In this Newsletter

Foreword by Philippe Citroën - Director-General of UNIFE

‘’Welcome on board’’ – A warm welcome to our new customers

IRIS news

Focus on the IRIS Addendum 2015- Rudolf Frick, VDB- Ekaterina Bochkareva, Russian Register

Focus on Eastern Europe- Gheorghe Sirbu, ASTRA

IRIS dictionary- IRIS “Knock-Out” (K.O.) requirements

Tasty Figures – Impressive & Interesting Facts from the World of Rail

InternationalRailway

Industry

The QualityRail Journal

Standard

EDITION 7- JUNE 2015

The 2015 UNIFE General Assembly in Bucharest provides an excellent oppor-tunity to discuss the future of the Eastern European rail market, and its importance to our members and European transport goals.

This edition of the IRIS newsletter will present the main IRIS improvements as documented in the 2015 IRIS Addendum that will be formally adopted in Bucharest.This IRIS Addendum 2015 opens the IRIS Certification field for our colleagues in the infrastructure supply business. This has been a frequent request and now we finally have the scope to certify the complete rail value chain.

Moreover, this represents a major evolution of the IRIS Assessment rules, which should enable even more accurate evaluations for IRIS Certification. Our Audit-Tool, very widely used by the member companies and frequently developed for our auditors has consistently proven to enhance perfor-mance.

Our targets are ambitious and our credibility towards the rail operators is paramount, so we call for the gradual implementation of the quality mindset into the culture of the rail industry—so that it becomes a sector that is recognised for the excellence of its products.

The IRIS Management Centre staff remains at your disposal for questions concerning IRIS and its implementation. We’d like to thank the IRIS stakeholders for their contin-ued dedication to quality in our sector.

Best regards,

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The IRIS Management Centre is happy to announce that an increasing number of rail suppliers and operators are putting their trust in IRIS.

Welcome on boardA warm welcome to our new customers

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SEPTEMBER 2014

SIDWAL REFRIGERATION INDUSTRIES Private Limitedsatek gmbhVNIIcompressormash Public Joint Stock CompanyBFG INTERNATIONAL PVT. LTD.Changchun Shi Jiu Railway Vehicles Air-conditioning Co., LtdAPI Capacitors LtdBeijing Jiaoda Signal Technology Co.,LtdLUOYANG MIDAS ALUMINIUM INDUSTRIES Co, Ltd.Hangzhou xiangyuan electronic S&T Co.,Ltd.Shanghai Nanyang Electrical Appliance COo, Ltd.Changchun Xinjin Xiang Cold-formed Steel Co. Ltd.Time 24 ltdSuntime (Liaoning) Precision Equipment Co.,Ltd.TransPrivodTver LLCXIAN XD CABLE Co., Ltd.Industrial de Transformados S.A.Scientific-industrial automation union named Academician N.A. Semikhatov Joint Stock CompanyChangchun City Yingjun Precision Casting Co., Ltd.BU Bücker & Essing GmbHREALCABLE S.R.L.

OCTOBER 2014

Bezhitsky steel» Open Joint-Stock CompanyChangchun Tianrui Mechanical Co.,Ltd.Zhuzhou Insulation Material Co., Ltd.Dolgoprudny Research Production Enterprise Joint Stock CompanyChangsha Nanrui Rail Transport Electric Equipment Co.,Ltd. Siemens Electrical Drives Ltd.Electrocable Works, Kolchugino JSCSELCOM ELETTRONICA S.P.A.Beijing Tangzhi Science & Technology Development Co., Ltd. Chang-sha BranchTangshan Cooperation Track Transportation Equipment Co.,Ltd.Qingdao Unit Transport Equipment Co., Ltd. SCS MECCANICA SRL

NOVEMBER 2014

Ellamp SpARudolf Rost Sperrholz GmbHChangchun DaTie Railway Vehicle Supporting Co.,LtdTaiyuan Heavy Industry Railway Transit Equipment Co., Ltd.Shenyang CNR Wabtec Railway Brake Technology Co.,Ltd.GRAMMER Koltuk Sistemleri San. ve Tic. A.Ş.Shenyang Xuyang Zhongye Seat Co.Ltd company limitedBeijing Lihong Create Co., Ltd.Yujin Machinery Ltd.The Signaling & Communication Factory of Guangzhou RailwayHEI LONG JIANG XIN DA ENTERPRISE GROUP COMPANY LIMITEDJiangsu DongQiang Co., Ltd.Xiangtan Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd.Industrial and Commercial House PARITET OOOSchösswender GesmbH

DECEMBER 2014

CIESSE S.P.A.Transportnoe mashinostroenie Joint-stock companyAltaivagon JSCAltayvagon Branch JSCJoint venture “Orelcompressormash” LLCGuangzhou CSR Mass Transit Co.,Ltd.Kalugaputmash JSCKuzbass car manufacturing company - branch of OJSC “Altaivagon”Uralkabel CJSCYarLI NPK ZAODemikhovo Machinebuilding Plant Joint-Stock CompanyBeijing Hua-Tie Information Technology Development Co./Beijing RuiChi GuoTie ITS Eng.&Tech. Ltd.Liyang Zhenda Railway Equipment Co., Ltd.Ansaldo STS Spa, Riom industrial center “Cable Technologies” Closed JSCNabtesco OclapBAOTOU BEIFANG CHUANGYE Co., Ltd.IGW (Suzhou) Co., Ltd.Yantai Wanlong Vacuum Metallurgy Co.,Ltd. Private limited companyNAVARCABLE SLChongqing Yingzhou Die Casting Co.,LtdJSC “Abdulinskiy zavod “Remputmash” po remontu putevykh mashin i proizvodstvu zapasnykh chastey”Enics Electronics (Suzhou) Ltd.JSC “Vagonostroitelniy zavod”Instytut Mechaniki Sp. z o.o.KOMPOZYTY Sp z o.o.

JANUARY 2015

Ansaldo STS Spa, Batesburg SCAnsaldo STS Spa, GenovaChangzhou City Jiali Gear Manufacturing Co., Ltd. / Changzhou City Suo’er Machinery FactoryTETRALEC ELECTRONICA INDUSTRIAL S.L.CHENGDU CHANGKE XINZHU RAILWAY VEHICLES EQUIPMENT Co.,Ltd Joint VentureNanjing Puzhen Science & Technology Industry Co.,Ltd. / Anhui Shengshi High-Tech Railway Equipment Co., Ltd.TWORZYWA SZTUCZNE PZL MIELEC SPÓŁKA Z OGRANICZONŞ ODPOWIEDZIALNOŞCIŞ SPÓŁKA KOMANDYTOWAHebei Jupiter FRP Products Co.,LtdNanjing Jinpuli Railway Car Equipment Co.,Ltd.Shanghai Teleways Communication Equipment Co.,Ltd.Kirovsky Mashzavod 1 Maya OJSCCabliance SA

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FEBRUARY 2015

Electrotyazhmash State EnterpriseFemar srlIntersys s.r.l.Beijing Tianlu Times Electric Equipment Co., Ltd.Jilin Province Zhongcheng Mechanical & Electrical Equipment Co., LtdChangzhou Hubner KTK Transportation Equipment Co.,LtdZhejiang Dafeng Industry Co., LtdWuxi Lingge Light Fitting FactoryWUHAN RUNTOP-MAIDA HIGH TECH Co., Ltd.Henan Thinker Information and Technology Co.,LTD privateBaoji CSR Times Engineering Machinery Co.,Ltd. joint-stockPoltava turbomechanical plant Public Stock CompanyBranch of Limited Liability Company “TRTrans” in NovocherkasskHŞSARLAR MAKŞNA SANAYŞŞ VE TŞCARET A.Ş.OJSC “ORPE”Technologija” Open Joint Stock Company

MARCH 2015

BEARING ART CorporationMaanshan Iron & Steel Co. Ltd Wheel CompanyST Electronics(Shanghai)Co.,LtdIndustrial Technological Centre LLCSCB Foundry, a.s.Pentair Electronics & Electrical Protection China Co., Ltd.Knorr-Bremse Rail Systems (UK) Ltd. Burton FacilityNational Engineering Industries Ltd.Willi Wader Fahrzeugteile GmbHWuxi Xinqisheng Electrical Co., Ltd.Qingdao Siji Moulds and Tooling Co., Ltd.Dalian Toshiba Locomotive Electric Equipment Co.,LtdFaser- Plast Poland Sp. z o. o.Shentong Beiche (Shanghai) Rail Transit Vehicle Maintenance Co.,Ltd

Dalian Everyday Good Electronic Co.,Ltd.Shentong Bombardier (Shanghai) Rail Transit Vehicle MaintenanceHyundai Rotem Company Corporation

APRIL 2015

Zhenjiang Xingyi Vehicle Equipment Parts Co.,LtdProyectos, instalaciones y Montajes eléctricos SABeijing New Vision Science And Technology Co.,Ltd Private companyHUBEI TECH SEMICONDUCTORS Co.,Ltd.Balakovo-Centrolit Closed Joint-Stock CompanyBeijing SIWEI Thinker Information Technology Co.,Ltd.Yangzhou Huatong Rubber & Plastic Co., Ltd.SHANDONG FRESHAIR CO.,LTDORing Industrial Networking Corp. PrivateNanjing Gewai Rail Traffic Equipment Co., Ltd.S.A.P.S. SrlSelcom Electronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.CSR Hangzhou Rail Transit Co., Ltd.JSC”Dielektrik” ZAOKyland Technology Co.,Ltd.

MAY 2015

Michurinskiy lokomotivoremontniy zavod “Milorem” JSCXi’an Alstom Yongji Electric Equipment Co., Ltd.Zhangjiagang JUNSIN Industrial Co., Ltd. PrivateOstrov SKV LtdSiemens AG - PD LD TDROLEN TECHNOLOGIES AND PRODUCTS S.L.Hunan Xiangyi Railroad Locomotive Electrical Equipment Co., Ltd.Beijing Railway Star Fortune High-Tech Co., Ltd.

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IRIS News

Quality Austria: the 15th IRIS’ certification Body

On December 15th, the Certification Body Framework Agreement between Quality Austria and UNIFE was signed between Konrad Scheiber, CEO of Quality Austria and Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, making Quality Austria the 15th Certification Body, to deliver the IRIS certification.

Quality Austria is the leader for system certification in Aus-tria and will focus their activities in countries where they are already widely introduced such as Eastern Europe and Rus-sia.

We believe that this cooperation will help IRIS to further de-velop the system.

Mark Manley elected Chairman of IRIS SteeCo and IAB

During the IRIS Steering Committee, the committee members confirmed the election of Mark Manley, Vice President Quality from Bombardier Transportation as Chairman of the International Railway Industry Stand-ard (IRIS) Steering Committee (SteeCo). Mr. Manley was also selected as the next Chairman of the IRIS Advisory Board (IAB), replacing Hubert de Blay.

Mark Manley will continue to work on de-veloping IRIS in the future and on its recog-nition worldwide.

The seminar was opened by Daniel Taddeo, SQS-IRIS Product Manager and followed by Hubert Rizzi, SQS-Product Manager who presented the status of the ISO 9001:2015 and highlighted the objectives, approach and improvements of the new coming revision. Hans-Jörg Schürch, Business Excellence Manager, SBB AG and member of the IRIS Advisory board, gave to the participants a detailed overview of the supplier requirements from the SBB point of view. He reinforced the importance of IRIS and the support given by SBB to the certification. Angela de Heymer, IRIS Senior Manager, presented the current IRIS status, the last evolutions and the quality approach promoted by IRIS. She highlighted the coming improvements and the launch of the IRIS Addendum in June 2015. Furthermore she gave the vision for the IRIS Revision 3.0 and the link to the upcoming ISO 9001:2015 At the end of the seminar, the participants had the opportunity to visit the ABB Switzerland AG facilities, especially the assembly area and the test laboratory.

DQS Forum: “Perspective - Quality and Reliability in the rail sector”On 17 February, a delegation from IRIS participated to the yearly Forum at ABB Switzerland AG in Turgi, Switzerland, organised by DQS (IRIS approved certification body). This seminar on “Perspectives - Qual-ity and Reliability in the rail sector”, gathered around 30 representatives of the local rail companies.

Currently, more than 50 Swiss companies are IRIS certified and others are in the preparation phase. The Swiss rail industry, committed to IRIS since the beginning was the first IRIS certified company in Switzer-land in 2006 (launch of IRIS).

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IRIS Addendum 2015

The IRIS Addendum 2015 as a key step on improving IRIS by taken stakeholders’ feedbacksBased on the IRIS Steering Committee decision from June 2014 and the IRIS approved strategy, the Technical Forum for Improvements (TFI), as defined in its mandate, worked out in the last month several technical improvements. The mandate covered: 1. consideration of feedbacks received from the field (user, stakeholders, state of the art) 2. improvement of the questionnaire, especially maturity level qualified (3) and optimized (4) and including input from released guidelines 3. addition of the IRIS scope of certification “Infrastructure: Industrial elements” (as per TSI)Several workshops took place, where the TFI members analysed the input/feedbacks received and worked out proposals for improve-ment. These were validated by the IRIS Steering Committee in January 2015.The main impact is on the IRIS questionnaire and the maturity levels qualified (3) and optimized (4) by introducing among others a link to the published IRIS Guidelines.The IRIS questionnaire is transformed into the IRIS Assessment sheet. This brings a huge simplification in the evaluation and helps the auditors and finally the companies with the evaluation and implementation of the IRIS requirements.Furthermore following the feedback from the IRIS certified companies, the Audit-Tool will contain a new column with examples from the sector, which may support companies with the IRIS implementation.

The figure below shows an example for an item from the IRIS Assessment sheet. The three visible maturity levels are: • Defined (2) containing exactly the same text of the IRIS Booklet rev. 02.1 • Qualified (3) and Optimized (4) containing still the “Plus” and having the link to published IRIS Guidelines.

After official publication, the IRIS certification will be applicable for infrastructure companies.

8.5.2 Corrective action

DEFINED

The organisation shall take action to eliminate the causes of nonconformities in order to prevent recurrence.

QUALIFIED

Plus:Root cause analysis of nonconformities and follow up of corrective actions. Results are shared with customers on demand.

The organisation had defined and implemented a corrective action process, which is regularly reviewed in a multidis-ciplinary assessment (see clause 8.5.1) and using problem solving methods

OPTIMISED

Plus:labour hours and matrial cost due to cor-rective actions are colelcted at site and in the field, analysed, assigned to causer and continually reduced.

Joint work on corrective actions with customer / suppliers, as applicable.

Rev. 02.1Addendum

2015

8.5.2 - 1

No

19

No

19.1

19.2

19.3

19.4

Descritpion2nd level

Signalling

Safety systems

Energy

Track

No

19.1.1

19.2.119.2.219.2.319.3.1

19.3.219.3.319.3.419.3.519.3.619.4.119.4.219.4.319.4.419.4.5

Description3rd level

Components for control command and signallins for waysideLevel crossing mechanismsPlatform screen doorsSafety detection devicesOverhead contact line

TransformersDistributorsThird railGround level power supplyBraking energy recoveryRailFastening systemTrack sleepersSwitch systemsOther devices

No

19.3.1.119.3.1.219.3.1.319.3.1.4

Description4th level

Contract wiresInsulatorsFeedersJumpers

Descritpion1st level

infrastructure

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“Working on IRIS as a TFI member, for more than three years, is a very good opportunity to bring forward the standard. Communica-tion with other experts and development of ideas – together - is a very useful strategy to increase the continuous improvement of IRIS.

The current IRIS Addendum 2015 gives clear statement of the current direction and further development activities, but also a clear demand of the common direction of rail stakeholders concerning the usage of a business management system (worldwide) standard.

The quality of the standard has to be high to prove that the usage of an IRIS based business management system increases overall product quality.”

Ruediger Meisterheide – HANNING & KAHL GmbH Co KG

“BV certification has been actively participating in the TFI since the beginning. Personally, having taken part in the TFI for the first time, it exceeded my expectations with how well these sessions were managed and organised. What I appreciated the most was the work-ing sessions which were face to face; ensuring much deeper analysis, focused discussions and efficient decision making. It was very rich in exchanges as all stakeholders were gathered around the table. Such composition allowed us to progress on technical aspects and on the future development of IRIS from different perspectives.

The simplification of the IRIS assessment sheet will bring more added value to the certified companies, with improved and clarified maturity levels, making the assessment and report easier to follow. We believe the IRIS addendum will enlarge the portfolio of IRIS certified companies with the added scope of certification for Infrastruc-ture Industrial elements.

For the rail sector, this brings an increased reliability and quality of product and projects, as well as improvements on the management of the supply chain covered by the IRIS scheme. This can also cover more and more projects in emerging countries connected as well with infrastructure, railway, tracks, etc. BV expects to have new companies certified, which means an increased volume of work for the IRIS certification and will allow for the improvement and enlargement of our auditors’ experience and even increase the quality and outputs of audits.

In view of the upcoming ISO 9001:2015 revision, IRIS will undergo further improvements. We also support that the scheme develops and shows added value to the railway industry. ”

Andrea Mihalova – Bureau Veritas Certification

IRIS Addendum 2015

The IRIS Addendum 2015, seen by two members of the IRIS Technical Forum for Improvement (TFI)

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Rudolf Frick, Manager, Quality Services & Quality Management Systems, at Alstom Transport Deutschland, has contributed to the IRIS Addendum 2015 by delivering inputs and feedback from German SMEs, in his capacity as Chairman of the VDB Working Committee on Quality and Pro-ject Management. Today, he gives us his point of view on the new IRIS Addendum and on the changes it will bring, before its release in June 2015.

In your opinion, what is the added value of the assessment sheet for SMEs?

At first we are glad that the IRIS initiative has taken on board the suggestions made by VDB.

An outcome of the communication between the both VDB Working Commit-tees on Quality- & Project Management (QM&PM) and Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises, was that Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) increasingly criticised the complexity and the compre-

hensibility of the IRIS questionnaire as well as the difficulty of implementing these requirements.

Linked to that, the QM&PM Working Committee has been requested to investi-gate the IRIS standard and the associated questionnaire. A sub-working group was established, consisting of manufacturers of rail products and in particular SMEs.

The focus of the assessment was on the identification of improvements without changing the requirements in the stand-ard. Linked to this priority the following elements for improvement have been identified by the sub-working group: • Redundant text (systematics, contents) • Unclear expectations • Incorrect translation, inconsistent terminology • Indistinguishable examples and requirements

Based on the proposed improvements the IRIS questionnaire has been revised and is from now on entitled as the IRIS assess-ment sheet. The main differences are: • Reduction of the text by more than 30% • Removal of maturity level 1 “poor” description. Maturity level 2 “de fined”: description aligned with the IRIS booklet to avoid inconsistencies. • Consideration of IRIS guidelines in maturity level “qualified” (3) and “optimised” (4). • All examples will be in a new column, entitled “examples” in the Audit-Tool, no longer in the assess ment sheet to avoid, for example, confusion between examples and requirements

• Simplification through the combina tion of questions with related content (keyword: same content in different chapters)

All the improvements mentioned above lead to a more simplified handling of IRIS requirements for both the companies im-plementing the standard and the auditor.

Do you think the assessment sheet would simplify the implementation of the require-ment into their organisation?

The IRIS standard provides the potential to ensure and increase the product qual-ity. This success is, for example, strongly linked how the standard is implemented within the company. A simplified and optimised questionnaire leads to a higher acceptance and an easier implementation of the IRIS standard through the whole enterprise. We feel confident that the as-sessment sheet will simplify the implemen-tation of the requirements in the organisa-tion, especially for the SMEs.

Are IRIS guidelines and examples of the assessment sheet in line with the compa-nies need?

As mentioned earlier, some SMEs had criticised the difficulty to implement the IRIS standard within their organisations. A successful implementation requires that the philosophy of the standard is correctly considered during that phase. From our point of view, exactly here, the guidelines and examples provide a good framework for success.

Rudolf Frick, gives the view of the German Railway Industry Association (VDB) on the new Assessment Sheet, one of the main output of the IRIS Addendum 2015

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Ekaterina Bochkareva, Ph.D., is IRIS Lead Auditor, IRCA QMS Lead Auditor and Ex-emplar Global Aerospace Auditor, ISO/TC 176 Member. For the last 6 years she has been working for Russian Register as the Head of Railway & Aerospace Certifica-tion Sector with the significant contribu-tion to the development of IRIS certifica-tion in Russia through participation in IRIS TFI and provision of Russian translation of the essential IRIS materials including IRIS Booklet, Guidelines, Certificate template and others. The Certification Association “Russian Register” is the leading Certifica-tion Body in Russia and CIS countries with worldwide recognition and international accreditations, the first and only Russian CB that achieved IRIS Group approval.

I consider the added value of the new IRIS Assessment Sheet in comparison to the Questionnaire to be a lean approach to the document structure - the maturity levels’ description no longer contains the repetition of the requirements.

If you have an insight into the Assessment Sheet you will discover that currently it comprises 246 lines and includes descrip-

tion of defined, qualified and optimised maturity levels. Neither insufficient maturity level description nor the question itself remain in this document and instead the new column “Examples” is introduced. These examples are clearly identified to enable auditor and customer to share a common language and understand each other much better. Objectively the removal of certain redundant text and clarifications in qualified and optimised levels will definitely bring added value to all interested parties. The auditors will be able to spend less of their valuable time on the one-by-one requirements assessment and concentrate on process approach to the IRIS audit.

Here auditors receive a more sophisti-cated tool which will assist and guide them through the audit rather than tighten and limit with necessity of checking and filling in all the columns. Frankly speaking there were certain insignificant mistakes which were cleared out during the IRIS Assessment Sheet revision process which I was proud to have an opportunity to contribute to. For instance, an issue about organisation Contingency plans to mitigate the event of an emergency came up: the Questionnaire’s qualified level stated that an organisation has to have the Contingency plans validated and the optimised level - verified. At present such “human errors” are removed but I hold to what I have always said - IRIS is a living system, constantly developing and improving in order to better satisfy the needs of all interested parties involved in the railway industry supply chain quality improvement.

As a matter of fact this decision not to describe the poor and insufficient levels was based on best practices approach of other machine building industries, e.g. Aerospace (AS 9100 Quality Manage-ment Systems - Requirements for Aviation, Space and Defense Organisations and AS 9101 Quality Management Systems - Audit Requirements for Aviation, Space, and Defense Organisations) where it is an

auditor’s role to take decisions on a non-conformity grade (major or minor) with the consideration of the relevant objective evidences and the “audit trail” based on the depth of a systematic problem. To my mind this introduction will benefit the real quality improvement in the rail sector as auditors will be more focused on the root cause of the issue rather than, for exam-ple, checking the difference in the number of existing documents.

Lastly I would like to add that I am very glad that Russian language will be available in the Audit Tool for the first time. From my personal perspec-tive this remarkable step will help us to develop the IRIS scheme further in Russia and Russian-speaking countries such as Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and others. Considering the rising number of IRIS Cer-tificates (90 in Russian Federation at this point) and unstinting support of the largest customer - Russian Railways, we certainly have to adjust the scheme itself. For exam-ple, at the beginning of 2015 all the IRIS approved CBs were given the opportunity to issue IRIS Certificates in Russian lan-guage and the Assessment Sheet is a next step of this important process.

To ensure that our IRIS auditors smoothly transfer to the new Assessment Sheet and clearly perceive the changes and IMC vision, I have planned special trainings at Russian Register. Most certainly the new IRIS Assessment Sheet in Russian will be of significant importance for the certi-fied companies and those who are still in the preparation process and that will naturally lead to an increased number of IRIS Audit Tool licenses being sold which had not attracted much interest in Russia before.

I sincerely hope that in future the large IRIS family will continue to facilitate our important work on the quality improve-ment in the rail sector!

The view of Ekaterina Bochkareva on the new Assessment Sheet, compared to the previous questionnaire

IRIS Addendum 2015

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Focus on Eastern Europe

Gheorghe Sirbu, General Manager at ASTRA Vagoane, shares with us his experience withing IRIS and gives us his view on the the current situaton of the rail market in Romania. ASTRA Pas-senger Coaches has as main object of activity the manufacturing and repair of rolling stock.

In you opinion, what are the differences between IRIS and the other certifications on the rail sector? Do you see in IRIS an added value compared to the others?

The differences between IRIS and other certifications in the rail sector are the following:

IRIS clearly and fully defines the specific requirements related to business quality management in the rail industry. Other standards such as ISO 9001 define the quality management in a general way and can be applied to any field.

The treatment of the processes, their monitoring and measuring, analysis and continuous improvement specific to IRIS are an added value not present in the other standards.

Do you feel that there is a “quality culture” in Romania regarding rail sector?

Quality has always been a prerequisite in the rail sector. The rail industry has a long history in Romania, for example, ASTRA has been operating in this industry since 1891. I can say with certainty that there is a ‘Quality culture’ in the rail sector in this country. This has encouraged the implementation of quality standards: the ISO family first and then IRIS. ASTRA became ISO 9001 certified in 2002, followed by the ISO 14001 Environmen-tal Management and OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management certification, and obtained the IRIS certifica-tion in 2012.

Are there currently requests from Romanian operators for their suppliers to be IRIS certified?

So far I have not encountered any requirements of the Romanian operators stipulating that their suppliers must be IRIS certified. However, ASTRA has submitted its IRIS certification that we hold since 2012 in our proposals in response to call for tenders for rail products. We have encountered the IRIS requirement in some international tenders, however, and we have met it.

How do you see the development of IRIS certification in Roma-nia?

In Romania there are already companies that are IRIS certified. We are confident that their number will increase, both because this certification will be increasingly required by external opera-tors, and on the other hand I am convinced that the Romanian operators will begin to ask IRIS certification from their suppliers as well. I believe that the development of IRIS certification in Romania can be further facilitated by the emergence of a Roma-nian IRIS certification body, which may increase the number of Romanian companies audited and certified.

Which elements from IRIS would you consider as key for your company and strategic objectives?

All requirements that IRIS has improved in the business manage-ment system of our organisation has had its own contribution in helping us achieve our strategic goals. However, the principle of continuous improvement of quality is, for me, the key element of IRIS. Year after year, we must prove that we have improved our quality parameters, linked to the ASTRA strategic objective of di-versification and continuous quality improvement of our products, services and solutions. Achieving both objectives is done by a bilateral relationship that we have established and that we are trying to improve year over year.

Gheorghe Sirbu, General Manager at ASTRA Vagoane, give is view on IRIS and the situation of the rail market in Romania

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IRIS Dictionary

IRIS “Knock-Out” (K.O.) requirements

The IRIS “Knock-Out” (K.O.) requirements, one of the specificities of the IRIS certification since the IRIS Rev. 00, has evolved quite significantly in the past several years.

Some basic process areas in the rail sector have been identified as being weak which should be addressed by the sector immediately in order to avoid impacts on product quality. Therefore twelve IRIS K.O. requirements are defined for these process areas and must be assessed by the auditors during the following phases: 1. The Readiness Review: A detailed pre-assessment of the K.O. requirement shall be carried out to ascertain the readiness to undertake an audit. Fulfilment is considered as a prerequisite for IRIS certification. 2. Each audit in the certification cycle (certification, surveillance, re-certification). A detailed assessment of the K.O. requirements is mandatory. Fulfilment is considered as a prerequisite in order to maintain the IRIS certification.

Depending on the audited organisation, some K.O. requirements may not be applicable and, therefore, are not scored.

The figure below shows the area for the twelve K.O. requirements. The green frames represent the K.O. requirements, which are ALWAYS applicable.

The fulfilment of ALL applicable K.O. requirements as described in the IRIS Booklet Rev.02.1, chapter 2 IRIS Assessment Guideline, is obligatory and is considered as a prerequisite for IRIS certification.

By not meeting a K.O.requirement, the whole audit must be aborted and the certifica-tion process has to start with a new request (starting the full audit process over again).In this case, the auditor may continue with the audit, in accordance with the audit plan requested by the company, even if it is already declared as failed. Subsequently, a report will be uploaded in the IRIS portal stating the failure on the K.O. requirement.

The detailed K.O requirements are also described in the IRIS booklet, Annex 4.

Project management

Quality management (in projects)

First Article Inspection

Commissioning/Customer service

Control of changes

Control of nonconforming process

Quality management system

Design and development

Design and development inputs

Design and developments validation

Design approval

Validation of processes for pro-duction and service provision

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

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Tasty FiguresImpressive & Interesting facts from the World of Rail

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44 The number of passenger platforms at the Grand Central station in New York

96km/hThe speed that the first commercial steam train (Stephenson’s “Rocket”) managed to reach in 1830

269 350kmThe total length of rail tracks in Europe

8h30The total time it took to travel from Brussels to Paris with the first rail connection, opened in 1846

75 %The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions achieved by moving freight by rail instead of truck

10km/hThe speed of the slowest train in India, the Metu-palayam Ooty Nilgiri Passenger train

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EditorAgathe Marie – Communications Manager

pictures: UNIFE members

Contact:Mr. Bernard Kaufmann – IRIS General Manager Tel: +32 2 643 70 86bernard.kaufmann@unife.org

Mrs. Angela de Heymer – IRIS Senior Manager Tel: +32 2 642 23 23angela.deheymer@unife.org

Ms. Kujtesa Hajredini – IRIS Manager Tel: +32 2 642 23 26tesa.hajredini@unife.org

Ms. Agathe Marie -- Communications ManagerTel: +32 2 431 04 63agathe.marie@unife.org

IRIS is governed by:UNIFE, the European Rail Industry. 221 Avenue Louise, 1050 Brussels, BelgiumTel: +32 2 626 12 60Fax: +32 2 626 12 61general@unife.org

Website: www.iris-rail.org

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