ISO45001
Occupational
Health & Safety
ManagementWalraven UK Ltd
Sector: Construction
manufacturing

How BSI certification to two key global standards
proves Walraven’s commitment to quality and healthand safety
The challenge

The solution

The benefit

Construction products manufacturer Walraven
UK Ltd is focused on exceeding customer
expectations and achieving total customer
satisfaction by supplying high quality products
and services. It wanted to maintain a quality
management system that would continuallychallenge and improve its internal processes,
while also adding an additional level of quality
assurance for the companies it supplies.
Walraven is equally serious about the wellbeingof its people. Having initially improved its
health and safety performance by achieving
certification to the occupational health andsafety standard BS OHSAS 18001, it was keen
to remain at the forefront of its sector in thisfield. Its aim was to create an inclusive cultureof awareness throughout the company, where
health and safety would be promoted andappreciated by all employees.

BSI certification to the iconic global standard
ISO 9001:2015 ensures the effective
application of a quality management system,and its continual improvement. It provides
transparency for customers, demonstrating
Walraven’s ability to provide them with highquality products and services consistently,
while also ensuring compliance with statutory
and regulatory requirements.

BSI certification to ISO 9001:2015 hasprovided a structure for Walraven to manage
its business effectively, make continualimprovements, and enhance its customers’satisfaction. It is “the bedrock of the company”.
BSI certification to ISO 45001 has created acomprehensive health and safety management
framework, enabling Walraven to build bestpractice, with risk awareness an integral partof the company’s culture, promoted andappreciated by an engaged
workforce.

The new international health and safety
standard ISO 45001 sets out all therequirements for Walraven to create a robust,
up to date health and safety management
system, placing firm emphasis on theelimination, reduction and mitigationof health and safety risks throughproactive leadership, risk-based
thinking and company-wide
cultural change.

“It’s known that BSI
assessors are very thoroughand quite tough – so meeting
their requirements is not just a ‘tick inthe box’ exercise. That’s positive, because
certification by BSI really means something,both to us and to our customers.”
Katherine Humphries
Finance Manager | Walraven

Company background

Proving quality
Walraven is focused on meeting customer expectations anddelivering customer satisfaction by maintaining high quality
standards for its products and services. To demonstrate thiscommitment, many of its products have national and European
certificates and approvals. The company has also held the world’s
most established quality framework, ISO 9001, for many years, andwas keen to transition to the latest version of this iconic standard
when it was published in 2015.

The solution: ISO 9001:2015
Katherine Humphries, Walraven’s Finance Manager, explains that
BSI certification to ISO 9001:2015 provides transparency forcustomers. “It demonstrates our ability to provide them with highquality products and services consistently, while also meeting
statutory and regulatory requirements,” she says. “In many cases,
it’s essential to get onto ‘preferred supplier’ lists.”
The standard enhances quality and customer satisfaction
through the effective application of systems and processes andtheir continual improvement. Humphries says it has become“the bedrock of the company”. She continues. “Everyone here
understands it and every system we use is built on top of it. It
provides a structure for us to manage our business effectively, as
well as meet our customers’ requirements.”
Neil Young, Walraven’s Compliance Manager, agrees: “We all work
to the same processes and have access to the same information,
which makes it very easy for people to pick up new tasks,” he says.
“ISO 9001 completely supports what we do.”Serious about health and safety
In March 2017, after a workplace accident had prompted Walravento overhaul its safety procedures, it achieved BSI certification tothe occupational health and safety standard BS OHSAS 18001.
“Fortunately, the incident wasn’t serious, but it made us realize
we could make improvements,” says Humphries. In March 2019,
Walraven went a step further by migrating from BS OHSAS 18001
to its successor, the new international health and safety standard
ISO 45001.

The solution: ISO 45001
ISO 45001 sets out all the requirements for the company to createa robust, up to date health and safety management system, placing

A key benefit is that it follows a high levelstructure (HLS), featuring terms, definitions, headings
and text common to other management system standards –allowing the company to integrate it easily with ISO 9001:2015.
Humphries explains that ISO 45001 emphasizes health andsafety awareness as part of the company’s culture, with Walraven
ensuring leadership from its senior managers, as well as employee
engagement and consultation. “The requirements are covered in ourmeetings and in employee newsletters, for example, to ensure we
communicate effectively to all involved,” she says.
She continues, “It took a little time for people to adapt to changes –such as how ‘near miss’ incidents should be reported and recorded– but they have totally bought into the new approach. They feel
more engaged, empowered and looked after. It’s early days, but we’reconfident we’ll see improving trends in terms of safety incidents andsickness absence.”

Why BSI?
Walraven chose BSI as its certification partner because of its
excellent longstanding reputation, and because of the expertise andaccessibility of BSI’s experts: “We have a very good relationship, andBSI has been great in helping us interpret the requirements of thestandards for our business,” says Humphries.
She continues, “It’s known that BSI assessors are quite tough someeting their requirements is not just a ‘tick in the box’ exercise. We
have to provide evidence that we’re doing what we say we are. That’s
positive, because certification by BSI really means something, bothto us and to our customers.”

What next?
Both ISO 9001 and ISO 45001 require twice-yearly audit and acommitment to continuing improvement, “which we’re constantlystriving for,” says Humphries. Walraven is also currently building anenvironmental management system, with the objective of achieving
BSI certification.
Tracey Williams, Walraven’s General Manager, sums up: “As amanufacturer, you must be able to prove to your customers
that not only are you a responsible, reliable partner with robust
systems in place across the business to ensure quality of goods
and services, but that you also demonstrate that commercially you
are a sustainable, committed, forward-thinking partner. Our BSI
certifications to ISO standards are key instruments in achieving allthese goals and more. They help us win and maintain business, but
moreover propel us to the next stage to remain a key partner for ourcurrent and prospective customers for the years to come.”+44 845 080 9000
certification.sales@bsigroup.com
bsigroup.com

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BSI/UK/1634/SC/0919/EN/BLD

With over 1,000 employees, the Walraven Group is based in
the Netherlands and has production facilities and sales offices
throughout Europe, and also in America, the Middle East and theFar East. In the UK, it employs 60 staff at Banbury in Oxfordshire,and has a turnover of approximately £9memphasis on
the elimination,
reduction andmitigation ofhealth and safety
risks through proactive
leadership and risk-based
thinking. The standard provides
a fundamental framework aroundwhich Walraven has built best practice.

Copyright © 2019 The British Standards Institution

Walraven manufactures and supplies a wide range of electrical andmechanical fixings, fire protection systems and sanitary systems.
Many of its innovative products are designed to reduce installation
time for installers. Typically, they are part of total system solutions
used in large construction developments, as well as in offshore,
shipbuilding, industrial and infrastructure projects. The company
also offers services such as free technical support, design,prefabrication and onsite assistance.