Nam Dairies: Providing quality assurance

For many years, you would hear people complaining about the quality of Namibian-made products. The reasons varied, with some experts blaming the low cost of labour. Some producers’ quality negligence might have been due to the smaller Namibian market necessitating cost-cutting. This was not proven, however. Today, Namibia can be proud of top-quality products that are sold worldwide.

One of the makers of these quality products is Namibia Dairies, a subsidiary of the Ohlthaver & List Group of Companies.

About two weeks ago, this Namibian household brand was awarded ISO 9001:2015 certification at an event held by the Namibia Standards Institution (NSI) in Windhoek.

In an interview with Namibia Media Holdings, Namibia Dairies’ manager of quality assurance, Heinrich Lesch, said the ISO 9001:2015 certification provided additional assurance to their customers. The assurance is that the company is focused on continuous improvement and customer satisfaction.

Challenges

No award comes easy, they say. As a Namibian manufacturer, Namibia Dairies had its hiccups in the journey to recognition.

Namibia Dairies previously earned certification under ISO 9001:2008 in 2006 and has been audited and registered annually by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS).

However, the road to certification requires time and commitment, said Lesch.

“We began with our internal preparation for certification in November of 2016, by evaluating our existing procedures and aligning them with the new requirements,” he said.

Since these documents and procedures were already well established and compliant with ISO 9001:2008, “we only needed to make minor changes to our quality manual and overall processes and procedures to meet the new standard requirements.”

Normal setup

Lesch said there have been no major changes in the Namibian dairy market since last year.

He added, though, that there are many dairy imports from South Africa and overseas. These have infiltrated the Namibian dairy market, which has made it difficult for Namibia Dairies to effectively compete in the current economic climate.

Making waves

Namibia Dairies currently employs just over 700 people. Lesch said they aim to grow this number as their product portfolio increases.

Asked what his message is to fellow Namibian manufacturers who want to be awarded this certificate, Lesch said: “The benefits of ISO 9001:2015 certification are not overstated; companies large and small have gained great benefits from using this standard by discovering cost and efficiency savings.”

He said it is hard to define a specific dollar amount for one’s return on investment, so instead one needs to understand and focus on the benefits of implementing the system. Then one can start to identify where one can make improvements and what value they will have.

According to him, this award allows Namibia Dairies to benchmark itself against international products and it will further open export markets.

Zooming in

On the challenges he foresees for the local dairy sector in the short term, Lesch mentioned the current economic climate as one.

Other challenges are geographical (distance from farm to consumer), suppliers (mostly from overseas, thus bringing exchange rate challenges), technical support (all from overseas), environmental challenges (drought causes increased animal feed costs), and fuel price increases.

Despite the challenges, Namibia Dairies will keep on top of their game.

“In line with our O&L Group breakthrough culture, we pride ourselves on being a stern believer and follower of this culture. This enables us to continuously improve our processes, products and services,” he said.

Lesch further thanked NSI for their support during the transition period.

“We again want to emphasise our continued supply of world-class quality and trusted products to our local and foreign customers,” said Lesch.

NDAMA NAKASHOLE