We are celebrating maximum scores on a utility industry audit done as a ‘virtual inspection’ because of the Covid-19 lockdown.
We secured the top ratings for our quality and environmental procedures in a wide-ranging, two-day audit by international supply chain accreditor Achilles.
The result confirms our place on Achilles’ UVDB (utility vendor database) and demonstrates compliance with the supplier requirements of major municipal water customers and electricity supply companies.
Neil Pizzey, Amazon Filters’ Managing Director, said: “This is a significant stamp of approval for us, providing current and prospective clients with a clear line of sight across our ‘quick and able’ supply credentials, management systems and project capacity.
“We hope that such independent, third-party recognition keeps us top of mind as being among the very best contractors in the utilities sector.”
“It gives us a further opportunity to maintain our order book and develop new business among the UK’s biggest water companies and other major customers.”
With an on-location audit ruled out due to Covid-19, Amazon Filters’ Technical Manager Keith Wickert used the Microsoft Teams workplace conferencing solution to provide the Achilles team with the information they needed.
Keith said: “Teams turned out to be a great tool for managing this activity. Documents could be shared with the auditor and colleagues brought into the audit as necessary.”
Founded in 1990 with an oil and gas specialism, Achilles now serves a global supply chain community of more than 800 buyers and 175,000 suppliers in all kinds of industries.
Municipal water companies are among those demanding prospective suppliers score highly before they are considered fit-for-purpose for contracts.
A twin focus on business-critical and sector-specific questioning gives buyers the opportunity to sound out a supplier’s pre-qualification credentials ahead of tendering, so de-risking the procurement exercise.
Our Achilles success comes just weeks after we used remote working to overcome the Covid-19 challenge and pass two re-certification audits by the UK’s national standard body, BSI.
These focused on the international standards ISO 9001 for quality management and ISO 14001 for environmental sustainability.
