IRCA international forum in Japan

There was a strong focus on the global economic crisis at the eighth IRCA International Forum in June. Held in Yokohama, Japan the event explored how the conformity assessment industry should be reacting and contributing during these challenging times.

Simon Feary, director of IRCA and CQI CEO, opened the forum. He said: ‘The certification industry faces many problems magnified by the economic downturn, but we need to take care as an industry to react to these difficulties and pressures in the right way.”

He was followed by keynote speaker, Hirofumi Ono, from the Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) who explained what the Japanese government expects from the certification industry.

Five other presenters took to the stage throughout the day, representing a balance between national and international leaders from the industry. The 300 attendees were given insights into a variety of topics including demonstrating auditor competence to meet ISO 17021, how certification bodies strive to satisfy clients and keeping businesses agile in a recession.

Mike Debenham, policy adviser at the Chartered Quality Institute (see this month’s 60 second interview) gave a presentation on making the most of management systems in a recession. He discussed how management systems can help organizations survive a recession through focus on customer needs and product, service and efficiency improvement.

The forum concluded with a revealing presentation from ISO's policy development committee on conformity assessment (ISO/CASCO) on what they are doing to ensure that accredited certification remains relevant and useful.

A one-day workshop was run the day before the forum for delegates who wished to make the most of the event. The workshop, presented by Mike Debenham, introduced delegates to the concepts of agile business processes and took them through the stages of process specification and process definition. It reminded delegates that excellent customer experience was not delivered solely by management systems and set out the vision of an organizational learning culture that is essential to ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction.