Mercury retains the five ticks

MERCURY Marine can continue to display the "five ticks of quality" after passing its gruelling ISO 9001 triennial audit.

“I think our customers and dealers will be pleased to hear that Mercury conformed across the standard – there were no non-compliance issues,’ said Ron Bell Mercury quality assurance manager.

The ISO 9001 standard covers every aspect of Mercury’s business to do with customer and service support, along with warehousing, distribution and training.

“The auditor was here for three days going through every system and procedure and talking to virtually everybody in the building; it was a very comprehensive and exhaustive process,” Bell said.

Importantly, the audit didn’t just look at current systems but spent time investigating ways Mercury could utilise the ISO quality system to an even higher degree – for example to fully integrate the way the company measures, analyses and delivers customer service.

“We are now looking at ways to integrate those ideas into our existing systems to maximise the benefit,” Bell said.

The ISO 9001 standard is immensely important to Mercury’s business because it means the organisation can provide its customers and dealers with superior service.

“It means we get them the right product at the agreed time and we back it up with the service and support they expect. The quality system helps us across the board,” he said.

“As a company we don’t just want to sell products, we want to build long term relationships with our customers and to do that you have to deliver excellent quality which is what this is all about.”