DEKRA Award 2001 - DEKRA Certification

Auditorium 1/2002
Celebration time at DEKRA-ITS
A decade of certification with a capital “D”
I n t e r n a t i o n a l i s a t i o n
10 years
1992
Accreditation by TGA
First QM certificate (30.01.)
1994
DEKRA Certification Services:
System and product certification
First clients abroad:
Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands
1996
Established as an independent GmbH
Holding acquired by SEMKO AB (49%)
Franchise partnership in South Africa
1997
Franchise partnership in Hungary
Associates in Belgium and Denmark
First issue of “Auditorium”
1998
First foreign subsidiary: Italy
Stephan Baus appointed
Managing Director
1999
Reorientation and change of name:
DEKRA-ITS Certification Services
GmbH
Foreign subsidiaries in France and
Sweden (SEMKO-DEKRA)
South Africa converted to a subsidiary
2000
Introduction of the DEKRA Award
Foreign subsidiary in Spain
Associates in Poland and the
Czech Republic
Bi-lingual version of “Auditorium”
30 January 2002 was a date to remember,
the tenth anniversary of the first
ISO 9002 certification received by
Oestmann Spedition GmbH. DEKRA-
ITS went to Braunschweig as a wellwisher
and longstanding partner (see
picture), and also because it was itself
celebrating a special occasion: on
30.01.1992 a quality management
certificate bore the name DEKRA for
the first time. Today thousands of
customers all over the globe trust in
the green “D” and most of them – like
Oestmann – have been doing so for
many years.
The story so far
By the mid-1980’s DEKRA had already
made a name for itself as a recognised
test laboratory for medical devices. In
1990 it expanded to become a product
testing and certification body and in
1991 an additional service was set up
for management systems. As early as
January 1992, following its recognition
by the Organisation for Accreditation
(Trägergemeinschaft für Akkreditierung,
TGA), the DEKRA Certification Service
issued its first certificate. In 1994 the
two bodies merged under the name
DEKRA Certification Services.
Internationalisation as a strategy
Two crucial events marked the path to
today’s DEKRA-ITS. In 1996 Swedish
SEMKO AB, a wholly-owned subsidiary
of English-American Intertek
Testing Services (ITS), joined DEKRA
AG as a co-partner. In 1997, with
Stephan Baus entering the newly
founded company’s senior management,
international business became
a constant focal point of DEKRA Certification
Services GmbH. Following
his appointment as Managing Director
in 1998, he continued to expand cooperation
with ITS in the Global
Certification Network – and finally
implemented the change of name to
DEKRA-ITS Certification Services
GmbH. The latter now has subsidiaries
and associates in almost every European
country (see interview page 7).
To enable this internationalisation,
the product testing sector was reduced
to more or less its original size: since
1999 DEKRA-ITS has been limiting its
portfolio of services to the certification
of management systems and medical
devices. In 2000 this culminated in
the DEKRA Award as a practically
orientated benchmark instrument for
certified companies.
2001
Czech Republic, Poland and
Hungary converted to subsidiaries