2020 has been a tough year with many challenges having to be faced in the way we do business. At BIH we have been proactive in taking precautions as early as possible and putting in place procedures that have enabled high levels of business continuity.
Jamie Mullane
13 Nov 2020
As a result, we have seen minimum disruption to our ongoing projects and no discernible delays.
This was predominantly due to our deep organisational understanding of the requirements of our ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 certification, enabling us to develop a suitable framework and philosophy in producing risk assessments. We did so well in advance of the Government guidelines making them mandatory. The resulting actions, once implemented, have provided a safe working environment for our employees whose levels of confidence meant we have had an almost complete office presence.
An important area of continuity was our commitment to maintain the highest standards of QHSE so as well as making sure that proper COVID19 security was established our QA department has been busy ensuring that we continue to meet with our customers, as well as our own, expectations of quality.
To this end the BIH UK and Malaysian offices have had 17 third party (BSi) assessments in support of our numerous certificates. Normally these would be conducted in BIH offices but due to COVID restrictions, being imposed since March these have been conducted remotely. This has presented unique challenges that we have manage to overcome and the audits have been no less rigorous than if the inspector had visited us in person
BIH is pleased to report that we have recorded no non conformities, which given the difficulties of working within the COVID restricted environment, including remote working, is testament to the robust and efficient systems that we have developed as well as how well they have been implemented.
During this time, we have also extended the scope of our PED 2014/68/EU module H/H1 certification to include our Malaysian office. This will enable them to proactively support the UK office in the execution of projects where CE marking and certification to PED standards is required.
As well as changes imposed by COVID we have also had to plan for the UK’s eventual exit from the EU. In order to prepare for this, and ensure continuous service to our customers, we have transferred our PED and EN 1090 (CPR) certification from BSi UK to BSi Netherlands. This will enable BIH to continue to CE mark any of our equipment being supplied to the European market. As the UK systems diverge from the EU, we will also maintain the appropriate certification to continue supporting our UK customers
In the wider QA environment, there have also been changes to international quality management systems within the oil and gas industries resulting in TS 29001:2011 being superseded by BS EN ISO 29001:2020. A three-year transition period has been allowed for transfer of certification; however we are aiming to achieve this within 2021.
