Purolite Brasil achieves certification to ISO 9001:2015 standard.

July 26, 2018—São Paulo, Brasil—Purolite’s office and applications laboratory in São Paulo, Brasil has achieved ISO 9001:2015 certification through a successful transition from ISO 9001:2008. The audit was completed on March 28 through BSI Brasil and the formal certificate was received early in July, 2018.

The initiative was led by Luana Silva, Purolite’s Chemical and Quality Analyst at the facility. She notes, “Although transitioning from ISO 9001:2008 to ISO 9001:2015 is a requirement from the governing body, the review and updating of the protocols is an affirmation that Purolite’s best practices are solid.” And then adds, “The changes and updates for this certification are very important as they promote continuous improvements for systems to ensure the processes will remain relevant over time.

Fabio Sousa, Managing Director for Purolite Latin America states, “Congratulations to the entire Brazilian team, especially to Luana Silva, for this important accomplishment. Keeping good practices reinforces our commitment to providing an exceptionally high level of technical support to our customers.”

ISO compliance is not a law. It is a voluntary agreement to follow the standards for best practices that a company develops. It is a foundation for making the company’s products and services consistent across the organization, with an eye toward process improvement, evidence-based decision making, team involvement and customer satisfaction.

Although there is some alignment, the 2015 standard has some major differences from the 2008 standard, including a new focus on a “PDCA” cycle, which creates a system to follow for Planning, Doing, Checking and Acting to promote continuous and systematic improvement. There is also more emphasis on input and output of processes, the quality of those processes and the result. Additionally, risk/opportunity based thinking and further consideration of the ever-changing needs and expectations of suppliers, shareholders, internal customers, personnel and others has more emphasis in the new system. There are also changes to how knowledge is managed and maintained, and more structure for managerial conformance.

ISO standards are reviewed every 5 years by the global network of ISO standards representative bodies, and ISO 9001:2015 is the fifth revision of the ISO 9001 quality management system since it began in 1987.

The new certificate is valid until May 12, 2019.

Purolite would like to thank the internal ISO team in Brazil for a job well done.