I couldn’t be happier to announce that Zeitview has officially received two certifications from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO): ISO 9001 and ISO 45001.
We achieved this major milestone on June 26, after months of effort and collaboration across our global team, from India to the United States and from Brazil to Germany. We were certified by Bureau Veritas, an official ISO registrar and a world leader in standards and certifications.
So what do these certifications mean and why are they important?
ISO is an independent, non-governmental international organization based in Geneva, Switzerland with a membership of 168 national standards bodies. ISO has published over 24,500 international standards that address most aspects of technology and manufacturing. For our first certification effort, we decided to tackle two standards most relevant to our business and most widely adopted by our customers: quality management and occupational health and safety.
This means that we are operating to globally recognized standards for how we manage both the health and safety of our teams as well as the quality and improvement of our products and services. And, especially for a relatively young company (we were founded in 2014), it reflects our commitment to operating and serving our customers with a high level of maturity.
ISO certifications demonstrate Zeitview’s higher degree of professionalism, operational excellence, and, our commitment to safety and continual improvement as we grow.
Back when Zeitview was called DroneBase, we established three core values that guide us every day: Committed (to each other and our customers), Resourceful (we are creative problem solvers), and Humble (we are always trying to get better). It’s been interesting to me to see how ISO 9001, which is all about quality management and continuous improvement, is so consistent with these company values. Putting the management system into practice means that we have committed to taking our customers into account in everything we do to ensure that our deliverables meet their expectations. That has always been our approach as a company, but the certification of our management system sets it in stone.
As an early-stage company this reassures our customers that we have implemented processes and performance measures that will allow us to continually improve as we continue to expand at a rapid pace.
The ISO standards set the criteria for Zeitview’s management system. According to ISO, there are over one million companies and organizations in over 170 countries certified to ISO 9001 — including many of our customers. ISO 9001 includes a variety of quality management principles including a strong customer focus, the involvement of top managers, and the process we use to ensure that we’re always improving. Having a defined management system allows us to streamline, assess over time, and continually improve our business practices to better meet and exceed the needs and expectations of our employees, customers, and global network of drone pilots and technicians.
Every team and department at Zeitview use these processes. For example, one of our goals for data collection is to achieve a track record of 98% “first-time right.” This goal helps us provide our customers the deliverables they rely on quickly and efficiently. When we don’t meet that goal, we have a process to discover what happened and how we can improve next time.
This certification is a reflection of our commitment to our people and our extended team of pilots all over the world, as well as to our customers who join us in the field or use our software to conduct their own inspections. According to ISO, they set out to develop a standard to help reduce the more than 7,600 deaths from work-related accidents or diseases every day — about three million people each year.
This statistic is as shocking as it is eye opening. Because so many members of our extended team regularly work outdoors in all types of weather conditions, around high-voltage equipment, towers and turbines, and near busy roadways, we knew that this standard would be essential for Zeitview. We’re just over halfway through 2023, and our team has already encountered extreme cold, blizzards, high heat, smoke from wildfires, and tornadoes. As a company, we are committed to protecting our team from exposure to job hazards. Obviously there are different protocols for different types of job sites or weather scenarios, but ultimately any team member is empowered to shut down an inspection for any safety-related reason.
One common misconception is that ISO is bureaucratic and comprises reams of forms. This is not true in our case. We have found that put into practice properly, it’s really simple when you boil it down: streamlined, transparent, and easy to act on. This is especially important when it comes to worker safety. A bureaucratic health and safety policy does not help to keep people safe!
We designed our management system and safety processes to work for employees and contractors. It isn’t to be put on the shelf or just to check a box. Each and every day, the Zeitview team uses the tenets of ISO 9001 & ISO 45001 to streamline our processes, keep our workers safe, and provide the best inspection services and software to our customers. By meeting the same global standards as our customers, we assure them that we share the criteria for outcomes and quality of care.