Pictured: Daniel Bates, production director at M12 Engineering

A director at a Shropshire engineering business believes the two accreditations recently attained by the company will help 'open doors' to some bigger clients and potentially lucrative contracts in 2012. 

Telford based M12 Engineering, which offers bespoke design and manufacture of aluminium, stainless and mild steel solutions for a variety of private and public sector applications and customers throughout the UK and Ireland, is now CHAS (Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme) and BS EN ISO 9001:2008 approved.  

Launched in 2001 CHAS is a non-commercial scheme available to businesses providing goods and services and to organisations or buyers looking for suitably competent suppliers. Assessing suppliers' health and safety competence can be a lengthy and time consuming process, where one buyer's health and safety standards may not meet another. The aims of CHAS, therefore, are to improve health and safety standards across the UK and reduce duplicated safety applications for both suppliers and buyers.

BS EN ISO 9001:2008 is an internationally-recognised standard for quality management, ensuring that organisations have proven processes in place, and that quality assurance is of paramount importance when meeting customer requirements. Most organisations seek ISO 9001 certification to qualify for a tender or to achieve preferred supplier status. As a consequence they often experience an increase in turnover, sales, customer satisfaction and savings.

M12 Engineering's ISO 9001 assessment, which applies to its metal fabrication, laser cutting and finishing operations, was carried out by Wolverhampton based Interface-NRM Ltd. Commenting on the assessment Paul Chadderton, lead auditor at Interface-NRM said: "As a certification body we conduct third party audits to ensure an impartial independent assessment is carried out on a client's quality and environmental management systems. Certification demonstrates that the company has consistently met all those requirements. M12 Engineering was able to demonstrate it met these with sufficient evidence for ISO 9001, and therefore, we were more than happy to issue it with our certification."

Daniel Bates, production director at M12 Engineering, believes next year could be its most successful since the company was established in 2009. He said: "With these two accreditations under our belt, the recent appointment of a new sales manager, and the increasing demand for our specialist Land Rover body accessories, we are looking forward to a prosperous 2012. While we have always impressed recognised brand-name customers with our approach, up until now we haven't had the officially-recognised systems and certifications in place to turn their enquiries into potential orders. Now they are in place, I expect more doors to open."