Sustainability website / Case Studies 2004 / Xstrata zinc / Computer aided Integrated Management System in Nordenham

Computer aided Integrated Management System in Nordenham

The Nordenham Zinc plant has an integrated management system for quality and environment (IMS) that has been certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 since 2002. As Personal Computers (PC) are found in all offices, production and maintenance areas and control rooms, a decision was taken to have the latest version of the IMS available on all computers to ensure its availability at all working places. Conditional to this was that the system should be easy to operate and not require special training of the users.

The system contains the IMS manual, process instructions, work instructions and other IMS documents. Additional sections contain emission limit values and other important conditions of the authorisation, instructions for handling dangerous materials and a collection of the valid national and European laws and regulations. The system opens with an icon on the computer desktop followed by hierarchic menu with a direct link to all documents. The IMS has become an indispensable tool for the Nordenham Zinc plant.

The quality manager emails users about updates to the system. The respective department managers are responsible for distribution of the documents in paper form to those working places without computer access.