Coldharbour Marine

"Obtaining ISO 9001 certification was on the critical path to getting our product to market. I knew from previous experience that obtaining the standard could take nine months or more. We had just eleven weeks to do it.

"Our product is unique, very technical and not one to get to grips with easily.

"I spoke with a number of ISO consultancies, but Equas picked it up quite quickly and were extremely responsive. I had confidence from day one that they could deliver.

"Our Equas consultant, David Morgan, held our hand through the whole process and really went over and above what I was expecting from him."

Jason Holloway, Chief Operating Officer

The company

Coldharbour Marine was set up around 35 years ago supplying modules that distribute hot and cold water on board ships. It later identified a technology that would change how ballast water is treated on the largest vessels in the world, including ultra large oil carriers and very large crude carriers.

Traditionally ballast water is treated in port, a time consuming process that accrues demurrage costs. The Coldharbour system allows treatment while the vessel is at sea and under way.

The challenge

After an extensive period of research and development, and successful land-based testing in the Netherlands, the system was installed aboard a very large crude carrier for sea trials under International Maritime Organisation and Lloyds Register testing parameters.

The company planned to complete type approval in December 2014, but while enquiring about the approval process was advised that ISO 9001 certification was a mandatory requirement.

Having already marketed the product with an excellent response, without ISO 9001 there would be no product type approval, and the company would not be able to accept orders. Finding a consultancy that could deliver certification within the deadline was crucial.

The approach

Time was first spent agreeing the scope of what needed to be achieved. Given the very tight timeframe, and the amount of work involved in applying ISO processes to something entirely unique, a full system build was the right route.

Reviewing the existing management system, it became apparent that most of the necessary documentation and management practices already existed. They were, however, over-complicated, with no core processes and no effective document control.

The key task was to create processes describing the company's activities, from determining strategic objectives through to project managing the design and installation of the ballast water treatment system, then linking the relevant documentation to the correct parts of those processes.

The benefits

Coldharbour Marine gained ISO 9001 certification within the deadline. The application for product type approval was successful and the company was able to sell its technology.