Penske achieves QMS system that works for you with Symbol

Logistics service provider

Penske Logistics is located at the Majoppenveld industrial park in Roosendaal, centrally located between Rotterdam and Antwerp. From this location, Penske offers its customers a logistics concept in which it takes complete care of the supply chain. As part of a global corporation, Penske can also serve its customers on other continents with its services. Penske Logistics transports goods around the world, to all continents, to every destination. It can also store goods in its own warehouses. If necessary, it can take over the total handling of shipments and the central management of its customers’ logistics flows.

The organization was already ISO certified (ISO 9001:2008), but there was a need to add more structure to the processes, standardize work instructions in a program that could visually represent this. We spoke with Jan Luijten, Quality & Operations Manager at Penske Logistics in Roosendaal.

“A QMS system that works for you.”

“Our processes were established, in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001. Only we could not work well with it. We missed the overview and it was difficult to look up information quickly. We wanted to add more structure to this and improve findability. Although we had described all our processes, what was missing in this was what our primary process actually is. Where do we actually make our money and what are support services? And what are the guiding processes now? And how do we secure the processes and thus our customer relationship, because our processes must align with the interests of our customers and other stakeholders.

A clear visual system

We also already wanted to work more in accordance with the new ISO 9001:2015 standard. This standard assumes much more process thinking and puts the customer first. The ultimate goal was a clear, visual system that works for both our own organization and the client. For this, we engaged Symbol. Together with the Symbol consultant, we redesigned the entire quality system the Penske way and in the Penske corporate identity. Behind each process description, relevant information such as work instructions, forms and records can be found immediately. This way you are at the very lowest level in 2-3 mouse clicks. So very transparent and unlike before, everything is very easy to find.

We are certified on 3 quality systems: ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and HACCP. In April this year, we passed re-certification with flying colors.

Understanding primary, support and steering processes

The Symbol consultant mainly took stock of how our company is structured and what is important in it for the quality management system. What now adds value to the primary processes. Much from our old systems we were able to delete.
After the Symbol consultant created a project proposal, he interviewed the process owners within our organization. With that, we first identified the primary processes. Next, the supporting and guiding processes.

Once this was accommodated in a clear format, which we also developed with the Symbol consultant, the process owners were tasked with further describing and filling out the processes. They screened all processes within the organization and brought them under the new format. This proved a huge task for the process owners. As a team, they ended up making a tremendous effort.

Symbol notably advised. We are not yet certified to the new ISO 9001:2015 standard, but we are already prepared for this. In the end, we did it mostly for ourselves and our customers and not for the standard.

Persuasion and commitment a necessity for success

We may have stepped into this project a little lightly. It proved quite complicated to determine exactly what the core processes were. Many staff members provide a lot of information. I really underestimated how many man hours were invested in it. Properly mapping out your processes and thus getting your quality assurance in order is a major project. It’s worth it but don’t underestimate it! Meanwhile, we also use our quality system to inform our customers. If they have a question about our quality assurance, we can show them with a few clicks in our quality system how we have organized it.

If you want to have a quality system that works for you – that was our basic idea – it can only work if everyone actually works with it. This should be clear to everyone. Involvement of the entire organization in the quality program is a must! You need the cooperation and support of all the people in your organization. If the project group is not supported organization-wide, then don’t start it!

We wanted to get our quality right for us and our customers

It is important to know well why you are embarking on such a project. After all, it takes a lot of time and money, and ultimately must meet your expectations and goals. However, for us, even if a quality system like ISO or HACCP were not mandatory, we still want to have our quality in order. For ourselves and for our customers!

The cooperation with Symbol’s consultant was very pleasant. The consultant has been instrumental in the success of our project. I myself came in contact with Symbol by attending a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt training with them, and I immediately had a positive feeling about this organization.”

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