SIRIM STS helps firms with sustainability issues
SIRIM Industry Standards is a service that have been introduced by SIRIM STS Sdn Bhd since 2014 to assist organisations to address their problems.
SIRIM STS Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Dr Norlinda Mohd Zawawi said SIRIM Industry Standards provide an alternative to industries in situation where a national consensus document (national standards) is not required, particularly when the needed standard is intended to cater for specific requirements of an organisation or a certain sector of industry.
“Company and industry standards are important for manufacturing and service oriented industries as they define the minimum requirements to uphold quality.
“In essence these standards become benchmarks that individual companies can aspire not only to meet but to exceed minimum requirements.
“In addition to increasing a company’s efficiency level by providing quality guidelines and minimising discrepancies, standards become a common document that promotes uniformity and facilitates communication between the employees within a company, the company and its vendors, as well as the company and its customers,” she told the in an interview, here, recently.
Norlinda said SIRIM Industry Standards on environmental sustainability such as that on Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA), Sustainable Manufacturing and Design for Environment are examples of standards that are developed to ensure that businesses are not only able to sustain their business models but also operate in the manner that is friendly and minimises the negative impact to the environment.
These standards are the way forward for environmental sustainability as it allows a businesses to be quantified and factored into decision-making processes.
She said this is because many of these costs of doing business were hidden in the past.
“This means that businesses are expected to be more responsive and responsible towards environmental sustainability,” she said.
She said SIRIM Industry Standards also enable businesses to plan their future growth around meeting environmental sustainability expectations.
“These standards enable transparency about products and best practices for limiting their environmental impacts.
“Therefore, the industry standards are assisting businesses to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), because all issues related to economic, environmental and societal dimensions are addressed by SIRIM Industry Standards.
“Thus, in a nutshell, it could be said that SIRIM Industry Standards is the way forwards to ensure the environmental sustainability of businesses in the country,” she said.
Norlinda said to further push for the initiative, SIRIM STS is conducting training for interested industry players on an annual basis.
Some upcoming training modules include Green Supply Chain Management SIRIM 20:2017 and Sustainable Manufacturing — General Concepts, Framework and Principles SIRIM 29:2019 training which will be held this month and a Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) SIRIM 24:2018 training module which will be carried out next month.