality and show how it’s measured, rather than just using the word over and over again.
“Quality” is perhaps a pretty obvious buzzword for any service provider to use. After all, every business wants to be seen as offering the best product and being at the top of its game. However, we believe true market leaders need to demonstrate quality and show how it’s measured, rather than just using the word over and over again.
With that in mind, we’ve pulled together this handy guide to some of the quality measures we have in place at Pall-Ex.
ISO accreditation
There are many different types of ISO accreditation that a business can achieve. It means that a third party assessment body has reviewed a particular area of a business and deemed that it is operating within an internationally recognised framework of best practice. Put simply, ISO certification is a symbol of quality assurance.
At Pall-Ex, we are proud to hold ISO accreditations for quality management, environmental management and health and safety management. Working in this way means we have a structured framework that creates operational efficiency and exceptional standards, which we can then pass on to our customers.
To maintain these standards, any business needs to constantly review, adapt and make improvements, and Pall-Ex is no different. Recent innovations include working with the Health & Safety Executive to reduce pedestrian movements within the central hub, the introduction of a sector-leading waste management service and the operation of a fleet of compressed natural gas trucks.
Pall-Ex is the only pallet network in the sector to achieve a network-wide ISO9001:2008 for quality management, which means all of our members operate under a joint mark of excellence. This helps Pall-Ex take a true market-leading position when it comes to delivering quality.
Auditing
As part of the ISO accreditation, all of Pall-Ex’s operations are continuously audited to ensure processes are safe for staff, kinder to the environment and producing the best results for customers.
If a business does not monitor in this way, then it is unable to review and make changes to ensure continual improvement.
Training
All staff should know the standard they are expected to work to. If people are not aware of standards and they are not clearly communicated through regular updates and training, how can they be expected to deliver them?
Our ongoing strategy has been to purposefully restrict business growth to allow us to focus on the quality of Pall-Ex operations. Part of this has included a 10 per cent budget increase for training and development.
Transparency
It is important to communicate the changes that have been made and the results they have achieved.
As an example, we were upfront about the fact that having separate day and night teams within the hub resulted in a lack of cohesive management. We introduced a brand new hub operations team to ensure standards were not falling below par.
This team restructure has resulted in a hub redesign, collaborative operational effectiveness, an increase in scanning accuracy (currently over 99%) and a streamlined service (late trunk reduction by over 30%).
So, next time you are reading the website of a business and you see “quality” frequently mentioned, remember that quality is more than just a word!
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