SQMC marks World Quality Day with Quality awards

13th November marked World Quality Day, and the Scottish Quality Management Centre (SQMC) celebrated the occasion with quality awards for Mandos Software and Diageo.

Now in its fourth year, SQMC’s annual awards recognise those individuals who have excelled in quality management.

The ‘Quality Professional of the Year’ award went to CQI member and founder of Mandos Software in Aberdeen Peter Fraser, while SQMC’s top quality trainee Aimee Gibson of Diageo won the ‘Lead Auditor Student of the Year’ award after scoring an unprecedented 100% on her final exam.

Peter’s involvement in quality was incidental and evolved from his view of process management. He founded Mandos Software in 1999 to start producing business and quality mapping software, now called Author, that is semi graphical in nature to define how a business is set up and then how to fit the ISO standards into it.

“I am very flattered to have been considered for the ‘Quality Professional of the Year’ award and thank Karen and everyone at SQMC for their ongoing support of the Author software.

“Process management is a part of any business, so knowing how work is done and by whom in any set up is important to success.”

SQMC’s Director of Programmes Karen McKenzie commented, “Peter’s process mapped management system software fits perfectly with the work we do.

“Fitting the ISO standards into existing business structures, and not fitting a business around a standard, has helped define how SQMC teaches these qualifications.

“His quality process map now features in our class hand outs and our Quality manual, and I couldn’t manage without it.”

York native Aimee Gibson scored SQMC’s first ever 100% on the final ISO 9001 Lead Auditor exam and currently works as part of the Liquid Commercialisation Team at Diageo in Menstrie. The team not only deals with the commercialisation of new products but also the quality in the supplier production chain. Her training in Lead Auditing has meant that she is now more involved with the audits of suppliers and will soon take the lead on them.

“I had never been involved in quality management or auditing before, so everything I’ve learned has been really helpful to establish my involvement in the supplier management side of what my team does and ensuring that all suppliers conform to the high standards that Diageo expects,” commented Aimee.

Karen McKenzie, who awarded Aimee, said, “All of the final exams are double marked, so for two of our directors to agree that Aimee’s paper was faultless is commendable.
“SQMC currently has a 94% pass rate for its IRCA-accredited Lead Auditor course, which is 20% higher than the worldwide average, and Aimee’s score will only help to bump it up even further and set a new benchmark.

“She was a great student and is a great advertisement for the ISO 9001 Lead Auditor students.”

SQMC is a unique British training organisation that has progressed from a think-tank of Stirling University’s Management Science faculty to become one of Europe’s leading providers of Quality Management Systems qualifications globally accredited by the International Register of Certificated Auditors (IRCA).

Longstanding clients include Wolfson Microelectronics, Diageo, Caterpillar Inc., FMC Technologies, Babcock, Marine Harvest and Raytheon Systems.

Photo caption: (from left to right) SQMC Technical Director Ron Rivens, Aimee Gibson of Diageo, SQMC Managing Director Ian Hannah, Peter Fraser of Mandos Software, SQMC Director of Programmes Karen McKenzie

The awards coincided with World Quality Week on Thursday 13th November. World Quality Day is organised every year by the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI) to promote awareness of quality around the world and to encourage individuals’ development and organisations’ prosperity. The theme for World Quality Day 2014 was ‘Building a Quality World Together’ and has been designed by CQI to focus on the impact quality professionals make to an organisation while recognising how we can all contribute to building a quality world together.

For more information about Mandos Software, please visit www.mandossoftware.com