NCS International News Portal

Welcome to NCS International's news portal. This is where you can find all the latest news on certification programs, regulation and client acheivements. If you would like to submit a news article to be featured on this page, email: marketing@ncsi.com.au.

NCSI Certifies Shoalhaven Starches to RSB

NCSI Certifies Shoalhaven Starches

NCS International (“NCSI”) has certified the world’s first organisation against the Principles and Criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (“RSB”). RSB is a new international standard that can be applied across the entire biofuel supply chain, from farmer, processor to fuel blender and aims to ensure biofuels deliver the sustainability benefits promised.

Shoalhaven Starches Pty Ltd, part of the Manildra Group of Companies, successfully achieved certification through NCSI for its production facility at Bomaderry, NSW, Australia, which produces ethanol from waste starch from wheat processing.

You can download the official media release issued Feb 7, 2012 here.

Cadbury - Raising the Bar on Safety Standards

The name behind some of Australia’s favourite chocolate brands, Cadbury received National Audit Tool (NAT) certification in May 2011. During the audit process it was acquired by US food giant Kraft, and the process of unifying safety management systems across the organisation began.

The NAT is now a requirement for workers compensation self-insurers. It was developed in 2005 to provide a complete national standard for workplace safety, and draws on other industry audit tools and standards such as SafetyMAP, AS/NZS 4801 and AS/NZS 4804.

Providing all the tools needed to manage safety effectively, the NAT audits company procedures against 155 criteria. “It is certainly more prescriptive than SafetyMAP,” explains Ken Holmes, Environment, Health and Safety Manager at Cadbury’s Claremont factory in Tasmania.

Cadbury had been certified to Level 1 on the SafetyMAP tool, and were working towards Level 2 when NAT became a requirement for worker’s compensation self-insurers.

“We knew we had to transition over to the NAT, so we did a self-assessment in July 2010 to see whether we were ready. We felt we were fairly close, the gap analysis showed we just had to make sure all requirements were in place.”

Ken asked Trevor Ross, NCS International (NCSI) Client Manager for Cadbury, to start the audit process in August.

A fresh perspective on safety

Ken was confident that they already had a comprehensive safety system in place at Claremont, which is the largest chocolate factory in the southern hemisphere.

“We checked that we had evidence for all the building blocks of the NAT in place, including up to date health and safety policies that have been clearly communicated to people across our sites. We’d been in a state of transition, and policies can get out of date fairly quickly.”

Ken believes their system of setting clear objective and targets, and of supporting those with a reviewed safety management plan, was robust. “However, training and competence is always a challenge, so we closed a few gaps in that area.”

For Ken, the biggest issue for a health and safety manager is implementation. “You can have very good policies and procedures, but it’s the effectiveness of implementation at shop floor level that’s the challenge – making sure our people are consistently doing the right thing all the time.”

As a more prescriptive tool, the NAT certainly focuses on behaviour on the factory floor. “But I think it’s also important to consider safety management at a higher level, improving safety culture over time,” says Ken.

Independent verification is an important part of the NAT process. It picks up issues that may have been missed in self-assessment, and by going beyond the paper trail, with physical observations and interviews, it can also assess whether behaviour matches intention. There is also an opportunity to learn from the way other sites manage situations.

“We had always mapped health and safety responsibilities from the top down,” explains Ken. “But Trevor suggested reversing that, cascading responsibilities up the chart as you move from employee to line manager to operations manager. That’s been a worthwhile change.”

Other suggestions included refining the process for storing and labelling chemicals and gas bottles, and the ways dangerous materials were handled. “We also occasionally learned that a standard had been updated, and it hadn’t been picked up in our legal review process. So when we were advised by the auditor, we could check we were still compliant,” says Ken.

Working towards a single safety system

Following the acquisition of Cadbury, Kraft has become a global market leader in confectionary, and its Australian operation is certainly a local food giant. Bringing all parts of the larger organisation under one safety umbrella in time for the first audit proved to be a major challenge.

“We aspired to have one common certification across the business,” explains Ken. “But as it turned out, there were too many differences across the Kraft business, so we had to split it up.”

Trevor needed to review and verify the reports for each individual site, and make separate assessments. “Individually, all the parts of the business had good systems, but when I put them together they were all different. So they needed to be split into groups to assess them properly,” says Trevor.

NCSI approved the final certifications for two sites in Tasmania and two sites in Victoria on May 13, 2011.

Eventually, Kraft wants all sites to run the same, and be certified under one tool – something the NAT, as a national standard, makes possible. “They’re making progress towards streamlining the processes, and will be able to unify them under Kraft requirements,” says Trevor. He is continuing to review Cadbury’s NAT certification with six-monthly surveillance audits.

“We’re currently looking at taking the best from the best from both organisations,” says Ken. “By mapping Kraft Global Standards for health and safety, we can make sure we close any gaps at a regional and site level.”

He acknowledges that a fresh pair of eyes from outside is always useful in that process. Ultimately, that external perspective on a consistent standard supports Cadbury’s Australian staff in making continuous improvements to their workplace health and safety procedures. And that’s also reassuring for the millions of sweet-toothed Australians who continue to enjoy their Freddo Frogs, Cherry Ripes and Crunchies.

The ABC's of Safety

It’s as Easy as ABC

From attitude to behaviour and commitment, the successful implementation of any type of management system is determined by the characteristics of an organisation and its staff. NCSI's Ian Ackland discusses the ABCs of safety, quality and environmental management systems, and examines the potential risk of focusing solely on compliance, rather than culture.

Safety management systems should be as easy as ABC

In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Ironically, this explosion took place just seven hours after a group of BP and Transocean VIPs arrived for a routine management walk-around, with a focus on checking safety systems.

Ian Ackland, senior safety auditor with NCS International, believes this is just one example of a man-made disaster that could have been averted. For a safety management system to be effective, an organisation needs to achieve a state of ‘safety mindfulness’, where safety culture is much more than just a checklist or an afterthought in the boardroom.

“So often, the message about safety gets over-complicated,” he explains. “But if you keep it simple, it all comes together from top to bottom in an organisation.”

Unified Management System Theory

After many years’ conducting safety audits, and working in safety management in the public and private sector, Ian has developed his own ‘Unified Management System Theory’. Like the Unified Field Theory, it brings all interactions together in a single framework. It’s as simple as A, B and C, and it applies to all management systems, including quality, environmental and safety.

Attitude

An individual employee’s attitude towards safety, the environment or customers will determine what they will or won’t do. They need to accept the conditions and constraints of their job or task, even if it seems to them it will take more time.

Then, the actions employees take depends on their awareness of what is required, and how it aligns with the overall organisational system.

Behaviour

Workplace behaviours are black and white; they are either safe or unsafe, they meet customer needs or they don’t. Belief systems underpin our behaviour, which is influenced by our ‘worldview’ of the organisation, and ethical and moral considerations.

Behaviour is a significant factor in determining a business culture. The way employee behaviour is manifested towards customers could well determine whether your business retains those customers.

Culture

Many organisations are now moving away from compliance for legislative requirements and towards a safety culture. But what does that really mean? It requires a commitment from senior executive management, and effective communication across the company. Co-operation, collaboration and communication all play a vital role in developing an authentic safety culture.

The same applies to quality culture, where organisations focus on their customers, and an environmental culture, where we broaden our definition of a ‘stakeholder’ to include the environment.
These A, B and C fundamentals are common to all management systems, as any system is not simply about documents or processes; it relies on the people involved.

Ian believes a critical part of the journey towards creating this culture is to think beyond customers, and think about how systems apply to stakeholders as a whole. That includes staff, suppliers, and the community at large. By applying management systems to any individual or business that is part of its eco-system, the organisation makes a powerful statement about its culture.

“These principles are relevant to any system and organisation, so it’s important to think about them first.”

How do you certify a culture?

Ian is starting to see a shift in attitudes when it comes to auditing safety management systems. “We’re working with a major client who wants to assess behaviour as part of the certification audits, so they can improve safety and environmental outcomes.” He sees this as a positive step in moving away from just ticking off what needs to be done for compliance.

“If clients are doing behavioural surveys, it shows a real maturity in the organisation. It focuses the systems on a belief within the whole company, and they do it because they think it’s right, not because they have to.”

NCSI has also recently conducted an internal survey, the Mettle Culture Survey, for an independent perspective on how its own culture affects behaviour in the organisation.
The impact of safety mindfulness on behaviour

Looking again at the case of the Deepwater Horizon rig, a focus on checking behaviour rather than conditions could have made all the difference.

In a working paper  for the National Research Centre for OHS regulation, Professor Andrew Hopkins of ANU explains that the VIPs focused their informal audit on checking conditions were as they should be, rather than checking on behaviours. This is not unusual: conditions are relatively unchanging and easier to audit. When behaviour is intermittent, only occurring sporadically, it can be missed. The visitors also did not want to disrupt activities, and limited their time on the floor of the drilling rig.

“A safe system is easily spoilt by the unsafe behaviour of people working within it,” says Ian. “Likewise, quality is simply a perception of customer satisfaction. Upset customers can quickly wreck a business, and it is employee behaviour that will upset them, not the systems that are in place.”

This is where a safety culture comes into play. “Safety needs to be taken on as an integral and critical part of the business at al levels, rather than being an afterthought in the boardrooms or at organisational management level.”

Ian has seen many examples of this. “As an auditor, the first thing I look for is whether the company is still committed to running its system. If they aren’t even doing the basics, there’s trouble ahead.”

“I’ve seen clients with no evidence of management commitment, and there’s simply no point in continuing with certification, because they’re not putting it into practice in the workplace.” Individual attitudes and beliefs may be aligned to safety, but without top-level commitment the system will fail.

Conversely, he’s also seen examples where the CEO says ‘safety is our first priority’ - yet on the tracks or factory floor that’s not evident. “If the processes that should be in place are not actually happening, it’s just lip service at senior level.” And that’s a clear case of communication breakdown.

To properly audit behaviour, which is more subjective in nature, Ian advocates using a Behavioural Audit Checklist. “The auditor would need to look at perceptions, observing how people act or react in a given situation, how they respond to a scenario put forward to them,” he explains. “This is not just about workplace health and safety – it applies to all management systems. So the auditor would also need to observe how they behave in relation to customers and other stakeholders, as well as the environment.”

Ian’s principles of management systems may sound simple. “It’s self-evident really,” he concludes. “And it’s all there in AS 4801, ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 – but it needs to be made less complex for people and organisations to realise how easy it can be to get it right.”

Disasters such as that in the Gulf of Mexico also remind us how important it is for organisations to truly understand their safety management obligations. An effective management system needs to invoke safety mindfulness, and actively encourage a positive safety culture.

Credible Carbon Reporting: Key Lessons

Australian companies are becoming increasingly aware of climate change impacts and emerging policies on their businesses. Progressive companies are beginning to put their own carbon footprint under the microscope. Motivation for companies, large and small, to disclose their carbon footprint is quite clear – greater visibility into energy use and the opportunity to reduce energy wastage, improve efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, negotiate more favourable energy contracts and save money.

Having reviewed and audited companies’ greenhouse emissions and energy over the past couple of years, we’ve found the level and rigour of disclosure of carbon footprints is highly variable.

For many resource‐stretched businesses, the challenge of preparing a greenhouse and energy inventory may initially appear daunting, where does one start? Companies operating numerous and geographically dispersed energy‐consuming facilities and assets face particular data quality management challenges relating to data acquisition, handling, processing and reporting.

Carbon and energy accounting requires a systematic methodical approach to acquiring relevant energy data from diverse sources across various business operations, processing and manipulating data, quantifying greenhouse emissions, aggregating emissions into relevant categories and reporting emissions at various business levels.

There are internationally accepted standards for preparing greenhouse inventories including ISO 14064, the GHG Protocol for corporate reporting. Any carbon footprint accounting and disclosure must fulfil five key principles of high integrity, credible reporting:

1. Relevance: The greenhouse gas inventory must appropriately reflect the greenhouse gas emissions of the company and properly reflect emission form areas over which a company has control and hold responsibility.

2. Completeness: Greenhouse gas emission sources and activities within the chosen inventory boundary must be accounted for and any exclusion must be disclosed.

3. Consistency: Consistent methodologies must be used to allow meaningful comparisons of emissions over time and any changes to the data, inventory boundary, methods, or emissions factors must be disclosed.

4. Transparency: All relevant decisions, issues, and data must be addressed in a factual and coherent manner to provide a clear audit trail for independent verification and any assumptions must be disclosed

5. Accuracy: There must be sufficient accuracy to enable users to make decisions about the integrity of the reported information with reasonable assurance. Quantification of greenhouse gas emissions must not be systematically over or under the actual emissions.

As greenhouse auditors who certify greenhouse reports to the international standard ISO 14064, we often come across common issues facing reporting organisations. Here are some key things to be aware of:

Greenhouse and energy accounting needs to be institutionalised within the organisation. Be sure to establish an appropriate cross‐functional team as often data will need to be gathered from various business areas such as accounts, facilities management, engineering and maintenance, fleet department, procurement, etc.

An effective, concisely documented greenhouse inventory quality management plan is imperative. It need not be voluminous ‐ aim for a 6 to 12 page concise roadmap showing responsibilities and authorities of key personnel; organisational boundaries and facilities being reported; relevant emission sources; data sourcing, gathering and handling processes; quantification methods and tools to be applied; internal quality checking processes; reporting activities and templates; and carbon offsetting and trading activities.

Use technology that’s fit‐for‐purpose and that you can easily monitor and control. You may not necessarily need an expensive proprietary software or outsourced “cloud‐based database bureau service” if all you require is a well‐managed and controlled spreadsheet application. Remember, GIGO (garbage in, garbage out). If data is not validated and checked before its uploaded into software or a database, the reports you get may contain numerous errors that will cost you time and more money to rectify. If outsourcing, ensure your bureau service provider assumes liability for accurate data capture, validation and accuracy.

Make sure you can get reports from your bureau service provider in spreadsheet format so you can conduct your own independent checks on automated reports.

Implement your own independent data checking, validation and review.

Consider having your report independently verified and assured by a credible independent auditor especially if you’re reporting to government or a voluntary registry.

Information is knowledge, so implement a robust greenhouse and energy inventory system and use it to identify and energy wastage and realise opportunities to improve energy efficiency, reduce energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Call us today on 1300 856 554.

Sydney Fish Market Greenhouse Certified in Industry First

Sydney Fish Market, the largest wholesale seafood market in the Southern Hemisphere, recently became the first Australian food-sector company to achieve certification of its 2009/2010 Greenhouse emissions report to the International Standard for Corporate Greenhouse Reporting  - ISO 14064-1:2006.

This first step was initiated by executive management in 2010 to gain better visibility into the business' baseline carbon footprint before it embarks on planned expansion of the market. The Sydney Fish Market greenhouse inventory team was lead by the Environmental Manager, Mr Craig Murray, who undertook the internationally-recognised training in the Basics of Organisational Greenhouse Accounting provided by NCS International in partnership with US-based Greenhouse Gas Management Institute.

"Comprehensive training provided us the necessary greenhouse accounting knowledge, skills and tools that helped us prepare a comprehensive greenhouse emissions inventory and report that were transparent and robust enough to withstand the scrutiny of NCS International's independent greenhouse auditors", said Mr Murray.    

In order to meet requirements of ISO 14064, Sydney Fish Market had to commit resources to implement data quality management systems and processes to efficiently gather, document and process relevant data on the fuel and energy use of operations it controls.  Through greater awareness of its carbon footprint, the market will now start exploring potential for energy efficiency measures aimed at reducing its greenhouse impact. 

Sydney Fish Market is a very prominent, publicly visible business and achieving certification gives internal stakeholders and the broader community confidence in the business's ongoing commitment to environmental improvement and sustainability initiatives. Now that the market has such transparency in its carbon data, it can begin to reduce its carbon footprint and increase energy efficiency - with a view to perhaps one day achieving carbon neutrality.

To find out more about internationally-recognised training in corporate greenhouse accounting and reporting or certification to the ISO 14064 international standard for corporate greenhouse reporting, please  email Nav Brah (Environment and Sustainability Services Manager at NCS International) at Nav.Brah@ncsi.com.au.

For more information on Sydney Fish Market and its sustainability initiatives, visit their website www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au

Case Study: Sofitel

Eco-management positions Sofitel on top of the world

Certification: ISO 14001- Environmental Management Systems

Sofitel Melbourne on Collins has won many awards, but it is particularly proud of its latest title. It is the first luxury hotel in Australia to receive ISO 14001 accreditation for Environmental Management Systems.

The hotel, located at the prestigious ‘Paris end' of Collins St, has 363 luxurious rooms and suites with panoramic views across the Melbourne CBD and Port Phillip Bay. No35, its restaurant, was awarded ‘Restaurant of the Year' by the Australian Hotels Association for two consecutive years in 2010 and 2011. As part of Europe's leading hotel group Accor, Sofitel's contemporary and stylish hotels and resorts can be found in over 40 countries.

Last year, the Accor Group made it mandatory for all Sofitel properties worldwide to meet HACCP Food Safety certification. This was no issue for Sofitel Melbourne, as NCS International (NCSI) has audited it for HACCP since 2005. Accor's IBIS chain will also be required to meet ISO 14001 globally over the next few years - but again, Sofitel Melbourne is leading the way.

"We wanted to do something positive for the environment, and position ourselves as a leader in the luxury hotel market," explains Darren Sankaradas, Quality and Risk Manager at Sofitel Melbourne. This vision was a joint effort of General Manager Clive Scott, and Rens Breur the Hotel Manager. The key to their success was staff training, ensuring a whole business approach to sustainable initiatives.

Focusing on core activities

Achieving ISO 14001 was a two year process for Darren and his committee. "First, we had training at NCSI, and then we formed a staff committee. We understood that Environmental Management Systems (EMS) are not a one-off - it's an ongoing process of change and we needed to involve hotel staff at all levels and in all areas of the hotel."

Sofitel shares its CBD high-rise building with other tenants, so this posed a key challenge in terms of what they could measure and control. Energy and water is metered for the building as a whole.

"We had to focus on the three things we could control - waste, energy and water," says Darren. Sofitel's Chief Engineer, Anton Van Den Brink developed spreadsheets to monitor the hotel's usage, so they had transparent reporting and could meet sustainable targets.

The staff committee established a range of new processes to better manage those three core areas. To save energy, all rooms now have motion sensors for lighting as part of their new energy management system. Water-saving showerheads were fitted, and there is now an operational focus on fixing any leaks quickly.

To manage waste and recycling, Darren needed to ensure their suppliers would work in partnership with them, and conform to new standard procurement guidelines.

"For example, all pallets now have to be recycled or branded, so we can make sure they are returned rather than disposed of," he explains. "No cling-wrapping, and all packaging is recycled."

Education and training was vital in implementing these process changes. "Many of our staff have been with us for 25 years, so understanding the need to recycle absolutely everything means changing long-term behaviour. Instead of throwing away left over food from a function it is now sent to a recovery facility, it now gets transformed into fertilizers."

Sustainability Victoria also supported the hotel with posters and speaker sessions for staff.

"Managing waste requires a significant cultural change," says Darren. "But now, everyone understands how fragile the environment is".

A sustainable approach that's good for business

This focus on internal training certainly paid off during the audit. "The NCSI auditor conducted a random sample, asking individual staff about the processes to check their understanding," says Darren. "We were aiming for a 95% compliance result. We actually achieved 100%. Every single staff member went through EMS training. We wanted it at all times to be a focus at every level of the hotel."

Darren says it was straightforward working with the NCSI team on this new standard, as they already knew what to expect. And the hotel is now seeing the rewards of their efforts.

"We received certification in May 2011, and the impact is already starting to show. Not only on our energy and resource consumption, but also in business. We can show proof of our sustainability in contract proposals and marketing documents."

This allows the hotel to target Government and major businesses for events and accommodation. "Their contracts always ask about food safety and environmental factors, so it's information that we can provide with confidence.  "Darren believes they will definitely save money in the long-term, with reductions in water, energy and materials. "We won't see those rewards tomorrow, but I definitely believe we will see costs go down."  Engineering reports already point to a decline in consumption. Electricity consumption was 14% lower this May compared to the previous year, and gas usage reduced by 10% in the same period. Water use dropped a massive 47% last December compared to the previous year, and 2011 figures are yet to be calculated.

With new business opportunities, cost reductions and a hotel-wide understanding of the importance of saving resources, it seems that Sofitel's new environmental management processes add up to a successful formula for sustainable business practice.

2011 Chairman's Award Winner - FK Gardner & Sons

NCS International welcomes FK Gardner & Sons, from the construction industry, to its list of high achievers with the 2011 NCSI Chairman’s Award.

The Chairman’s Award recognises management system excellence and is awarded to clients performing above and beyond the call of duty with regards to the development and implementation of their management system/s.

The award is the highest recognition NCSI bestows upon its clients and their staff and publicly recognises those who strive to manage risks and demonstrate the highest standards of excellence in the implementation and maintenance of continuous improvement. During the nomination and review process, NCSI’s CEO Greg Jewson noted “This whole organisation is contributing to a very effective management system, FKG seem to have a deep philosophical commitment to the process from the top down”.

NCSI General Manager Operations Mick Berry made the presentation on behalf of the NCSI Board of Directors at the FKG Brisbane office, with Systems Manager Scott Carter accepting the award on behalf of the construction firm.

“FKG have spent considerable time and effort developing an integrated management system which clearly aims to meet the true intent of each standard rather than simply aiming for compliance.’ NCSI GMO Mick Berry noted.

‘It permeates thinking at all levels of the organisation. It is comprehensive and, most importantly, sustainable.”

FK Gardner and Sons General Manager, Mr Nick Gardner said winning the Chairman’s Award was a very proud achievement for the company.

“This achievement cements FKG as a market leader with our clients.  There is an increasing need and reliance in our industry in being able to demonstrate that the management systems in place work well and are not just provided “lip service”.  Our recent QSE and Federal certifications, coupled with this award, are very beneficial in showing our clients that we can deliver on what we say we’re going to do and that we have the processes in place to manage their projects effectively”.

The Chairman’s Award is awarded to clients nominated by NCSI audit staff who collectively deliver thousands of audits each year across a full range of industry sectors and within organisations of all sizes.

Nominees are then reviewed against the award’s criteria by a Senior Management Committee before votes are placed and a winner is decided.

Queensland Flood Relief - NCSI Contribution

During late December of 2010 and early January of 2011 unprecedented flooding inundated many areas of Queensland causing widespread devastation and damaging thousands of homes, businesses and farmland areas. During the flooding, in which 22 lives were lost and hundreds injured, more than three quarters of the state of Queensland was declared a disaster zone. Recovery work is now underway.

Since December, NCS International staff have donated $4110.50 to help the citizens of Queensland start to rebuild their lives. NCS International would like to match this staff contribution for a combined donation of $8221.00 towards the QLD flood relief.

Sustainable Baking: Homestyle Bake harvests another excellence award

NCSI would like to congratulate our client Homestyle Bakeries Pty Ltd in their recent win at the Queensland Baking Industry Awards held in Brisbane. The award recognises Homestyle Bake as a business that significantly limits its impact upon the environment. Full Story  

Geraldton Port Authority Achieve Top Marks with SMS & EMS

Geraldton Port Authority’s Safety and Environmental Management Systems have been certified as compliant with the requirements of AS/NZS 4801:2001 (Occupational Health and Safety Management) and AS/NZS ISO 14001:2004 (Environment Management).

GPA CEO Peter Klein said the certification was a substantial achievement and demonstrated the value the organisation placed on effective management of occupational health and safety and environmental risk management. Full Story  

Wespine Wins State Award

NCSI Would like to congratulate a client of our's Wespine Industries on their recent win at the 19th annual WA Information Technolody and Telecommunications Awards for its monitoring and analysis of production system. Full Story  

NCSI Awards Bidvest Top Honours

To achieve top accolades in any industry field is a great recognition for an organisation. So when determining which organisation was to receive the NCSI Chairman’s Award for the final half of 2009, NCSI was proud to recognise the management systems excellence at Bidvest Australia Limited. The continuous high standard demonstrated and across the board commitment to quality and food safety management systems displayed by all Bidvest staff and management is something which any organisation should strive towards. Full Story  

ISO 20252: Strong Foundations for Quality Research

Download the Case Study here

Certification: ISO 20252 Market and Social Research Standard

As social, opinion and market research organisations grew, and as they gained clients across borders and through different mediums, it became clear that a common quality management system was required. In 2006, the International Organisation for Standardisation developed the ISO 20252 standard to meet the needs of an increasingly global research sector. Full Story  

NCS International delivers world class TS 16949 certification for the automotive industry, further extending capabilities in the manufacturing sector.

ISO/TS 16949 is widely known as the business improvement management systems standard specifically for the automotive industry, providing assurance and confidence to car manufacturers and automotive customers that all components supplied are manufactured to international standards. NCS International has two highly experienced automotive auditors to perform ISO/TS 16949 certification. Full Story  

Click to download the Roy Morgan Research Case Study here

A leader in Australian research

In today’s competitive environment, knowledge is power. But that knowledge is only useful if it is real and accurate. Research data needs to be backed by rigorous quality processes to ensure that business and government strategies are developed on the comparable and current information. Full Story  

TAFE NSW – Northern Sydney Institute (NSI) Director, Kevin Harris, College staff and NCS International (NCSI) Pty Ltd CEO, Greg Jewson recently attended a ISO14001 certificate presentation at NSI’s North Sydney College.

The ISO14001 certification follows NCSI’s completion of 18 external audits of teaching sections and operational units with significant risk to the environment. Full Story  

As the curtain closes on yet another season of the V8 Supercars, NCS International shares its debut in the racing arena with both a new circuit and a new driver.

Whilst many people may think auditing is a conservative profession based on certainty and limited risk, NCSI stepped out of the box last weekend offering our clients a ride on the wild side, supporting our V8 Supercar in the 2009 Fujitsu Series. Full Story  

Council’s divisions are always striving to meet the highest standards of operational excellence to ensure we can steer Brisbane towards our Vision 2026.


Brisbane CityWorks (BCW) is leading the way by having its certification for Environmental, Quality and Safety management system standards renewed by NCS International. Full Story  

NCS International is proud to announce the opening of two new offices in North America to extend the organisations support to our growing client base in the United States and Canada.  While NCS International has been present in the US for a number of years and has developed an extensive client portfolio, these clients have been remotely serviced from the Australian Head Office in Sydney. Full Story  

Certification: Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) Food Safety Standard with NCS International

Download the Preshafood case study here

In 2001, Donald Gibb saw a demonstration of a new high-pressure processing (HPP) machine at a CSIRO Information Day. He saw the potential for processing local Victorian stone fruit into yoghurt and dairy products, and began market feasibility studies. Full Story