Certification in Teamwork
by: Thomas Kopetsch, Managing Director, MVS Europe GmbH
posted: April/May 2006

“Now we have made it,” was the common opinion at MVS Europe when we reached the ISO TS 16949 certification back in September 2005. But this was only one of the biggest obstacles to overcome in order to get ready for Ford Q1 status. Right after, ISO 14001 was waiting as a new challenge. Again, the MVS Europe team had to be motivated to also earn this certification.

Günther Schuster (new Quality Manager) and Thorsten Sartor (Logistics and Operational Safety) did the only right thing. Together with Denis Krebs from MCS GmbH, a specialized consulting company, who possessed knowledge of the nearly unmanageable diversity of German paragraphs, they formed a dynamic competence team. They managed to motivate the whole team to merge the ISO TS 16949 and the ISO 14001 to an integrated quality management system. The ISO 14001 certification was successfully achieved on February 24, 2006.

“We have changed a lot,” Thorsten Sartor said afterwards, “Especially cleanness, order and environment compatible management of resources found their way in the employees' minds at MVS Europe.”