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Contact:
Rose Marie Harris
Thursday, July 15, 2004 – Quality assurance personnel of the seven local
companies, whose producers are being assessed for Product Certification by the
Saint Lucia Bureau of Standards received training in “Procedural Writing and
Documentation Management” on Thursday, July 15, 2004. The one day workshop was
designed to drive home the importance of documentation to quality assurance, and
a product certification programme.
Ms. Roycelyn St. Hill who is responsible for the Bureau’s Product Certification
Programme explained that the implementation of such programmes required
organisations to develop new procedures or revise existing ones in order to
ensure the compliance of their operations: “The key is to move towards
consistently repeating best practices and improving those processes which are
lacking. This ensures consistency and helps to reduce errors that can cause
accidents, as problematic issues can be anticipated and avoided.”
Participants were provided with the knowledge base and understanding of how to
produce logical, clearly written and easy-to-follow procedures for operating a
process safely and efficiently. Some of the areas covered during Thursday’s
workshop included Introduction to Documentation, Managing Documentation,
Required Procedures of the Product Certification Programme, Local Industry
Experiences with Documentation, and National Standards for Documentation.
Successful certification by the Bureau will lead to the granting of a license to
the manufacturers to carry the Saint Lucia Standards Mark on their product. The
Standards Mark, which is a quality symbol, is an effective tool for obtaining
access to the local and international market, as it makes a powerful statement
about the conformity of the product to the relevant standard, and is backed by
the Bureau’s signature.
The participation of the seven local companies - Frootsy’s Confectionery, Baron
Foods, Caribbean Spring Mineral Water, Windward Pasta, Carib Pasta, J.Q.
Charles, and Saint Lucia Coconut Growers - in the Bureau’s Product Certification
Programme was funded by the Office of Private Sector Relations (OPSR).
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