We are ISO 9001 accredited. So what does our relentless commitment to quality mean for our customers?

Ford Motor Company built its brand on the slogan that “Quality is job one” and Levi Strauss and Co, the inimitable denim brand placed its bet on the belief that “Quality never goes out of style”. Quality is the reason customers buy from a business, it’s the reason they pay what they do, and it’s the reason they return. Regardless of whether the relationship is B2C, B2B or B2B2C, when a business provides a customer a product or a service it makes a promise. Quality is the measure of how well it fulfils that promise.

Quality with a capital Q.

The notion of Quality has existed for around a century, with industrialists such as Henry Ford, Karl Benz and Frederick W Taylor innovating to improve efficiency without making sacrifices in the output. After steady evolution during and after the second world war, Total Quality Management (TQM) emerged and continues to evolve. Today, it is synonymous with customer focus, all-employee involvement, continuous improvement and integration in the organisation.

Meeting the gold standard

For more than 30 years, the gold standard of TQM has been international ISO 9001 accreditation. There are more than one million companies and organisations across various sectors in more than 170 countries certified to the standard. Yet disappointingly, quality management has largely been absent in the transport and logistics industry, especially in Australia.

At efm, however, we are fervently customer-centric. We hold ourselves to a higher standard and are relentlessly committed to continuous improvement. So it’s in this spirit that we recently undertook the rigorous process of accreditation to formalise this commitment to quality that our customers have long experienced. After providing the evidence and being put to the test, we are now the only 4PL logistics provider in Australia to be internationally- accredited for our quality management systems. Our accreditation attests that we meet the seven principles critical to quality management:

1. Customer focus

Above all our focus is on delivering no better logistics experience for our customers.

2. Leadership

Our leaders set our vision and create the conditions in which people are motivated to meet our high expectations.

3. Engagement of people

Our people are essential to our capability of creating and delivering value.

4. Process approach

We achieve consistent and predictable results by systemising activities.

5. Improvement

We are focused on ongoing improvement.

6. Evidence-based decision making

Our decisions are informed by data rather than ‘gut-feel’.

7. Relationship management

Through strong relationships with our partner networks we optimise our performance for the customer.

Superior peace of mind

This means that our customers can enjoy superior peace of mind in partnering with us. Just as any hamburger fan takes the great pleasure in the consistency of a BigMac anywhere in the world, our customers take comfort in knowing that we have an unwavering ability to deliver to our exacting standards.

Research shows that in Australia, the most important aspect of quality in logistics is on-time delivery[1]. A delayed delivery has enormous impact to on the customer experience. It can mean a costly terminated contract or brand damage caused by a disgruntled consumer airing their frustrations on social media.

Our accreditation assures our customers of on-time delivery as well as a host of other quality metrics including quality and accuracy of reporting, uptime maximisation and business continuity.

A global best-in-class logistics experience

Quality is more than making a good product. It is not just an advertising claim or the final outcome but every stage of the process in between. Through our customer-centricity and commitment to quality we save our customers the costs of poor quality that can come in the form of lost sales, eroded brand loyalty and reduced brand value.

It isn’t like us to rest on our laurels. Now that we have the accreditation, we will continue to be put to the test through regular ISO 9001 audits, meaning that our customers can have absolute confidence in our ability to meet their expectations, now and into the future.

We look forward to continuing to deliver no better experience and sharing this global best-in-class logistics experience with you.

What to know more about how our ISO 9001 accreditation could benefit you as a customer?