The Criticality of Quality Management Systems

A UK dealership imported European-manufactured construction equipment that was CE compliant upon import, but lost its CE compliance when the dealer-installed UK-sourced construction equipment options and attachments, allowing unsafe and potentially lethal construction equipment to be marketed and sold within the UK. The UK dealer failed to:

• Specify and implement the internal legislative, safety and qualitative standards and operating procedures required to adapt construction equipment for sale in the UK market.

• Inform its suppliers of UK-sourced construction equipment options and attachments of the legislative, safety and qualitative standards that the UK options and attachments had to be manufactured and supplied to comply with.

• Install a quality management system (QMS) to maintain and ensure supplier and internal adherence to the legislative, safety and qualitative standards required for construction equipment adapted for the UK market.

The imported and adapted construction equipment suffered from several failures of UK-sourced options and attachments, where legislative, safety and qualitative standards needed to be specified or where UK-sourced options and attachments had been fitted incorrectly. The issues resulted in operator safety systems being compromised and the premature failure of safety equipment, examples of which include:

• Fire safety systems fitted that corrupted the integrity of rollover protection systems (ROPS).

• Safety barriers that fractured and broke during construction equipment use.

• Camera and safety equipment systems that failed prematurely in operation.

• Security equipment that fell from the construction equipment whilst in transit.

A QMS ensures that directors, managers, and staff operate according to a set of common legislative, quality, and safety standards to protect the public and guide staff in fulfilling the organisation's purpose to ensure and maximise its profitability, efficiency, and effectiveness.

The lack of a QMS resulted in the UK dealer not being able to protect its customers when using the construction equipment, as the problems encountered by the organisation resulted in the following safety concerns for UK-sourced options and attachments:

• The construction equipment lost CE compliance when options and attachments were fitted.

• Legislative standards were not specified for any option or attachment system.

• Quality was not monitored to ensure construction equipment operator and staff safety.

• The options and attachments were not subjected to independent UK safety testing.

• The equipment manufacturer did not endorse fitting UK-sourced options and attachments.

• Installation procedures were not specified or provided for UK-sourced options and attachments.

• Customers were not provided with UK-sourced options or attachment operating instructions.

• Customer maintenance manuals were not provided for UK-sourced options and attachments. 

A QMS ensures that legislative, quality, and safety standards and criteria are adhered to and upheld internally within the organisation and by suppliers. The UK dealer failed to install a QMS or specify any internal standard operating procedures to ensure compliance with legislative, quality and safety standards. These failures resulted in:

• A commercial risk analysis not being carried out for the supply of UK options or attachments.

• Construction equipment safety requirements, obligations, and standards not being specified.

• The legal risks of supplying options and attachments not being considered.

• UK option and attachment supply contracts not being specified and signed off by Suppliers.

• A product catalogue not operating to track and trace UK option and attachment failures.

• Suppliers not being held to account for UK option or attachment safety failure risks.

• A category management policy not being enacted for the supply of UK options or attachments.

• Formal negotiations not being regularly carried out for the supply of options or attachments.

• A lack of quality assurance or legislative standards to ensure CE/ISO compliance.

A QMS consists of organisational-wide procedures and processes to ensure the quality and safety of services or products to meet and exceed customers’ expectations. Where an organisation imports and distributes construction equipment, it must do so to ensure that the highest levels of operator, staff and public safety standards are achieved and adhered to.

QMS systems are typically measurable and repeatable but rely on continuous improvement methods in a feedback loop to review and improve quality and safety standards. Organisational safety objectives relating to the safety of construction equipment operators, staff and the public are critically important as they govern the values and strategic direction of organisational health and safety policies.

A mistake many corporate leadership teams make is oversimplifying or ignoring their health and safety obligations through ignorance and focusing solely on revenue or profitability objectives. A QMS requires Directors, Managers, and staff to ensure an array of safety objectives are considered that balance and meet all stakeholders' needs, especially regarding legislative, qualitative, and health and safety concerns.

A quality approach to legislative, qualitative and health and safety matters ensures that an organisation sets goals for monitoring and evaluating internal operating and supplier performance criteria to ensure that the highest levels of safety are achieved and that the integrity of health and safety procedures is maintained, which reduces the risk of death and serious injury of construction equipment operators, staff, and the public, to a minimum.

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