Podgorica, 7 December 2016 – Standards cover a wide range of the operations of any organisation, offering the best world practice, a mechanism for continuous improvement and efficient and effective operations. All organisations should use standards for business process management and the development of services and products in order to have better products and a successful business – this was the conclusion of the debate titled “Standards – Why Not?” organised by the EU Info Centre, in cooperation with the Montenegrin Chamber of Commerce.
Standards are a means to enable the orderly and tidy running of a company, they reconcile freedom and responsibility, traditions and dynamics, state and private companies, national interests and international requirements. Standards are divided into technical and management standards, and management standards depend on quality.
“Does quality have a future and is there a future without quality?” asked professor emeritus, Milan J. Perovic, and noted that here, as is the case throughout the region, quality is in a crisis and cannot exist without standards.
He explained that the basis of management standards is the series of quality management systems (QMS) that flow from them remained, such as for environmental management, safety at work and information systems, energy efficiency and project quality, explained Professor Perovic.
Speaking on the subject of voluntary certification, Danilo Radoman, who is the QMS manager in the Port of Bar, said that standards cover a wide range of the operations of any organisation, offering the best world practice, a mechanism for continuous improvement and efficient and effective operations.
“The implementation of standards and certification are activities through which organisations can significantly improve their business”, said Radoman.
He explained the certification cycle and the added value offered by certification, and said that special emphasis is placed on the separation between implementation and certification as two independent activities and the selection of the consultants and certification body. It is wrong to imagine, Radoman argued, that the only important thing at the end is the certificate, and not who issued it.
The quality director at the wine company “Plantaze 13 jul”, Biljana Knezevic, spoke about the importance of certification in the company’s business, primarily in entering international markets, stating that their products are almost everywhere in the world. The company renews its certificates regularly.
“These standards are respected by all employees, and are a reliable management tool used by the top management and have greatly contributed to the spread of Plantaze and to achieving production of about 15 million bottled products and over 40 premium wines”, said Knezevic.
The Montenegrin Chamber of Commerce has established an advisory body for quality issues in order to provide entrepreneurs with basic information on standardisation and implementation of standards and certification, and this information is available free of charge.