Conducting an internal quality audit can have real benefits for your organisation, but many business owners struggle to carry out a thorough, effective audit that delivers the desired results. Fortunately, you don't have to handle this potentially challenging task alone - here at NPT, we excel at conducting efficient, comprehensive quality audits and helping companies to improve their quality management processes.

Here are a few of the reasons why NPT Management Systems are the perfect choice for your internal quality audit:

• We offer an independent view. It can sometimes be difficult to take an objective view of a business when you play a large role in that business and its processes. We can offer an experienced, independent assessment of your business and give you knowledgeable advice on how to improve it.
  
  
• We keep you on schedule. When you're busy helping customers and running your business, an internal quality audit can sometimes fall by the wayside. NPT Management Systems will ensure that your audit stays on track and reaches completion within the designated period.
  
  
• We offer a comprehensive service. We can help you to plan and conduct your internal audit; we can also design and implement a robust QMS (Quality Management System) that will allow your company to achieve ISO 9001 certification.

Contact NPT Management Systems today to discuss your quality audit requirements with an experienced quality specialist.

As we've mentioned previously, NPT Management Systems have a well-established reputation as the leading ISO 9001 consultants for the UK marine sector. That reputation has continued to grow, and we're helping more and more companies within this industry to achieve ISO 9001 certification.

One of our most recent marine sector clients to earn ISO 9001 accreditation is David Store Navigational Management. Located just outside Romsey, Hampshire, DSNM are described as "the preferred navigational management service provider within the superyacht industry". Given that industry's high demand for impeccable attention to detail and outstanding customer service, it was vital for DSNM to choose an ISO 9001 consultant with a proven track record.

That's why they turned to NPT - with our marine sector experience, our track record for delivering tailor-made quality management systems, and our ISO 9001 certification success rate, we were the perfect fit.

Image from www.dsnmltd.com

From the outset, it was clear that the challenge would be creating a QMS (Quality Management System) that would immediately fit in with the company’s well-established procedures and high standards. To achieve this, we worked with David Store Navigational Management for a number of days in order to process map their ‘as is’ process. We then used our knowledge as quality management consultants to implement a quality management system that would achieve ISO 9001 certification.

We are proud to announce that David Store Navigational Management has now been awarded ISO 9001 registration from BSI, having passed their stage 1 and stage 2 audit with ZERO non-conformances. Here's what their Fleet Director Martin Amy had to say about this achievement:

"We chose to work with NPT Management Systems as they had current experience within the marine sector, they had local offices, and they were willing to work to our tight deadline toward achieving ISO 9001. The support and service from NPT Management Systems was excellent; we had clear communications and training to enable us to adapt our existing processes to meet the requirements of ISO 9001. We plan to continue our relationship with NPT Management Systems as consultants to assist us in developing and maintaining our QMS."

Whether you're part of the UK marine industry or another sector, NPT Managment Systems can help you to implement an effective QMS and achieve ISO 9001 accreditation. Contact us now to discuss your requirements.

Recent changes to consumer rights legislation may have costly consequences for UK businesses. According to the Consumer Rights Act 2015, customers can now reject goods without allowing the supplier any time to fix or improve them. This is known as the consumer's right to reject.

What does the right to reject mean for businesses?

For some businesses, the right to reject could become a very costly problem. The new legislation means that, if you fail to deliver the specified goods promptly and to a satisfactory standard, your customer/client may choose to reject the goods completely; if this happens, you won't have an opportunity to fix the problem, and you won't be able to collect payment for the goods supplied.

However, the right to reject should have no impact on your business if you are committed to quality and customer satisfaction. The best way to ensure consistent high quality within your organisation is to implement a quality management system (QMS) that's specifically tailored to your business and its processes. Implementing a strong QMS and achieving ISO 9001 certification will not only minimise the risk of rejection, it will also help you to win more business in the first place, encouraging potential clients to have confidence in your company and the products you supply.

NPT Management Systems can help you to design and implement a winning QMS that really works for your business. Contact us to discuss your requirements, or click here to learn more about the ISO 9001 standard.

Implementing a tailor-made quality management system and achieving ISO 9001 certification is rapidly becoming a competitive advantage within the UK marine industry. Located near the River Hamble in Hampshire, NPT Management Systems are perfectly placed to help companies achieve this goal - we have a real passion for the marine industry and for related pursuits.

NPT have already helped several companies in the marine sector, and we are now pleased to announce that Baker Trayte Marine have successfully passed their stage 1 ISO 9001 certification audit with a UKAS accredited certification body, with zero non-conformities being raised.

Photograph from www.btmarine.co.uk

Based in Portsmouth, Baker Trayte Marine carry out all types of marine construction work in addition to providing workboats, safety boats, and barges for hire. To maintain their existing reputation for the highest standards of service and workmanship - and to support their contracts for the Ministry of Defence, Wightlink Ferries, and local authorities - Baker Trayte Marine identified that implementing a tailor-made quality management system and achieving ISO 9001 were key priorities for the business.

Baker Trayte Marine have now achieved these goals with the help of NPT Management Systems. Here's what the company's Quality Representative had to say:

"We have been working with Neil from NPT Management Systems to construct and operate a quality management system that fits our operation (Marine Contractor). We had discussions with other consultants prior to finding Neil, but we were disappointed in their ideas and their lack of willingness to understand our operation. We were concerned that this would have resulted in a 'bookshelf' system with no practical use.

"We have been very pleased with Neil's approach, his enthusiasm, and his willingness to understand our business and build a system that works for us (rather than having us alter how we operate to follow a standard system). This has to be seen as the key to success in our view."

Over the coming weeks, we'll be blogging more about how we have helped companies in the marine sector, as well as about our sponsorship of local events. Please follow us on follow us on Facebook to keep up with our latest news and events.

In our last blog post, we etalked about information security management and explained why it's such an important consideration for modern businesses. If you're looking to keep your company's data (and, critically, your company's customers' data) as secure as possible, we recommend implementing a robust, comprehensive ISMS (Information Security Management System) and applying for ISO 27001 certification.

However, if you don't think that your business necessarily needs to achieve 'ISO 27001 certified' status, you may be able to fix the weaknesses in your security systems without going through the whole accreditation process. We at NPT Management Systems frequently carry out information security assessments for businesses of all sizes and across all industries; these initial reviews can help business owners to spot 'holes' in their information security systems and make the necessary improvements without working towards full certification.

If you'd like to arrange an information security assessment for your business, please call NPT Management Systems on 02380 659 867, or click here to get in touch via our website.