New support unit is designed to help maintain the best and most cost-effective certification service for products intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres
Since the announcement that the Electrical Equipment Certification Service (EECS) would close at the end of September 2002, Sira has been restructuring its service to meet the rapid growth in work that the closure of EECS has generated.
Sira is a notified body offering conformity assessment services to customers throughout the world.
As part of this, Sira has created a new support unit to deal with project planning and meeting delivery dates.
The unit is designed to help Sira maintain the best and most cost-effective certification service for products intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres.
The SU is based at the hazardous area centre in Chester and staffed by new recruits as well as personnel from Sira's headquarters in Chislehurst, Kent.
The unit has several key objectives.
It will act as an interface between clients and prospective customers and the certification engineers managing the work.
It will maximise customer satisfaction by ensuring there is good communication between the client and Sira.
It will ensure that quotations, certificates and reports are delivered to the customer when they are promised.
And it will keep the clients up to date about project progress with informative, accurate weekly status reports.
Sira's new support unit will continue to document and maintain the high standard of work procedures that Sira's customers expect.
Sira will also implement improvements in working practice to benefit its customers and assist its engineers.
The new unit is staffed by an in-house project controller (Roy Craig), who has a background in the service industry and experience in project management.
Roy will be assisted by a team of administration and support personnel.
To cope with the added demand, Sira has increased both its engineering and administrative staff and changed working procedures to ensure a first class service.
The engineering department has grown, with four new personnel joining the team and further appointments due to be finalised.
Additional resource is also being made available to Sira from USA on a contract basis.
Steve Lower, Sira sales director, says: 'With the introduction of the support unit, Sira can continue to provide a first class European and worldwide approvals service for hazardous area equipment despite the increased demand."
