THE Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) has honoured 11 local manufacturing and service companies at its inaugural National Quality Awards held recently at the Georgetown Club.

The awards coincided with the observance of Quality Week which began on October 8 and ends on October 14.

Eleven of the 16 companies that participated in the 2017 awards were presented with manufacturing and service awards for quality, after they were assessed and evaluated on the basis of the seven ISO Quality Management Principles.

These principles are customer satisfaction, leadership, engagement of people, use of process approach, improvement, evidence-based decisions and relationship management.

The companies competed in small, medium and large categories for Platinum (highest award) and Gold (second place) Awards.

Platinum Manufacturing Awards for Quality were presented to Massy Gas Products (Large Business Category) and Steve’s Jewellery (Small Business Category).

The National Milling Company of Guyana, KSM Investments and Umami Incorporated received Gold Manufacturing Awards for Quality.

Meanwhile for services, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Assuria GY Inc and MACORP received Platinum Awards, while Gold Awards were presented to Quest Medical Centre, Massy Distributions and Actlabs Guyana.

Other special awards were also presented to businesses and individuals.

For their significant achievement in becoming accredited to international standards, Dr. Balwant Singh Hospital, Eureka Medical Laboratories Inc and the Guyana Rice Development Board Central Laboratory were awarded.

For individual commitment to standardisation, Dr. Chattterpaul Ramcharran and Evadnie Enniss, former executive directors of the GNBS were awarded.

Dickson Hooper, technical assessor of Medical Laboratories and Patrick Dial, National Standards Council member were also awarded.

Additionally, the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) was presented with a special award for its regional efforts in promoting standardisation and quality infrastructure.

These 2017 awardees were commended for their efforts in implementing standards and were congratulated by many who were present at the event, including Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin; chair of the National Standards Council, Allison Butters-Grant; Executive Director of the GNBS, Candelle Walcott Bostwick; and the CEO of CROSQ, Derrick Omar.

The next GNBS National Quality Awards will be held in 2019 and more local businesses are encouraged to begin to implement standards. The GNBS Technical Team is always ready to offer support to businesses in this regard.