Hat-trick for Cheltenham traffic group as it achieves third ISO accreditation

By Nicky Godding

9 December 2022

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A UK manufacturing firm has proved its health and safety practices meet international standards.

Cheltenham-based AGD Systems has achieved ISO45001 accreditation after a number of independent audits showed their working methods were of the highest calibre when it comes to health and safety.

The firm - which has been running for three decades, developing and manufacturing ITS product solutions for the global market – had already been accredited to ISO9001 (quality) and ISO14001 (environmental) standards for a number of years.

But this year they decided to complete the trio of gold-standard accreditations and took just weeks to secure the third certificate.

Quality Manager Martin Smith said: “We have always prioritised health and safety and, for the last ten years, we’ve had a committee comprising of members from every AGD department who meet regularly to make suggestions and bring employees’ views to the management team.

“So when we applied for the ISO45001 accreditation, this involved auditing our existing manuals and instructions to ensure that the work we were doing – and how this was explained in those manuals – matched the expectations of the ISO standard.

“We went through 70 different processes to ensure the wording of each was correlated with requirements. This was followed by three audits by a third party (NQA) who checked everything was being done properly. We were very satisfied with how quickly we were able to achieve this new accreditation, and that no issues were highlighted during the audits.”

AGD will now have a selection of their processes audited every year, following by a full re-accreditation process every fourth year.

Martin added: “We are confident that having all three ISO standards will reassure new clients across the globe that we take quality, the environment, and health and safety extremely seriously and will continue to work to those high standards.

“While most of our customers hold all three certificates, it’s unusual for a company of our size in the ITS sector to have all three. We are very proud of the AGD team for their continued work to ensure we are leading the way when it comes to meeting international standards.”

AGD Systems is one of the UK’s leading ITS manufacturers, offering a globally-acclaimed class-leading range of solutions for smart cities, smart highways and strategic transport initiatives – suitable for the ever-changing needs of today and the challenges of tomorrow.

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.