Certified quality management
The Zurich Convention Center is reinventing many things: there will be new rooms, a lot of new technology, a new gastronomy concept, new systems, … in short: numerous new possibilities. But that also means: new processes.
«Now that we're setting up everything from scratch, it's worthwhile to find the best processes and record them immediately», says Maria Hess, responsible for administration and digitalization at the Zurich Convention Center. As exciting the current phase of the setup may be – everything has to run smoothly during operation. That's why processes and their verification are absolutely central.
«Now that we're setting up everything from scratch, it's worthwhile to find the best processes and record them immediately.»
Certification as a side effect
Since the processes are being recorded anyway, it is worth having them certified right away. To a certain extent as a side effect. For example, the certification ISO 9001 "Quality Management Systems" is being sought.
Of course, certain requirements, so-called "standards", must be met in order to obtain certification. And these are extensive: documentation obligation, budgeting, mapping in management, measurability – just to name a few. The Zurich Convention Center therefore relies on external support from specialists.
A few months after the start of operations, the audit by the certification authority takes place. «This means that the processes will be checked at our company – and also, if they are lived by the employees. Later, we will establish a regular internal audit in order to constantly improve ourselves», says Maria Hess.
The most important benefit
However, the processes and their documentation are particularly important for the new employees - dozens of them will be joining the Zurich Convention Center in the following months. They will all benefit from the fact that everything is well documented. So the work for the certification is worthwhile in many ways. For this reason, the Zurich Convention Center will also approach other areas such as environmental management and occupational safety management in a similar way and also strive for an ISO certification in these areas - or even: establish these areas so solidly that they can also be certified immediately.
