Inti Indorayon gets management certificate
Inti Indorayon gets management certificate
MEDAN, North Sumatra (JP): PT Inti Indorayon Utama, one of Indonesia's largest producers of pulp and rayon, accepted an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9002 certificate yesterday as international recognition of the overall quality of its management system.
The ISO 9000 series certificates, which are required in order to maintain and expand international market shares, was presented by SGS Yarsley International Certification Services Ltd., a subsidiary of the Geneva-based Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) -- the world's leader in inspection, testing and verification services.
"The ISO 9000 series certificates are required tickets for companies to enter the global market," noted Gatot Ibnusantosa, the director in charge of the pulp and paper industry at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, who witnessed the presentation ceremony.
Gatot added that Indonesia is richly endowed with natural resources to make it the world's lowest-cost pulp producer but "our producers should conform with the ISO 9000 series standards to be able to enter the North American and European markets".
"This ISO 9002 certificate now makes Indorayon, in terms of quality, well comparable to international pulp producers," added Sujata, the director general for agricultural and forestry products, who also attended the ceremony.
The ISO 9000 standards measure not the quality of products nor services but the quality of the systems by which they are produced. ISO registered companies are perceived by customers to offer better quality products or services than those which are not certified.
Erik Roger, president of SGS International Certification, said some of the major elements of standards assessed by an accredited ISO registrar or certification body like his company are management responsibility, quality of system, quality of costs, quality of audits, personnel and training.
Green products
Sujata noted that consumers in the industrialized countries now prefer what are called green products or goods which are produced through an environmentally friendly process.
He hoped that Indorayon -- the first Indonesian pulp and rayon producer who won the ISO 9000 certificate -- would prepare itself to conform with the ISO 14000, an international environmental management system.
According to PT Sucofindo, the state surveyor company, fewer than 140 companies in the country have won ISO 9000 certificates, compared to more than 400 in Malaysia and 500 in Singapore.
Indorayon's President Polar Yanto Tanoto said the ISO 9002 certificate is a stepping stone for his company to win the ISO 14000, the environmental management system, which will be introduced globally in the middle of this year.
Rolf M. Jensen, Indorayon's quality assurance manager, said it took about two years for the company to conform with all the standards and procedures required for the ISO 9002 certificate.
"SGS itself took about seven months to assess our company, including plant inspection, before it decided to award us the certificate, " Jensen added. (vin)