Companies told to go for ISO certification

Arusha. Local institutions have been challenged to embrace quality management systems (QMS) in order to improve efficiency.

The Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) says the state-owned body was ready to assist the organisations on this through ISO 9001 certification.

“This tool will help organisations improve quality management processes to enable them compete locally and globally,” said Steven Minja, a senior TBS official.

The engineer added during an awareness seminar for officials from various institutions based in Arusha that ISO 9001 helps business organisations to improve customer care satisfaction.

He said the tool was suitable for all types and sizes of different sector organisations, including conservation agencies, which need to improve the quality of their services.

A senior TBS official, Mr Yona Afrika, said ISO 9001 was a standard that sets out requirement for a quality management system and urged institutions, which have not embraced it to do so. “It controls the organisation with regards to quality, transforms inputs into outputs and does not compromise quality, and this saves money,” he pointed out.

Gervas Kaisi from the TBS planning directorate said the five-day seminar, which ended on Friday, was attended by company/institution officials from Arusha, Manyara, Tanga and Kilimanjaro Regions.

“It is just one in a series of seminars organised to sensitise company officials on quality management systems,” he explained.

In recent months, about 200 of them have attended such training in several zones across the country.

TBS, the national standards body, was established by an Act of Parliament, the Standards Act No.3 of 1975 and became operational in April 1976.

The Standards Act No. 3 was later repealed and replaced by the Standards Act No. 2 of 2009, which gave the Bureau more powers in carrying out its mandate.

To date it has formulated over 1,600 national standards.