Report on ISO 9000:2000 Awareness Course

        In the history of TKMCE, for the first time, Technical Seminars were organised by an alumni organisation and were conducted by alumni. TAGA is proud of this achievement, even though it is a sad fact that this had never happened for the past 48 years since our college was established, but only through TAGA! 

Day-1- 5th August 2005

The course on first day was meant for the faculty. It was formally inaugurated by Dr.K.G.John, HOD, Mechanical Department. Around 31 staff members were present during the occasion of the inauguration. Dr.John highlighted the importance of quality in education at TKMCE, particularly in light of the recent accreditation of all courses by NBA (National Board of Accreditation) and hoped that this course could help in moving towards ISO 9001:2000 accreditation of our college.

List of Participants from faculty:-

        21 staff members attended the entire course, which began at 10:00 a.m. and concluded at 4:30 p.m. The course was designed around explaining the clauses of ISO 9001:2000 and involving discussions with the participants to compare the requirements against the NBA accreditation requirements. The course presenter, Mr.E.S.Suresh wanted the participants to perform a “gap analysis” on all ISO 9000 clauses, to identify where we were and what we need to do to fulfil ISO requirements to achieve certification to the 9001 standard. There was active participation from the staff members, which was quite encouraging. They were genuinely interested in the steps involved in the accreditation process, which was explained during the afternoon session.

        The course has evoked keen interest among the staff on ISO 9000 and it is hoped that soon TKMCE will be an ISO 9001 certified institution.

Day-2- 6th August 2005 

        The second day was exclusively for the students. It started at 9:00 a.m.

        Except one student from the 5^th Semester, all other 25 students were from the 7^th Semester Mechanical and Production Branches, who had taken “Industrial Quality Control” as an elective.

        The course was formally inaugurated by Dr.K.K.Abdul Rasheed, Lecturer (Selection Grade), Dept. of Mech. Engg. and Treasurer of TAGA.

List of Participants from students:-

        The approach to this course was different from the earlier day. Originally, it was aimed to present an overview of the ISO 9000:2000 standard and provide illustrations and applications of quality in the industry. However, when Mr.E.S.Suresh reviewed the prescribed textbook, named “Statistical Quality Control” (which is a misnomer!), the section on ISO 9000 was found to be completely out of date! The text book, which was originally published in 1997 and the latest copy reprinted in 2003, contained the ISO 9000:1987 standard, which had been revised twice, in 1994 and 2000! The information on ISO 9000 in the above textbook was obsolete and no longer relevant. So, the course design was revised and Mr.E.S.Suresh presented the new and current standard on ISO 9000 in detail, with illustrations and examples from the industry on how procedures are developed and implemented. Other principles and techniques of Total Quality Management were also briefly presented. The students were very keen and their involvement and interaction were very high.

        In the afternoon, Mr. Nishad Abdul Rahim (94 Civil), a TAGA Life Member, working as QA/QC Manager of Edara, Dubai joined Mr.E.S.Suresh. Together, they presented details on career and higher education opportunities for students in the field of Quality Management.

        The course was concluded at around 3:30 p.m. by Dr. M.C.Philipose, Principal of TKMCE.

Participants of both the above courses may please send their feedback to the course presenter Mr.E.S.Suresh at suresh@cherai.com

TAGA express gratitude to the college authorities, for providing us the facilities to conduct the workshop.