Quality Standard 
 The Ship Supply Industry Quality Standard and the EU'AEO programmeOn 29 June 2007, the European Commission published document TAXUD/2006/1450, the GUIDELINES to become an "AUTHORISED ECONOMIC OPERATOR". These guidelines make important statements: On page 11, these guidelines make reference to II.3 Factors facilitating the authorisation process and II.3.2 "Certifications and conclusions provided by experts". The European Commission recognises that in order to speed up the processing of AEO applications, customs authorities should use, wherever possible, information they already hold on AEO applicants, in order to reduce the time needed for pre-audit. Amongst others, this will include information from information which has already been communicated to the customs authority, existing standards held by the applicant; and existing conclusions of the relevant experts. Customs officials should also take into consideration internationally recognised standards: The most relevant standards which have been identified until now are various ISO standards (for example ISO 9001, 14001, 20858, 28000, 28001, 28004), and the ISPS Code. OCEAN believes that the ISSA Quality Standard goes a long way in facilitating the AEO application and verification process and therefore speeds up the entire AEO grating procedure. The ISSA Quality Standart 2010 The 'ISSA Quality Standard' is based on the worldwide recognised by ISO Standard 90001:2000 but has been tailor-made to apply specifically to the ship supply industry. Updated in 2010 it also takes into consideration the International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs procedures (Kyoto Convention) - section 4 on stores. Requirements under ISPS, as far as they relate to shipsupply have also been included in the standard. Aim of the ISSA Quality Standard The traditional aim of the ISSA Quality Standard is to demonstrate to the world's shipowners and shipmanagers that ISSA's commitment to a quality-driven service is absolute. As such, the ISSA Quality Standard has already been endorsed by InterManager, the trade association for the world's in-house and third party ship managers. Rajaish Bajpaee, InterManager President, said his association was pleased to endorse the new quality standard because “it puts in place a system to ensure the quality of the supply process and if well managed, will help to ensure that essential goods are sourced and supplied to ISSA customers in a timely and cost-effective manner. “I believe that compliance with the ISSA Quality Standard will set a new benchmark of excellence in the logistics chain for the benefit of the shipping industry and for ship managers both large and small. How is compliance monitored? This "ISSA Quality Standard" is approved by the ISSA board and is kept under constant review to ensure it remains up-to-date at all times. To monitor compliance by members, an 'ISSA Control Document' (similar concept to the AEO questionaire) has been devised, based on the 'ISSA Quality Standard', and this may be used as a self-assessment audit by the individual company or as a third-party assessment audit by the ISSA Quality Executive or a trained auditor appointed by him. The 'ISSA Control Document is in an electronic format and to ensure confidentiality, the completed document is sent to a dedicated ISSA e-mail address under the sole control of the ISSA Quality Executive. There are 13 elements in the 'ISSA Quality Standard', and the same 13 elements in the 'ISSA Control Document'. A ranking system is applied against each element with a maximum hundred possible marks achievable. The minimum pass level required is 70%. All members achieving the pass mark will be issued with the ISSA Quality Certificate and a record of this will be entered against each individual member's entry in the ISSA Register and on the ISSA website. Implementation The implementation of this will depend on the level of membership within ISSA and will be controlled as follows: All ISSA full members are controlled by the National Association of the relevant country. It is therefore the responsibility of the National Association to ensure their members comply with the rules of the National Association, and meet the requirements of the 'ISSA Quality Standard'. The 'ISSA Control Document' will therefore be forwarded to the individual members through their National Association, but to ensure confidentiality on the responses, the completed document will be sent electronically directly to the dedicated ISSA Quality e-mail. For Associate members, the 'ISSA Control Document' will be sent by the ISSA Quality Executives directly to the head office of each associate member for completion and forwarding back to the ISSA quality e-mail. Validation of certifcates Upon the satisfactory completion of the Control Audit Assessment, a certificate will be issued valid for five years and signed by the ISSA President. Verification of the audit will be signed by the assistant quality executive. The certificate will be subject to an annual verification audit, and again, this will be signed by the auditor responsible for verification. |