– company promises to maintain standard
THE Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) received its ISO 9001:2008 Quality Standard certification award from DQS-UL Representative Mr. Abriham Daniel at its Training and Development Department at the Sophia Complex on Friday last. Chairman of the Board of Directors of the GPL, Winston Brassington, in the keynote address, said the achievement wasn’t easy for GPL, but the power company did it by championing quality from the top, and he was proud of that.
He told the gathering that the idea was born out of a meeting with Neal and Massy Company Limited, who were then promoting the benefits of ISO 9001:2008 quality standards, and he was told that Qual-Eco was the company that helped in the certification process.
Brassington added that when he examined the idea, he recognised the challenges; but the benefits were greater, and so GPL started on the journey for an improved service to customers, thereby going through 12 phases.
He stated that the conversion process took some time to be completed, but it was all in the process of seeking to make GPL better in terms of providing quality service to its customers, and the power company has successfully trained more than 100 employees to provide customer satisfaction by implementing the ISO standards.
Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Aeshwar Deonarine/ISO Management Representative, told the gathering that despite the skepticisms by many, GPL has become ISO certified, and it is remarkable that almost half of the company is certified to the ISO 9001:2008 quality standard.
He added that the power company would endeavour to have the entire GPL certified by 2013; and since it was the brainchild of the GPL Chairman of the Board of Directors, Winston Brassington, the vision would continue.
Deonarine stated that GPL embarked on this certification journey in 2008, and Qual-Eco was selected to assist in the process. The company has since succeeded in training 60 documentation specialists, and 75 other persons were trained in audit quality standard by specialist auditors.
He said that GPL is the 13th company in Guyana to reach the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Standard, and it is indeed a proud achievement for GPL to be delivering quality service to its customers. He promised that GPL would continue to strive for excellence.
And Selwyn Medina, the representative from Qual-Eco, told the ceremony on Friday that when GPL started out to be certified, it was a long process; but the company managed to go along through all the processes from scratch, and thus grew to maturity. He said certification was quite an achievement for GPL.
Meanwhile, the representative from DQS-UL, Abriham Daniel, said that the Trinidadian company has been working with more than 20,000 organisations worldwide in the electricity-generation sector in certification. He spoke of the details of the auditing processes GPL had to undergo in becoming certified.
GPL’s Chief Executive Officer, Bharat Dindyal, said that GPL had come a long way in becoming ISO 9001:2008 certified. He congratulated the employees for their efforts, and assured the gathering that the company would maintain its new quality standard.
He noted that GPL is evolving and that many things are happening. The company was seeking to continuously improve its services, and with the certification after three years of hard work, the company was at its peak of achievements. Dindyal lauded the employees for their team work.