Reasons and benefits associated with ISO 9001 certification for sugar and ethanol companies

Paulo Sampaio,Caio Stockler Ferreira,Carlos Eduardo Sanches Silva,Eduardo Gomes Salgado,Carlos Henrique Pereira Mello

doi:10.14807/ijmp.v6i3.301

Abstract

With increasing business competitiveness, companies have sought to adapt their processes and / or products to worldwide established quality standards in order to achieve a greater share of consumers having as favorable aspect the quality assurance of the products and/or services provided. It was observed that companies of different sizes have different challenges regarding the certification however, the degree of difficulty is the same for all of them. The objective of this paper is to verify the reasons for the implementation of ISO 9001, the obstacles encountered during the implementation, the benefits arising from the use of the quality management system and the degree of difficulty to implement this standard. This work was developed based on a survey involving companies certified with ISO 9001:2008 from the productive sector of sugar, ethanol and derivatives of sugarcane, located in all Brazilian states. It was observed that companies of different sizes have different challenges regarding the certification however the degree of difficulty is the same for all of them. Thus, we believe that expected results represent a very important contribution to examining the reasons, benefits and difficulties of the ISO 9001 to both, the companies and certification bodies, and to researchers.

Highlights

The national policy, described by the Brasil (2011), for the production of sugarcane is oriented on the sustainable expansion of the culture, based on economic, environmental and social criteria
This paper aims to identify the benefits, reasons, obstacles and difficulty level that companies of this sector had to implement and certify their Quality Management System in accordance with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2008, correlated with the number of employees and the time to get certified
The survey of sugar and ethanol companies certified with ISO 9001 was carried out through their registry on the INMETRO website, consulted in August 2010, whose contact was established through electronic mail and telephone from August to December 2010

Summary

Introduction

The national policy, described by the Brasil (2011), for the production of sugarcane is oriented on the sustainable expansion of the culture, based on economic, environmental and social criteria. The best planting areas are stipulated based on the types of climate, soil, biomass and irrigation requirements. The national sugar and ethanol sector is a reference for other producing countries. The sugarcane is produced in nearly the entire country, 60% in São Paulo. World leader in the production of sugarcane ethanol, Brazil has the availability of arable land for sugarcane planting, without prejudice to other foods, production technology and distribution structure. The country mastered the whole cycle of ethanol production, from the high-productivity farming to the installation of equipment for the distilleries that are producing this biofuel, from the fermentation of the juice extracted from sugarcane

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