World Quality Day and European Quality Week 2009

An event dedicated to the World Quality Day and European Quality Week 2009 was also organised this year (18th time in a row) under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development of the Republic of Serbia, Fund for Quality Culture and Excellence (FQCE) and Poslovna politika AD (Quality Magazine).

A conference entitled Kvalitetom u svet (Quality Will Lead Us to the World) will be held as a part of the event at the Sava Center on 10th and 11th November, while the Serbian Chamber of Commerce will present awards for business excellence in Serbia (Quality Oscar 2009) on12th November – 15th time in a row.

A series of lectures (conference programme) will be given at the conference on 10th and 11th November. It will bring together numerous experts for quality and business excellence, scientists and industry experts, representatives of accreditation bodies, quality management representatives from different companies and institutions in Serbia and neighbouring countries, and it will aim at highlighting the new trends and requirements to improve quality on the path to achieve business excellence and possible experience exchange.

Dejan Krnjaić, PhD, Director of the Accreditation Board of Serbia (ATS) gave a lecture on the subject of “Accreditation  today – trends in Europe, world and Serbia” (Dejan Krnjaić, PhD, Natalija Jovičić Zarić, MSc) during which he briefly referred to: importance and role of accreditation at the EU and world level, global world accreditation network, international agreements and organizations for accreditation, and legislation governing this area (Old Approach - sectoral legislation, New Approach, Global Approach, the new EU legislation).

At the end of his presentation Mr Krnjaic informed the participants that the ATS submitted a request in February 2009 to the European Cooperation for Accreditation (EA) to evaluate the work of the ATS (peer evaluation), and the EA formed the assessment team thereafter. This pre-assessment visit is expected in January 2010.

”We believe that a positive report on peer evaluation will lead to the signing of agreements on mutual recognition in the field of testing and calibration laboratories” said Mr Krnjaić.

Furthermore, Professor Zdravko Krivokapić, PhD, Centre for Quality of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Podgorica, Chairman of the Management Board of the Accreditation Board of Montenegro, gave a lecture was on the subject of accreditation in the field of management systems. He tried to point out the problems related to the fulfilment of impartiality criteria as regards the work of certification bodies in the territory of Montenegro and neighbouring countries.

Professor Krivokapić called certification and accreditation bodies for cooperation, as well as representatives of respective ministries and other interested partied in order to solve the problem as soon as possible given the new role of accreditation bodies in terms of predefined rules and accreditation criteria, improved rules of cross-frontier accreditation and proper interpretation of the required standards.

Dejan Krnjaic, PhD

prof Zdravko Krivokapic, PhD