ISO-9001 Certificates Credentials Strategic Plan Context of the Organisation Process Objectives GECT ISO 9001 Cell GECT ISO-9001 Cell Team Members Documentation Structure and Applicable Departments Certifying Agency - IRQS A Brief History Audit Reports Downloads Contacts
First certification – 2012
Government Engineering College, Thrissur, (GECT), is staying ahead in providing quality technical education to its students and in turn develop them into employable human resources which meet the current demand of the industry. It is in this direction towards excellence that this institution is exploring new frontiers in providing quality technical education to its students, ultimately leading to the benefit of the industry who can get employable graduates, and thereby benefiting the society at large. It was at this juncture that, GECT has gone for the challenging mission of going for ISO 9001 certification.
It was the 1983 batch alumni of this college, who put forth the idea of ISO 9001 to the college authorities and sponsored this initiative. Er. C. G Subramonian, Chief Facilitator – ZANDIG TQM Solutions who himself an alumnus belonging to 1983 Mechanical Engineering , was so generous by providing a completely voluntary and honorary consultancy service support for this challenging mission with commitment and professional expertise. As the Consultant for ISO 9001 the kind of commitment, dedication and patience, demonstrated by Er. C G Subramonian, to the alma matter are beyond comparison and his name deserves to be engraved in golden letters in the history of the college for his generosity. He rendered unstinted support enabling the college to reach up to certification. Er. C G Subramonian (83ME) provided a complete voluntary and honorary consultancy service for this challenging mission and his name deserves to be engraved in golden letters in the history of the college for his generosity.
The project was jointly sponsored by the Alumni Association and the Parent Teacher Association. The officials of both extended their full and sustained support for facilitating the services required for the ISO 9001 certification.
Early works related to the documentation of procedures of the institution in line with the requirements of ISO 9001 standards was started by the end of 2009. After a series of discussions and meetings with faculty members and heads of departments the college finally gave a shape to its Quality Management System by the end of 2010. Later on 14th January 2011, Dr. Kuncheria P Isaac, then DTE officially launched the Quality Policy and the documented procedures of the institution in presence of the then MP, Mr. P C Chacko.
Principal Dr. K Vijayakumar appointed Prof. T Krishankumar, Professor, ME Dept as Management Representative and Dr. Satish K P, Associate Professor, PE Dept as Deputy Management Representative, for the complete coordination of all activities related to ISO 9001, both of whom played a commendable role in this process. Thereafter the college has started implementing the procedures in all its departments and conducted periodic management review meetings. A team of internal quality auditors were developed from the faculty members by imparting training and periodic and formal internal quality audits were conducted. By 2012 August, it was found that the college has reached a level of maturity of ISO 9001 system implementation and the college decided to go for the certification audit.
Indian Register of Quality Systems (IRQS) was identified as the certifying agency and they were entrusted with the task of doing the certification audit. IRQS came forward and accepted our request of doing the rigorous certification audit. IRQS took an extraordinary interest for our institution as they value very much our association with them. IRQS completed its Phase I audit of certification on 28th June 2012 and on finding the satisfactory implementation recommended for the Phase II audit. The Phase II audit was conducted on 13th and 14th of September 2012. On completion of the audit on 14th September 2012, IRQS audit team comprising of experts from various areas unanimously recommended for ISO 9001 certification for the institution for its Quality Management Systems.
The formal certificate was received by then Director of Technical Education, Dr. J Latha from IRQS and was handed over to the then Principal, Dr. K Vijayakumar, on 12th November 2012. The certification period is for three years 1st October 2012 to 30th September 2015. The scope of certification covers Provision of Graduate and Post Graduate Courses in Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Production Engineering, Electronics & Communication Engineering and Computer Science & Engineering, Graduate Course in Architecture and Post Graduate Course in Computer Applications.
Second Certification – 2015
GECT never relaxed after achieving the recognition in 2012. In 2013 a new team of internal quality auditors were trained, for strengthening the existing IQA team. Internal quality audit and management review meetings were promptly organized without any deviation at regular intervals of six months. The first and second surveillance audits of IRQS were successfully completed in 2013 and 2014. On the expiry of original certification period the matter of renewal was debated at various levels with various departments . All the departments gave positive feedback on the ISO 9001 QMS by citing its ability to bring in an excellent system of maintaining records and documents and the consequential reaping of benefits for achieving NBA accreditation and implementation of TEQIP programmes. On the expiry of original period of certification in 2015, based on the recommendations of then Director of Technical Education, Dr. K Vijayakumar, then Principal, Dr. Indiradevi K P , along with all the Heads of departments took a unanimous decision of going for the renewal of ISO 9001 certification. Once again Consultant Er. C G Subramonin’s assistance was sought for making the plans and preparations for the certification renewal audit, which he offered willingly. Considering the credentials of IRQS it was decided to authorize them for certification audit. MR, Prof. T Krishnakumar, DMR, Dr. Satish K P, along with all the departmental ISO 9001 coordinators worked in full swing to ensure that the certification is retained without any deviations. The expert team from IRQS conducted the renewal audit on 28th Sep 2015. All departments were audited and based on the audit findings IRQS recommended the renewal of the certification for another term of three years up to 14th September 2018.
In June 2016 a three day training programme sponsored by TEQIP was organized. Another team of 28 faculty and staff members from various departments were trained and was deployed for the subsequent internal quality audit.
Third Certification – 2018
The following were the tasks in front of GECT which were required to be completed before the end of second certification term to enable a third term.
Up gradation of the current documented systems and procedures due to affiliation changes in line with the requirements of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University.
Up gradation of the documented systems and procedures in line with the revised requirements of ISO 9001 : 2015 QMS, its implementation and provision of necessary awareness and internal quality audit training.
For the first task, it was required to organize a series of workshops for the revision of documentation. Accordingly five workshops were organized during the period January – June 2017. The complete requirements of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University was documented in line with ISO 9001 QMS Standards requirements and was officially released on 1st June 2017. All the subsequent internal quality audits were successfully completed based on the revised documentation.
For the second task, it was required to organize document revision workshops, ISO 9001: 2015 transition awareness training programmes and transition internal quality audit training programmes. Accordingly the transition awareness training programme was organized on 8th December 2017 and the transition internal quality audit training programme on 9th February 2018. In addition five workshops were also organized during October 2017 to March 2018. The QMS documents was completely revised as per ISO 9001 : 2015 and reissued as Issue no.1 and Revision no. 00 with effect from 1st January 2018.
Internal quality audit and management review meetings were promptly organized without any deviation at regular intervals of six months. The first and second surveillance audits of IRQS were successfully completed in 2016 and 2017. In the review meetings all departments reported a positive feedback on the ISO 9001 QMS by citing its ability to bring in an excellent system of maintaining records and documents and the consequential reaping of benefits for achieving NBA accreditation in 2017.
On the expiry of second period of certification in 2018, based on the feedback from various departments, Principal, Dr. Jayanand B, along with all the Heads of departments took a unanimous decision of going for the renewal of certification in line with revised requirements of ISO 9001: 2015. Assistance from the Consultant Er. C G Subramonian was there for all the workshops and training programs for the document up gradation and transition training. Considering the credentials of IRQS it was once again decided to authorize them for certification audit. Principal, Management Representative, Heads of Departments and all the Departmental ISO 9001 coordinators worked together in full swing to ensure that the successful transition of certification is achieved. The expert team from IRQS conducted the transition renewal audit on 9th and 10th of July 2018. During the audit IRQS reported that the institution GECT has considerably improved in all its activities during the certification period. All departments were audited and based on the audit findings IRQS recommended the renewal of the certification in line with ISO 9001 : 2015, for another term of three years up to 29th September 2021.
Future Plans
The future plans of ISO 9001 Cell consist of, integration of all the requirements of ISO 9001, NBA Accreditation and APJAKTU Academic Audit so that, the total quality management system of GECT are taken care simultaneously. Actions are already initiated for the various activities in line with this objective.
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