DIAGNOSTIC Laboratory Suppliers (DLS) has been conferred with the ISO 9001:2015 certification, a quality management standard meant to rejuvenate internal stakeholder buy-in as well spur the organisation towards meeting its customer obligations.
By Michael Gwarisa
The standard comes a few years after Diagnostic Laboratories embarked on a journey to transition from the old standard, the ISO 9001:2008 to the 9001:2015 which is mainly aimed at testing the organisation’s capacity to manage and asses risks as well as align management policies with objectives of the organisations.
Speaking at the certification event on behalf of Health and Child Care minister, Dr Obadiah Moyo, acting permanent secretary in the ministry, Mr. Douglas Mangwanya said standards will continually improve organizations efficiencies and ranking.
“DLS’s certification is a milestone that reflects their true disposition as a team that is ready to go and reach the pinnacle.
“As we delight in this moment, we must always remember that getting to the top is not always as tough as staying there. It is time we work hard and remain focused to the cause. We believe that ISO certified means their customers and prospects can have confidence that DLS is indeed committed to delivering outstanding customer service, I challenge you today to remain pace setters as far as culture of quality and service deliver is concerned,” said Dr Mangwanya.
He added that the ministry has been implementing a number of measures to ensure quality in the health sector which include ensuring quality within the whole value chain.
Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) Director General, Dr Eve Gadzikwa said the new standard was only valid for three years and meant that DLS is supposed to work extra hard for them to remain at the top of their game.
“We are celebrating the transition of Diagnostic Laboratory suppliers from ISO 9001:2008 to ISO 9001: 2015 especially under this important theme of internet of things. The ISO quality management standard is accepted worldwide as a standard that defines quality.
“Therefore SAZ is indeed here to celebrate an achievement of an internationally accepted organisation. The certificate that we are handing to DSL is internationally recognised the reason being because of the accreditation that the national standards body has, it means we are signatory to the International accreditation forum (ILF) and it means that this certificate will be accepted anywhere in the world, “said Dr Gadzikwa.
She added that the standard emphasises more on the issue of leadership involvement in the quality management system and also emphasises on the importance of risk based thinking.
“Every organisation, large and small, all of them have inherent risks but this particular standard has a focus on risk based thinking. The standard also has a focus on ensuring that there is an alignment between the quality management system policy and the objectives and strategy of the organisation.
“The standard also focuses on the context of the organisation, in other words, the organisation must be able to translate what is happening around to make sure that the system works. Certification to the SAZ 9001:2015 is a demonstration for the organisation’s commitment to quality and ability to satisfy customer requirements,” added Dr Gadzikwa.
Meanwhile, Diagnostic Laboratory Suppliers Managing Director, Mr Edgar Chandiwana said the transformation from 9001:2008 t0 9001:2015 was a welcome move for the organisation as it also pushes the organisation’s leadership and team to perform beyond limits.
“The risk based thinking is the cornerstone of the new standard where you do plan do check act, address risk and opportunities that arise. And also most compelling unlike the old standard, it required much involvement of the leadership.
“With the old standard, you could as an MD or Chief Executive Officer you delegate someoen but the new standard requires involvement and commitment in terms of resource allocation. So this complete commitment for management ensures risk and opportunities are addressed, in turn that can affect conformity of products and services that we deliver to our customers,” said Mr Chandiwana.
He added that lack of alignment of individuals objects will certainly affect the attainment of strategies that they would have set as a company since the new standard is also highly customer centric. The realignment journey to the new standard started in 2017 for the company where the team had to intensify internal training for auditors and other key personal in the firm.
“As a company, our vision is also to become a progressive leader in term of distributing health care solution to the community that we serve. I am saying community that we serve because currently we have got our company here in Zimbabwe where we have been serving for the past 17 years.
“Two years ago we made a strategic decision to say we want to also serve the region. So you find that because of the coming in of the Standard, any requirement in the region be it in South Africa, Zambia or Malawi we are able to participate in tender business, our engineers are requested to come and serve in these countries all because of the standard that we have achieved.”
He also said their mission is to make sure that all laboratory tests are done in Zimbabwe and they have the capacity to supply the tests in the country. Zimbabwe has of late been sending samples for tests in India, South Africa and other countries.
“Our mission is to make sure that all the tests are done here in Zimbabwe, we boastfully say even through most of the tests that are currently being sent to India or elsewhere in the region, we have got the capacity to supply those tests in Zimbabwe,” said Mr Chandiwana.
