Following the publication of the specific rail requirements for business management systems under ISO 22163, UNIFE is pleased to announce the publication of its IRIS Certification Performance Assessment:2023. In conjunction with the IRIS Certification Technology, these constitute the IRIS Certification® Revision 04 system that will come into force as of 1st January 2024. The main aim of this evolution is to simplify the process of certification and make IRIS certification more efficient, streamlined and accessible.

“With the launch of IRIS Certification® Revision 04, our aim is to continue to increase railway quality at a global level. As always UNIFE guarantees transparency and confidentiality for all parties, while ensuring a smooth transition into the new certification rules.” Philippe Citroën, Director General –  UNIFE

The ISO 22163:2023 is owned by ISO. It contains the requirements of the ISO 9001:2015 Standard and the supplemental rail-specific requirements. With a full ISO standard, we reach a new level of worldwide acceptance. This is a significant advantage for the railway industry. The IRIS Performance Assessment:2023 is owned by UNIFE and contains all the relevant rules relating to assessment methodology and the certification process. These are the rules for achieving and maintaining IRIS Certification® recognition. 

The IRIS Certification technology includes the IRIS Portal, Database and Audit-Tool web application and plays an integral part of the IRIS Certification scheme. It is used for recording and evaluating data as well as generating standardized reports of IRIS Certification audits. UNIFE will soon   release the newly implemented advanced web-based audit tool for auditors and organisations. The IRIS Unit has been expanded to accommodate the increased workload and future inquiries.

“With IRIS Certification® Revision 04  a very important milestone is reached. The achieved ISO standard is worldwide accepted, and with the creation of an EN standard further synergies.. Based on this “enhanced IRIS ” the rail sector is now able to harvest the fruits by further improving the quality of rail products, making the supply chains even stronger with regards to on-time and on-quality delivery as well as  the reduction of  audits  based  on  the  trusted  IRIS Certificates.” Stefan Siegler, Vice President Business Excellence and Quality Management – Siemens Mobility, and Chair IRIS Steering Committee

With this new revision, previously ineligible such as distributors and suppliers involved in turnkey operations can now apply to be certified. IRIS continues to grow with a significant increase in the number of IRIS Portal account holder registrations.

The new revision also includes a simplified version of IRIS Certification® for small and  medium enterprises (SMEs). Reduced documentation requirements and a simplified maturity level in the IRIS assessment sheet constitute lower barriers to entry. Simplified IRIS is to be used as a stepping stone for those organisations that were previously not able achieve IRIS Certification®.

“IRIS  Certification®  Revision 04  is  the  ideal  means to push quality  in  the  railway sector. Both the requirements of ISO 22163 and the Performance assessment rules will enhance customer satisfaction and process performance in the next years.” Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager – UNIFE, and WG5 Convenor, ISO/TC 269

IRIS Certification® is a global system enabling the rail sector to benefit from a strong and recognised evaluation method. Its successful implementation creates a win-win situation for all stakeholders. IRIS Certification aims to secure higher quality in the rail sector through developing and implementing a global system for the evaluation of companies supplying to the railway industry. Uniform language, assessment guidelines and mutual acceptance of audits create a high level of transparency and trust towards IRIS Certification throughout the supply chain enhancing competition and increasing the quality of rail products. 

As announced and expected, UNIFE has just published the IRIS Certification® Performance Assessment:2023. The document contains all the relevant rules relating to assessment methodology and the certification process. These are the rules for achieving and maintaining IRIS Certification® recognition.

You can find further information on purchasing the rules here.

The references ISO 22163 and IRIS Certification Performance Assessment constitute the IRIS Certification® rev.04 system that will come into force as from 1st January 2024. More information on the implementation phase will be provided in the rev.04 launch webinar this Friday.

We encourage all interested parties to implement the IRIS Certification® rev.04 in order to enjoy its full benefits.

For any question on this topic, please contact info@iris-rail.org. Follow IRIS on LinkedIn and Twitter.

The new global standard for quality management systems in the railway sector, “ISO 22163:2023 Railway applications — Railway quality management system — ISO 9001:2015 and specific requirements for application in the railway sector” was published by ISO on July, 25th 2023.

Following the publication of the specific rail requirements for business management systems under ISO 22163, UNIFE will soon publish the IRIS Certification Performance Assessment:2023.

Taken together, these constitute the IRIS Certification® rev.04 system that will come into force as of 1st January 2024. More information on the transition timeline and possibilities will be provided soon.

This new designation encompasses the whole system, composed of different elements and responsibilities, it will soon be under application.

The ISO 22163:2023 is owned by ISO. It contains the requirements of the ISO 9001:2015 Standard and the supplemental rail-specific requirements.

The IRIS Performance Assessment:2023 is owned by UNIFE and contains all the relevant rules relating to assessment methodology and the certification process. These are the rules for achieving and maintaining IRIS Certification® recognition. The IRIS Certification technology refers to the IRIS Portal, database and Audit-Tool web application that plays an integral part of the IRIS Certification scheme used for recording and evaluating data as well as generating standardized reports of IRIS Certification audits.

With a full ISO standard, we reach a new level of worldwide acceptance. This is a significant advantage for the railway industry. With this stage complete, we must encourage all interested parties to implement the IRIS Certification® rev.04 in order to enjoy its full benefits and recognition.

We would like to extend our warmest thanks to all the contributors of these documents.

We would also like to invite you to the IRIS Certification® rev.04 launch webinar on the 15th of September at 10:30 Central European Standard Time. You can register for the webinar using the link below.

For any question on this topic, please contact info@iris-rail.org. Follow IRIS on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We’ve been preparing for months and it’s finally ready! The IRIS Unit is delighted to announce the date of the IRIS Certification Rev. 04 launch event webinar. The new version makes IRIS certification more efficient, streamlined, and accessible. Join us online on the 15th of September, 2023 from 10:30-12:30 CEST for an in-depth view into the future of rail certification and quality management.

The panel of speakers includes Stefan Siegler (Vice President Business Excellence and Quality Management at Siemens Mobility) who will talk about the roadmap for Rev.04 and its various evolutions. Next, Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager and ISO/TC 269 WG5 Convenor will give us an overview of the technical innovations.

Luise Nitsche of Siemens mobility and Jesica Seijo of CAF take us into the Performance assessment:2023 rules and provide critical knowledge about the evolution and differences between Rev. 03 and Rev. 04.

Finally, Anish Bawa of UNIFE will introduce the new technology for IRIS implementation and Maria Romero of UNIFE will talk about the next steps for the certification.

Make sure you register so we can send you the agenda and webinar link. We are looking forward to seeing you there.

Thierry Haimet, Stefan Siegler

On 13th June, Stefan Siegler, Vice President Business Excellence and Quality Management at Siemens, was confirmed Chairman of the IRIS Steering Committee (SteCo) to take over this role from Thierry Haimet. In his new position, Stefan Siegler will ensure a successful implementation of the Rev.04 scheme by focusing on improving quality by strengthening IRIS Certification to be used as a  performance tool for improving the industry. Mr. Siegler will also continue his duty as Chairman of IRQB.

During his term, Thierry Haimet largely contributed to continuing the development and reaching the expected performance quality throughout the entire value chain. Thierry Haimet thanked the Steering Committee for its support and ensured that a strong collaboration between IRQB and IRIS will continue in the future enhancing the global culture of quality in rail.

During the same meeting, Markus Kleinheidt, Vice President Quality and HSE, R/QM at Knorr-Bremse has been elected as IRIS Vice-chairman. The SteCo warmly thanked his predecessor, Marcus Schmid, Senior Vice-President Quality & HSE at Voith Turbo, for his 10 years engagement as IRIS Vice-chair.

The IRIS management centre is currently involved in the update of the next revision of the IRIS Certification® scheme.

There will be a harmonized approach for rev.04; the new ISO 22163, the updated IRIS rules as well as better connected technology will soon be available. These interconnected elements secure the functionality of the IRIS Certification® scheme that strives for a simplified and streamlined approach.

Our aim is to provide all companies with more information on the transition timeline and the various possibilities after the publication of the standard.

New types of businesses are now eligible for IRIS Certification®

The updated certification rules now allow for a wide range of business categories, who were previously not eligible, to be certified. Furthermore, simplifications and reduced barriers to entry will soon be applicable for micro, small and medium sized companies. 
Our IRIS Certification® tools have undergone a paradigm shift and now include state of the art technology in form of a web-based audit-tool, essential for companies that allows for easy preparation of audits and gap analysis when starting or updating. 
Companies can now look forward to improved user friendliness and hardware independence.  
 

The large development of IRIS Certification® worldwide and especially in Asia requests more control to ensure confidence for the stakeholders by trustful assessments.

IRIS Management Centre is pleased to announce that for a few weeks, we have gained an additional competence located in that area.

Ms Xiuluan SHI is supporting the IRIS team with the certification process and all related actions of the IRIS Certification scheme. She will also share her experience within the different activities of IRIS.

Xiuluan is already involved in IRIS since 2009 as a Lead Auditor and can therefore bring high value to the recognition of the scheme.

UNIFE and the IRIS Management Centre are pleased to welcome Jesica Seijo Troncoso, who has joined the team as IRIS Development Manager.

Jesica will support the IRIS team with the standardisation, certification and performance process of the IRIS Certification scheme. She will also share her experience within the different working groups of IRIS and IRQB.

Jesica previously worked as Quality Manager at the Beasain site of CAF Miira. She speaks Spanish and English.

We wish her all the best in her new projects within UNIFE. You can contact her at: jesica.seijo@unife.org

ISO/TC 269 Working Group 5 is working on an updated ISO/DIS 22163 to adapt and reach a worldwide consensus on the requirements.

The voting on the ISO/DIS 22163 ballot was closed this May with its principles approved. The ballot received a high number of comments that will now be discussed within the Working Group 5. IRIS Management Centre (IMC) foresees to have the document finalised in two months with an expected publishing date in early 2023, following an FDIS ballot publication.

The DIS version of the document is currently available for purchase on the ISO website, however, due to the high number of comments, the final version is expected to include several changes to the currently published edition.

In case you have any questions about the progress on the ISO 22163, please do not hesitate to contact the IMC.

Updated version of the IRIS Certification rules will be available in early 2023

Together with the standard, the International Rail Quality Board’s (IRQB) Working Group 2.1 – led by the IMC – has started to update the IRIS Certification rules (currently referred to as the conformity assessment), aiming to include the updated ISO 22163 evolutions as well as to make the rules easier to understand and thereby simplify the whole IRIS Certification process.

The working group has proposed several changes to the current rules, which were all validated by the IRQB Board. Others proposals and application details are still under discussion.

Full web Audit-Tool

Finally, the IMC is also working on updating the IRIS Audit-Tool. This update will take all the above-mentioned evolutions into account to enable a strong assessment tool for the auditors and an easy preparation tool for the companies.

Within the next months, the IMC will implement test versions to verify the reliability of the whole IRIS system.

IMC will keep you informed as these updates will be finalised and invites you to pass by the UNIFE Stand 660 at Hub 27 at InnoTrans in Berlin for more details on latest developments.

Make sure to also join the IRIS Certification sessions at InnoTrans. Held at the UNIFE stand, join us for a session on quality performance in the rail sector on 21 September at 16.30 & on the evolutions of the IRIS scheme, held on 22 September at 15.00.

Félix Mueller, Chief Operating Officer of SQS, Hans Jahn, Member of the extend SQS Management Board and Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager have officially sealed the Framework Agreement, which enables SQS to become an IRIS approved certification body. 

SQS is a Swiss certification body that has recently created a railway branch to focus its growth on the transport and rail business in order to support their current customers also on the assessment of the IRIS Certification® scheme. 

IMC is looking forward to this new collaboration that will support the deployment of the rail quality management system in Europe and more globally in the whole value chain. The combination of a recognised international standard – ISO/TS 22163 - and railway-driven certification and assessment rules published by UNIFE is creating the needed confidence within the sector to enhance quality. 

Click here to see the complete list of IRIS Certification® Certification Bodies.
 

IRIS Certification celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. Since its founding 15 years ago, IRIS Certification has aimed at enhancing the quality of the whole rail sector by establishing a transparent and objective certification system that compiles best practices identified by the rail sector’s champions.

In only a decade and a half, IRIS Certification has grown from a European initiative to a worldwide certification system. It is evident that it continues to grow as many new companies become certified and numerous others continue to register on the IRIS Portal, indicating sustained interest in the scheme. IRIS Certification has been awarded to more than 2100 companies, across more than 50 countries and all continents. 

To celebrate this success, we have published the IRIS 15: Facts & Figures interactive mini-website. Accessible through the main menu on the IRQB website, IRIS 15: Facts & Figures offers you an overview of the IRIS Certification’s recent developments and current state of affairs as we mark 15 years since its establishment. This publication will bring you a large variety of data on IRIS Certified companies, audit scores, corrective actions and auditors and certification bodies, contributing once again to the transparency of our certification scheme.

We invite you to consult this new website and hope that you find it useful and informative.

Access the IRIS 15: Facts & Figures website here.

Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Artur Tänna.

The IRIS Management Centre is pleased to announce that, starting from 1 September 2021, companies can be awarded with the highest possible Quality Performance Level - Gold. This designation is being fully launched on time, at the conclusion of the one-year test period that started in September of last year.

Gold level certification will be made available to all companies who received the Silver quality performance level during their last audit and fulfil the additional criteria required for this even more prestigious designation. It is important to note that companies who currently hold a Bronze level certification are unable to directly progress to the Gold level, needing to first obtain the Silver quality performance level in order to do so.

To achieve the Gold quality performance level, a company has to score at least 80% during the enabler evaluation scoring, 85% in customer perception elements and at least 90% of the maximum process performance score. For obtaining the Gold and Silver quality performance levels, the company must send all necessary documentation to the lead auditor 60 days before the start of the audit.

The main additional requirement for Gold level, compared to Silver, concerns direct feedback from the customer. Direct customer feedback is based on two pillars: on time delivery and customer perception of quality performance. Direct feedback from customers is gathered using a standard questionnaire available through the IRIS Portal. The average result for both pillars must be at least 80% of the maximum score. All Gold quality performance levels awards have to be verified by the IRIS Management Centre.

The preparations for obtaining the Gold quality performance level start when fulfilling the requirements for the Silver level. If an organisation largely fulfils the requirements for the Silver quality performance level, the lead auditor will ask the organisation if they will aspire to obtain the Gold one during their next IRIS Certification audit. If the organisation wishes to strive towards the highest quality performance level, the lead auditor will select 2 key customers based on the list of customers provided in the stakeholder analysis. They will be complemented by an additional 2 key customers that are selected by the organisation itself. During the following year’s audit, the company will then submit the direct feedback from the same 4 companies at least 60 days before the audit, together with other audit documentation.

If you have any questions regarding the Gold quality performance level, please first contact your certification body, who has received a training on this new quality performance statement from the IRIS Management Centre. If your certification body is unable to help you, please contact the IRIS Management Centre.

Starting from 2022, UNIFE and the IRIS Management Centre are planning to perform IRIS training sessions for interested companies in the rail industry.

Ahead of launching this new training programme, we’d like to hear from you to shape the training sessions according to your needs and preferences. We kindly ask 5 minutes of your time to complete this short survey helping us to understand your needs and preferences. Your opinion matters to us! You will find the survey under this link.

Thank you very much in advance!

UNIFE & the IRIS Management Centre

UNIFE and the IRIS Management Centre are pleased to invite you to our upcoming online event, “Promoting quality in rail – IRIS Certification improves sector’s attractiveness and competitiveness”. We will be digitally convening industry leaders for this important discussion on Tuesday, 31 August between 10.00-11.30 (CEST).

As part of the European Year of Rail initiative, this online event will focus on the importance of quality for the European rail industry and explore how it is helping them thrive despite increased international competition, achieve higher business performance and increase efficiency, resilience and attractiveness. The event will discuss the best practices and tools for achieving higher quality objectives by introducing the IRIS Certification scheme as a tailor-made tool for the evaluation of rail sector companies and foster a unique global rail quality consortium: the International Rail Quality Board (IRQB).

The event will feature prominent speakers:

• Stefan Siegler, IRQB Chairman and Vice President Quality and Business Excellence at Siemens Mobility
• Thierry Haimet, Chairman of IRIS Steering Committee, Vice-President Quality at Alstom
• Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager
• Philippe Citroën, UNIFE Director General

Register now by clicking here. The event will be held via the Microsoft Teams Live Events platform. This application does not require you to download any additional software prior to joining.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Andrei Ciufu, UNIFE Head of Communications.

IRIS Certification Conformity assessment:2020 is now available for purchase also in German, Japanese and Chinese. Together with English, the Conformity assessment:2020 is now available in 4 languages helping to further enhance the quality of the rail sector by making the scheme more accessible for companies around the globe.

Additionally, companies can now benefit from a broader range of language options for the templates referenced in the IRIS Certification Conformity assessment:2020. Appendix 09 to Rules 6.2, IRIS Confirmation Statement and Direct Customer Feedback Questionnaire templates are now available in English, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Chinese.

IRIS Certification Conformity assessment:2020 defines the rules and procedures that must be followed in order to be awarded with the IRIS Certificate. The document supersedes the existing “IRIS Certification rules rev. 03:2017” and the IRIS Addendum 2019 and is available for purchase via the IRIS Portal Shop here.

On 3rd July, Thierry Haimet, Vice President Quality at Alstom, was elected Chairman of the IRIS Steering Committee (SteCo). Mr Haimet, who will be taking over this role from Stefan Siegler, has held several positions in the fields of quality, EHS and operations in Alstom over the last 12 years. In his new position, Thierry Haimet will ensure that IRIS Certification continues to develop and reach the expected performance quality throughout the entire value chain. 

During his term, Stefan Siegler largely contributed to building worldwide trust in the IRIS Certification scheme, notably through the creation of the International Rail Quality Board (IRQB) – a global consortium of leading rail sector companies dedicated to promoting the global culture of quality through IRIS Certification. Mr Siegler will continue this work as the Chairman of IRQB.

Stefan Siegler thanked the Steering Committee for its support and ensured Mr Haimet that a strong collaboration between IRQB and IRIS will continue in the future enhancing the global culture of quality in rail.

UNIFE and the IRIS Management Centre are pleased to welcome Jana Jung, who has joined the team as IRIS Development Manager.

Jana will support the IRIS team with the standardisation, certification and improvement process of the IRIS Certification scheme. She will also share her experience within the different working groups of IRIS and IRQB.

Jana previously worked as Quality Manager at the Siegen site of Bombardier Transportation. She speaks German and English.

We wish her all the best in her new projects within UNIFE. You can contact her at: jana.jung@unife.org

UNIFE launched the new version of the IRIS Audit-Tool that includes assessment sheets in English, German, Russian, Hungarian and Chinese.

IRIS Audit-Tool is an integral part of the IRIS Certification system used for recording and evaluating data as well as generating standardized reports of IRIS Certification audits. IRIS Audit-Tool is essential for certification bodies during an IRIS Certification audit but also allows all rail companies to use the tool to increase their quality performance internally. The Tool can be used by all rail companies seeking IRIS Certification during an internal audit allowing to increase the quality performance and prepare its business management systems for IRIS Certification audit.

When the previous version of the Audit-Tool included assessment sheets in English and German, then the newly published version – V5.0.5.00 – includes assessment sheets also in Russian, Hungarian and Chinese. As assessment sheet forms the core part of the Audit-Tool defining the criteria to be eligible for IRIS Certification, the newly added languages give the confidence and comfort that comes with operating in a more familiar language for the company.

IRIS Certification audits can be performed in any language and with the new version of the Audit Tool, it is even easier to prepare and conduct audits all around the world giving a push to expand the reach of IRIS Certification even more to the forefront of rail certification.

IRIS Audit-Tool is available for purchase here exclusively for all companies registered in the IRIS portal. If your company is not yet registered, you can easily fill in the registration form here.

Certification bodies have to use the new Audit-Tool during all IRIS Certification audits. Certification bodies can purchase the Tool by sending an email to info@iris-rail.org.

If you already have an IRIS Audit-Tools version 5.0.0.00 or later you can update and install the new version free of charge directly by opening the Audit-Tool and clicking on the pop-up message that appears. For older versions, it might be possible (4.0 – 4.2), but the client has to contact IMC directly.

On 1st May 2020, the IMC (IRIS Management Centre) issued the new, “IRIS Certification® Conformity assessment:2020”. This document outlines the criteria to be eligible for IRIS Certification®. This independent publication supersedes the existing “IRIS Certification rules rev. 03:2017” and the IRIS Addendum 2019 and is available for purchase via the IRIS Portal Shop here. Further information on how to buy the publication can be found in the shop. The IRIS Certification® Conformity assessment:2020 will specifically focus and include content from the:

• Generic conformity assessment rules     
• IRIS Addendum 2019
• Improvements based on feedbacks received from all stakeholders
• Latest Quality Performance Level evolutions
• Decisions from the board on further evolutions of the system.

As for the timeline, web-trainings will be offered for IRIS Auditors in the near future, for audits to be performed from May onwards in the normal Audit Cycle, considering the new updates defined in the Conformity assessment.

The IRIS Certification® Conformity assessment:2020 is published in English.

Lastly, all evolutions mentioned within the IRIS Certification® Conformity assessment:2020 will be reflected within the IRIS Technology (Portal and Audit-Tool version 5.0.4.00).

For any question on this topic, please contact Bernard Kaufmann at bernard.kaufmann@unife.org.

EXPO Ferroviaria is Italy's Premier Exhibition for Railway Technology, Products and Systems. The ninth edition welcomed 300 international exhibitors showcasing their products, vision and goals to thousands of guests visiting between 1st and 3rd October. .

As part of the UNIFE stand, IMC welcomed the rail stakeholders during these three days answering their questions and ensuring a direct dialogue. The team has also visited interested companies to discuss and engage them for IRIS Certification™ .

On 1st October, during the  panel discussion titled: “International Rail Quality Board (IRQB): a strong tool to push for better Quality through IRIS Certification™ several speakers exchanged their views on Quality.

Tommaso Spanevello, UNIFE’s Public Affairs Manager, kicked-off the discussion by introducing UNIFE and the topic. Mr.  Paolo Patti, Head of Quality Assurance Hitachi Rail STS and IRQB representative, followed by presenting the International Rail Quality Board (IRQB) and its vision as a worldwide consortium to drive Quality in the rail sector to further promote the IRIS Certification™ system. He continued by explaining the frame of the IRIS Certification™, the challenges for companies, and the need for a reinforced mindset of quality. He stressed the importance of the International Rail Quality Board (IRQB) to expand the culture of quality through IRIS Certification™ and to improve competitiveness. Ms. Maria Romero, IRIS Manager, gave an overview of the current IRIS deployment worldwide with a  particular focus on Italy, as well as a forecast on the potential of this region.

Mr. Davide Torti, IRIS Certification Technician & Turin Head Office at RINA, concluded by giving his view on the IRIS approved certification body and the Italian market of IRIS Certification™.

Please click here to download the presentations.

IMC (IRIS Management Centre) will be participating to the 9th edition of EXPO Ferroviaria, held in Milan, Italy, from 1st to 3rd October 2019. Organized every two years, EXPO Ferroviaria is Italy’s showcase for railway technology, products and systems. 

UNIFE will organize a panel-discussion on Tuesday, from 12:15 to 13:30 on the following topic: “International Rail Quality Board (IRQB): a strong tool to push for better Quality through IRIS Certification™”. More information on this event will be announced closer to the date . 

In addition of this event, we encourage you meet us on the UNIFE stand B150.

For more questions on IMC’s participation to  EXPO Ferroviaria 2020 please contact Agathe Marie at agathe.marie@unife.org. For any questions regarding the fair itself, please visit the official website here.
 

On 1st July 2019, the IMC (IRIS Management Centre) issued the new Addendum “IRIS Addendum 2019”. This independent publication amending the existing “IRIS Certification rules rev. 03:2017” is free of charge and available via the known distributors. This addendum will specifically focus on the further steps of the Silver Quality Performance Level, that will be officially launched in May 2020.

As for the timeline, web-trainings will be offered for IRIS Auditors in the coming months, for audits to be performed from September onwards, considering the new updates defined in the Addendum. These updates concentrate on evolution of performance levels, implementation of corrections from the clarification of IRIS rev. 03 system – 1st edition and other corrections (wording, typo).

Finally, this IRIS Addendum 2019 is published in English. Translated versions will be published progressively.  

For any question on this topic, please contact Bernard Kaufmann at Bernard.kaufmann@unife.org.      

IMC published the 12th issue of the Quality Rail Journal, right on time for the UNIFE General Assembly that took place in Dublin, from 12 to 14 June. Following technical developments, the transition phase or even the launch of IRQB, we’ve decided it’s time to inform everyone on the operational, management and strategic plans. We invite you to discover the vision of Sabrina Soussan, CEO of Siemens Mobility and Chair of UNIFE, about IRQB guaranteeing common quality standards in the rail industry, as well as UNIFE Director General,  Philippe Citroën’s vision about a common European commitment in quality. We hope you will also enjoy the view of Stefan Siegler, IRIS Chair, and Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, about IRIS Certification™ benefits and its development for a continuous improvement.

Click here to download the 12th edition of the Quality Rail journal from the Download Area – Enjoy the read!
 

PDF Document

Groupe AFNOR is organizing a webinar under the theme of "RAILWAY PROFESSIONAL: How to win the trust of your customers?", on June 25th, 2019 at 10 am.

Join us to understand how the IRIS – ISO/TS 22163 certification is an undeniable asset to implement a continuous improvement process.

The IRIS Management Centre - Mr. Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager & Mrs. Angela de Heymer, IRIS Senior Manager - will participate to the session. 

Free registration following this link :

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8942940893786026765

This year’s UNIFE General Assembly was held in Dublin from 12 to 14 June, gathering more than 200 leaders of the European rail supply industry, as well as several high level European decision makers. As every year, IMC participated in this major event, to present the status and latest developments of IRIS Certification™, and had various exchanges on several topics with UNIFE Members. 

On 12 June, six dialogue forums addressing various topics were suggested to the participants. Among them, a Dialogue Forum on Quality, dedicated to IRIS Certification™, addressed the need to further improve quality to satisfy customer expectations and needs; the current status and upcoming development of the certification; the specific cases of SME’s towards IRIS Certification™, and more.

Andreas Glitsch, Vice President Quality at  Bombardier Transportation, emphasized the need to further improve the rail supply industry results in front of its customers, stating: “Rail business needs Quality Performance”. 

Hakim Aoudia, EHS & Quality Vice-President at Wabtec-Faiveley, reminded the importance of performance in the Rail Supply Chain and explained how can our sourcing improves the satisfaction of the customers.

Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, explained the technical implementation of the silver performance and mentioned what is required to reach this new performance level.

Stefan Siegler, Vice President Business Excellence and Quality Management at Siemens Mobility, and IRIS Chairman, highlighted the importance to align the view on quality performance between the customers and suppliers through, what he named: “The quality dialogue”. 

Finally, Roger Dirksmeyer, Managing Director - Rail Systems at FOGTEC, and UNIFE Presiding Board Member, highlighted the challenges that SMEs can meet while implementing the IRIS rev. 03, and the expectations from small and medium size organizations towards the certification. 

This Dialogue Forum was the occasion for UNIFE Members to exchange on common topics of interest and experiences within the certification, as well as to learn more about the latest developments and application of the scheme. 

During this General Assembly, three high-level round-tables were also conducted and the statutory meeting welcomed 9 new UNIFE Members into the association. The next UNIFE General Assembly will take place in Berlin, on 24-26 June 2020.
 

The 21st edition of the NT Expo will be held from 19 to 21 March 2019, in Sao Paolo, Brazil. This Fair is a significant meeting point for rail sector companies in South America. 

For the first time, IRIS Management Centre is organising a dedicated seminar on IRIS Certification™, moderated by Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager. This seminar will be the occasion to present the current status of IRIS Certification™ in the world, to outline IRIS Certification™ achievements and future strategy, as well as to present the current situation the South American rail market, regarding IRIS Certification™.

For more information on NT Expo, please visit the official website here, and visit us on Booth 8-50.
In case you have any question(s) about the IRIS Seminar, please contact Bernard Kaufmann, at bernard.kaufmann@unife.org.
 

The IMC team participated in InnoTrans 2018, from 18 to 21 September, in Berlin. Besides the signature of the IRQB Consortium Agreement on Tuesday, other focus on IRIS was made during InnoTrans. Worldwide guests came to our stand to meet the team and get answers to their questions in direct dialog, as well as to attend the three IRIS Certification™ sessions organised on the stand during this exciting week:

IRIS achievements and the future strategy: 
Stefan Siegler, IRIS Certification™ Chairman and VP Quality Siemens Mobility GmbH, Philippe Citroën, UNIFE Director General, and Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS Certification™ General Manager presented the achievements over the last period and discussed the strategy and way forward.
Please click here to download the presentation.

IRIS Certification™ system rev. 03 and the transition phase: 
Eva-Maria Baldauf, Quality Manager, GVE Viehbeck Engineering + Systemtechnik GmbH, and Reiner Engels, Quality Manager, FOGTEC Brandschutz GmbH & Co. KG, shared their experience and feedback regarding the implementation of the IRIS rev. 03 system in small/medium size enterprises. They highlighted their benefits as well as their constraints to achieve the certification.
Please click here to download the presentation.

IRIS Certification™: Technical evolutions & future with ISO:
The audience was informed of upcoming technical evolutions in the next years through the relationship with ISO by Sabrina Paeglow, Senior Experts Siemens Mobility GmbH, ISO/TC 269/WG 05 member and German Mirror Group, and Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS Certification™ General Manager, as convenor of the ISO/TC 269/WG 05 “Rail quality management system”.

Volker Buhrmester, Head of supplier development, Deutsche Bahn AG, explained the view of the customer and its expectation, by highlighting the need of confidence in the IRIS rev. 03 system and by challenging the supply chain to: not improve the show, but show improvements for the benefit of your (and our) customer!
Please click here to download the presentation.

InnoTrans 2018 was a great success for IRIS Certification™, especially with a large international audience attending the IRIS sessions which confirms the already deep worldwide dissemination within the rail companies in the global supply chain.

IMC (the IRIS Management Centre) published its 11th edition of The Quality Rail Journal, prior to InnoTrans 2018, last week in Berlin.

Do you want to learn more about the end of the transition phase? Do you want to learn more about IRQB? 

Click here to download the newsletter from the Download Area.

Enjoy the read!

Berlin, 18 September 2018 | The signature of the International Rail Quality Board (IRQB) Consortium Agreement during InnoTrans by leading companies in rail operations, system integration and equipment manufacturing represents the first joint sector approach towards high product quality.

The IRIS Management Centre is proud to announce the signature of the International Rail Quality Board (IRQB) Consortium Agreement, Board for which the IMC is appointed as the coordinator. We strongly support this initiative which will strengthen the development of IRIS Certification™.

The IRQB aims at global improvement of the product quality within the whole rail sector. It will drive the future IRIS Certification™ evolutions of the rules and therefore push for enhanced process performance within the organisations.

During the 15 months transition timeframe, the vast majority of IRIS rev. 02 certified companies reached the goal in transitioning to an IRIS Certification™ rev. 03 certificate.

This new seal brings more confidence into the organisations from a customer point of view. It addresses strong commitments in terms of transparency, targets, performance and customer satisfaction. All these companies will now have to maintain the certification level not only throughout the surveillance audits, but through their customer projects on a daily basis.

According to the rules and when respecting their reference date, audits completed before 14 September 2018, have a maximum of 90 days after the audit to close the corrective actions.

Finally, for the companies not being able to fulfil the deadline, a new cycle is still possible as for all newcomers in the scheme. The availability and experience of the auditors is greater now, which will guarantee a quick increase of the well performing supply chain.

Thank you very much for this great success, we’re looking forward in serving the whole rail sector with quality products.

The IRIS Management Centre 
 

As usual, the IRIS Management Centre will be participating to InnoTrans 2018 from 18 to 21 September, in Berlin (Germany). 
You are warmly welcome to meet us at the UNIFE stand in Hall 4.2, Stand 302.
Several presentations and discussions will be held at the UNIFE stand during the week. Among them, three will be dedicated to IRIS Certification™. 
Please find here below the detailed IRIS’ Agenda:

Tuesday, 18th September 2018:

17:00 to 17:30
IRIS achievements and the future strategy

• Stefan Siegler (IRIS Certification™ Chairman and Vice President Business Excellence and Quality Management, Siemens)
• Philippe Citroën (Director General, UNIFE)
• Bernard Kaufmann (IRIS General Manager, UNIFE)

Wednesday, 19th September 2018:

15:30 to 16:15
IRIS Certification™ system rev. 03 and the transition phase

• Reiner Engels (Quality Manager, FOGTEC Brandschutz)
• Eva-Maria Baldauf (Quality Manager, GVE Viehbeck Engineering + Systemtechnik GmbH)
• Bernard Kaufmann (IRIS General Manager, UNIFE)

16:15 to 16:30
IRIS Certification™: The voice of the customer

• Valentin Gapanovich (Senior Vice-President, RZD)
• Bernard Kaufmann (IRIS General Manager, UNIFE)

Thursday, 20th September 2018:

13:30 to 14:00
IRIS Certification™: Technical evolutions & future with ISO

• Volker Buhrmester (Head of Supplier development, Deutsche Bahn AG)
• Sabrina Paeglow (Senior Expert EHS, Siemens; WG 5 member, German Mirror Group)
• Bernard Kaufmann (IRIS General Manager, UNIFE)

We look forward to meeting you at InnoTrans at Hall 4.2/Stand 302.

In exactly 50 days, on September, 14th 2018, we expect all currently certified companies to have proudly transitioned to the IRIS Certification™ system rev. 03. As of today, already more than 1200 companies have gone through a transition audit. However, with only 50 days left, time becomes sharp to proceed with it for the remaining ones.

If your company has still not gone through a transition audit, it is now the last time to move on and get value of the new assessment methodology elements and international requirements in your organization. A successful transition to the IRIS rev. 03 will increase your visibility on the market. As an IRIS certified company according to the IRIS rev. 03, the organizations are getting an IRIS Certificate and a yearly Quality Performance Level statement, which are both visible and stored in the IRIS Portal (www.iris-rail.org). This demonstrates the commitment of improving product quality and performance to enhance the confidence of the customers.

On 25 June, a seminar dedicated to IRIS Certification™ rev.03 was organised by the Swiss Association of Rail Industry (SWISSRAIL), in Zurich. 45 representatives of local rail sector companies and members of SWISSRAIL attended the event, and several speakers were invited to share their experience and knowledge after almost one year since the beginning of the transition phase. 

Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, recalled the importance of product quality and performance in the rail sector. He also shared the first feedback from the rev.03 audits that have already been successfully conducted. Andreas Heinzmann from CC-Rail expressed the necessary targets that companies must aim to improve revenue with good quality, whereas Bernd Meyer, DQS Lead Auditor shared his experience on the implementation of best practices and issues detected during his audits. The other speakers also shared their expectations within the scheme and their experience within IRIS rev.03. 

Please click here to download the presentations from the Seminar.

The IRIS Management Centre (IMC) published its 10th edition of The Quality Rail Journal, just in time for the UNIFE General Assembly, held in Warsaw on 20-22 June 2018. This new edition provides an overview of the status of the IRIS Certification™ transition phase, which is less than four months away from its deadline. This issue also provides you with the testimony from Weidmüller, the first company that obtained the new IRIS certificate rev. 03, as well as the good practices of Alstom while conducting the transition.

The 11th edition of the Quality Rail Journal will be published in September and will provide you with a deep analysis of the transition phase:  status, results and feedback analysis.

Please click here to download the newsletter from the Download Area - Enjoy reading it.

As every year, the whole IMC team participated in the UNIFE General Assembly, in which the development and status of IRIS Certification™ were presented to the audience, among many other topics. 

For the first time this year, a new format was presented to highlight UNIFE achievements and activities, introducing 6 dialogue forums on different topics, including one on Quality. The session started with a focus on ERWA and was followed by a round-table on “IRIS Certification™: From quality in the railway industry to the railway sector level”, moderated by Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager. Stefan Siegler, IRIS Chairman focused on the importance of demonstrating excellent performance and a good product quality to the customers. The new IRIS approach supports and encourages these elements. Ronald Seidelman, Managing Director at Gutehoffnungshütte Radsatz GmbH, Michael Betz, Quality Management Rail at Schaeffler and Slawomir Bielak, Sales Director at Thoni Alutec expressed their experience and challenges while implementing the ISO/TS 22163 requirements and the new elements of the assessment methodology of the IRIS Certification™ rev.03 system. 

This dialogue forum gave the opportunity to many representatives of UNIFE members to exchange and comment on common topic of interests and to learn more about the latest development and application of the scheme. 
 

Over 170 registered participants took part in today’s webinars organized by the IMC, for IRIS Certification™ certified companies on the transition phase.

Stefan Siegler IRIS Certification™ Chairman, and Bernard Kaufmann IRIS Certification™ General Manager, reinforced the challenges, timeline and most importantly, the benefits of the new IRIS rev. 03 System.

They highlighted the importance of timely planning, as well as illustrated the details regarding the execution of the transition audit.  Q&A sessions was also conducted, during both webinars.

Please click here for the presentation. 

For any question, please contact Info@iris-rail.org 

The IRIS Management Centre

Giampiero Belcredi, Chief Operating Officer of Kiwa Cermet Italia and Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager have officially sealed their cooperation through the signature of a Framework Agreement. This additional approved certification body is committed to promote the upcoming development of the scheme. 

Kiwa Cermet is an Italian based certification body belonging to a Dutch group, which will now focus its growth on the transport and rail business in global areas where they are already well established. 

IMC wishes a fruitful collaboration to further support the deployment of IRIS Certification™ rev.03. The last evolution published 6 months ago is now entering in a new development phase. This evolution is based on the requirements contained in the ISO/TS 22163 and processed with the rules published by UNIFE. 

Click here to see the complete list of IRIS Certification™ Certification Bodies.

Time is flying since the June launch of the IRIS Certification™ rev.03 system. As of today, already more than 100 companies have gone through a transition audit for ISO/TS 22163 and 52 companies have extended the validity of their certificates to the IRIS Certification™ rev.03. However, with only nine month left, there are still hundreds of companies that need to proceed with the transition. 

Keep in mind that this deadline also applies to ISO 9001:2015. So, there isn’t a  minute to lose and we encourage all IRIS rev. 02.1. certified companies to get in touch with their certification body. All IRIS auditors are updated and ready to perform rev. 03 audits and certification bodies are ready to support you. Take the opportunity to pro-actively plan your transition now and to select your preferred date.

UNIFE, the European Rail Industry Association, gathered additional support from Spanish railway operators for the International Railway Industry Standard (IRIS) with the first signature of a MoU with Metro Madrid. The signing took place on 17 November at the Maintenance Depot Canillejas in Madrid, with Borja Carabante Muntada (CEO) representing Metro Madrid and Philippe Citroën (UNIFE Director General) representing UNIFE. Isaac Centellas, (Engineering and Maintenance Division Director) and Pedro Pablo Pascual, (Maintenance Area Director) attended the meeting and presented the maintenance site to the guests. 

The MoU highlights the commitment of the signatories to use IRIS Certification™ to measure sustainable improvements in rail organisations. It clearly states several areas of cooperation between UNIFE and Metro Madrid on IRIS Certification™, but in particular on the maintenance processes and the development within the local supply chain. The newly updated IRIS Certification™ rev.03 system is focused on customer specific needs and performance evaluation to reach the expected product quality.

UNIFE Director General, Philippe Citroën, stated, “I’m very pleased to sign this MoU on IRIS with Metro Madrid, a major public transport operator in Spain. This MoU confirms the cooperation between industry and operators to improving quality through IRIS.”

Isaac Centellas, Engineering and Maintenance Division Director at Metro Madrid remarked: “It is important that Metro Madrid align its processes to ensure high quality for the internal customer: Metro Madrid operation division. We consider that the implementation of IRIS Certification™ will bring added value for the whole rail sector.”

For further information, please contact Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, at bernard.kaufmann@unife.org.

In exactly one year, on September, 14th 2018, we expect your company to have proudly transitioned from IRIS rev. 02.1 to the IRIS Certification system rev. 03. This deadline applies not only to the IRIS Certification transition, but also to ISO 9001:2015.

Currently, two companies have successfully passed the transition audit, and the preventive planning of the transition audits for many other companies has begun. This demonstrates the interest of companies in ensuring product quality and customer satisfaction by adapting their business management systems and getting the added value of the new assessment methodology elements and international requirements in their processes.

All IRIS rev.02.1 certified companies are encouraged to prepare and plan their transitions audits in cooperation with their certification bodies. All IRIS Certification™ auditors are updated and ready to perform rev. 03 audits.

Are you a company considering to become IRIS certified? Are you a Certification Body seeking information to provide your clients with? The About IRIS CertificationTM provides you with all the essential information you need to know. What it is? What are the benefits? Who can apply? How to proceed? Everything is inside the About IRIS CertificationTM. Please click here to download it from the Download Area.

Enjoy the read and contact the IRIS Management Centre for any further information. 

The IRIS Management Centre published its 9th edition of the Quality Rail Journal, just in time for the UNIFE General Assembly, held in Barcelona from 21 to 23 June 2017. This new edition, edited right after the official publication of the IRIS CertificationTM rev.03 scheme, provides a big-picture perspective on how this new scheme was developed. It also explains how it should be implemented in all stakeholder organisations, in order to ensure our joint future. Testimonies, return of experiences and way more, are also in this new issue.

Please click here to download the newsletter from the Download Area - Enjoy the read.

Following the publication of the specific rail requirements for business management systems under, ISO/TS 22163, last week - UNIFE as officially published as of today, June 1st, the IRIS Certification™ rules:2017. Taken together with the ISO/TS, these constitute the IRIS Certification™ rev.03 system.

The European vision on company organisation is now officially recognised worldwide, which is a significant advantage for our members and for the European industry as a whole. With this stage complete, we must encourage all interested parties to implement the IRIS Certification™ rev.03 in order to enjoy its full benefits.

We would like to extend our warmest thanks to all contributors to these documents, especially in the case of the ISO/TS, in which the UNIFE proposal was (almost) completely integrated.

The new global standard for quality management systems in the railway sector, ISO/TS 22163:2017 Railway applications — Quality management system — Business management system requirements for rail organizations: ISO 9001:2015 and particular requirements for application in the rail sector was published by ISO on May, 24th 2017.

The latest evolution of the IRIS system will come into force on 1st June 2017, under the title IRIS Certification™ rev. 03. This designation encompasses the whole system, composed of different elements and responsibilities, which is now under application.

The ISO/TS 22163:2017 is owned by ISO. It contains the requirements of the ISO 9001:20015 Standard and the supplemental rail-specific requirements.

The IRIS Certification™ rules:2017 are owned by UNIFE and contain all the relevant rules relating to assessment methodology and the certification process. 
 

For any question on this topic, please contact Info@iris-rail.org or bernard.kaufmann@unife.org.

On Wednesday, 3 may, a seminar will be organised at AENOR INTERNACIONAL SAU, in Madrid, on the topic: “IRIS Certification™ -  Transition to the new IRIS Certification™ system”. This seminar will be the first one related to the new rules of the certification, in its transition to ISO/TS. Therefore, the IRIS Management Team encourage all IRIS certified companies and IRIS members to participate to this important event, to learn more about the concrete evolution of the scheme and its impact for each certified company. 

Please click here to register to the event and download the programme by clicking on the link below. Please, be aware that the event will be held in Spanish.

PDF Document

Click here to read the article published by Vía Libre, Spanish Railway Journal, on the evolution of IRIS.

[English translation below]

The new global standard for quality in the railway sector and the associated certification rules will be published in May.

The final transitional audits should be completed in July 2018.

The new global standard for quality management systems in the railway sector, ISO / TS 22163 and the associated certification rules, will be published in May this year, which will require changes to the quality management systems of organizations .

In October 2016, the European Railway Industry Association, UNIFE, announced the decision of the Technical Committee 269 of the International Organization for Standardization to replace the global standard for quality management systems in the railway sector - IRIS Rev. 02 evolves to ISO / TS 22163.

Thus, organizations certified according to the IRIS Rev. 02 standard will have to successfully undergo transition audits to adapt their certificates to ISO / TS 22163, which is based on the structure and requirements of ISO 9001: 2015, and adopt their totality, including additional requirements for the railway sector.

ISO / TS 22163 aims to, further develop the organization's quality management system, focus on continuous improvement and prevention of nonconformities, include specific requirements and methods for railway customers, and avoid waste and loss in the supply chain. The new standard requires certified auditors to overcome training supervised by Unife.

First audits
The first transition audits are planned in July and August 2017. As IRIS Rev. 02 certificates expire on 14 September 2018, and as all nonconformities in the audits must be resolved before a new ISO / TS 22163 certificate can be issued, the latest transition audits should be completed by July 2018.

On 7 February, in Brussels, Stefan Siegler, Vice President of Business Excellence and Quality Management at Siemens Mobility, was elected as Chairman of the IRIS Steering Committee (SteCo) and IRIS Advisory Board (IAB). Replacing Mark Manley, who greatly contributed to building worldwide recognition and furthering the development of IRIS, Stefan Siegler’ main target is to ensure that the IRIS Certification™ level corresponds to the expected performance quality. Furthermore, he will work to increase worldwide acknowledgement and applications of IRIS Certification™ throughout the entire value chain. 

IRIS Management Centre (IMC) is glad to welcome Tamás Bujdosó, as Technical Advisor, joining the team for the implementation of the already started evolution of IRIS Certification™. He will be working on the preparation of the different documents linked to the new assessment methodology, the dry run audits, and the trainings, among others. He’s background is based on supplier quality management and project management within Bosch and Knorr-Bremse.

You can contact him at tamas.bujdoso@unife.org. 

1520-1435 Partnership: during the InnoTrans week in Berlin, the 9th conference on railway engineering was organised. Numerous speakers highlighted projects, analyses or achievements to strengthen the cooperation between the two gauge areas. Philippe Citroën, UNIFE Director-General, welcomed the publication of the second edition of the handbook on technical regulations. He stressed the need of further cooperation and presented the status of the IRIS Certification™ in Russian Federation.

The voice of the customer: Valentin Gapanovich, Vice President of Russian Railways, came to the UNIFE stand where he highlighted  the need to continue the work on improving quality and confirmed his support as an operator to reach this goal. He welcomed the progress on the evolution towards an ISO/TS and the related assessment methodology. Finally, on the Russian market, he will be very attentive on the accurate application of the IRIS rules, being an essential point for success.

International projects: H.E. Jorge Cardenas, Bolivian Ambassador in Germany, met Philippe Citroën to discuss the opportunity to include the European industry in South American projects. Further talks will be organised to specify the needs.

IRIS 10th anniversary: among the announcements on the future evolution of IRIS Certification™ (see previous news), UNIFE invited the stakeholders to celebrate the achievements on its stand. The IRIS Advisory Board was largely represented as well as partners – certification bodies, auditors – and certified companies’ representatives. It was the momentum to recall the successes of the last years but also to shape the future.

InnoTrans 2016 was a great edition, also for IRIS Certification™. There was a lot of interest to get the latest news about IRIS during the week in Berlin. At the IRIS Certification™ booth at the UNIFE stand, we welcomed worldwide customers and could measure the very global knowledge on our scheme and the future expectations from the rail sector. 

We thank very warmly all contributors of this success. 

The IRIS Management Centre

The IRIS Management Centre published the 8th edition of the Quality Rail Journal prior to InnoTrans 2016, in Berlin. This new issue provides the latest news relating to IRIS Certification™, an update on the worldwide recognition and development of the certification, as well as a four pages technical dossier, on the upcoming transition phase, after ISO/TS publication. Finally, the three new UNIFE members (MEN Holdings, 21Net and Teleste), ratified last June 2016 during the UNIFE General Assembly in Amsterdam, testify on their experience within IRIS Certification™, since they obtained the certificate.

Please click here to access the Donwload Area and download the IRIS newsletter.

On 21 & 22 September, UNIFE and IRIS team presented the last news on the coming evolutions of the scheme.
The principles were explained by Mark Manley, IRIS Chairman and VP Quality Bombardier, then Philippe Citroën, UNIFE Director-General, presented the achievements over the last 10 years. The transition process details to move from the current IRIS Rev.02.1 version to the future ISO/TS, was presented by Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager. 
Please click here to download the presentation.

The session dedicated to the changes in the conformity assessment process was moderated by Angela de Heymer, IRIS Senior Manager, and the details were given by the sector representatives actively working on these evolutions: Stefan Siegler, VP Business Excellence and Quality Management at Siemens AG and Volker Buhrmester, Head of Quality Standards Rolling Stock at DB AG.
Please click here to download the presentation.

For more details on the evolutions, please look at the FAQ section of the IRIS website here.

This InnoTrans was a success and especially a large audience attended the IRIS talks. It was also the time to celebrate the 10th IRIS anniversary and the already deep dissemination within the worldwide supply chain.

Once again, the IRIS Management Centre will be participating to InnoTrans 2016 from 20 to 23 September, in Berlin (Germany). Please come and meet us at the UNIFE stand in Hall 4.2, Stand 302. 

Several presentations and discussions will be held at the UNIFE stand during the week. Among them, two will be dedicated to IRIS Certification TM. Furthermore, a cocktail to celebrate IRIS 10th anniversary will be organised at the UNIFE stand, on Wednesday to promote networking. See below the detailed IRIS’ Agenda:

Wednesday, 21/09/2016:
            16:30 - 17:15: IRIS achievements and the future with ISO
            Speakers: Philippe Citroën (Director General, UNIFE), Mark Manley (IRIS IAB Chairman and Vice President Quality, Bombardier Transportation), Bernard Kaufmann (IRIS General Manager, UNIFE)            
            17:15 – 17:30: The voice of the customer: Valentin Gapanovich (RZD Vice-president)
            17:30 – 19:00: Cocktail for IRIS’ 10th Anniversary (no registration needed)

Thursday, 22/09/2016:
            15:30 – 16:00: IRIS’ technical evolutions & rules
            Speakers: Angela de Heymer (IRIS Senior Manager, UNIFE), Stefan Siegler (Vice President Business Excellence and Quality Management, Siemens), Volker Buhrmester (Head of Quality Standards Rolling Stock, DB AG)

We look forward meeting you at InnoTrans at Hall 4.2/Stand 302!

25 July, 2016
Barcelona, Spain

UNIFE, the European Rail Industry Association, gathered new support of railway operators for the International Railway Industry Standard (IRIS) with the first signature of a MoU on IRIS with a public transport operator, Ferrocarril Metropolità de Barcelona (FMB). The signing took place on 25 July at the FMB headquarters in Barcelona, with Marc Grau (Metro Network Director) representing FMB and Philippe Citroën (UNIFE Director General) representing UNIFE.

The MoU highlights the commitment of the signatories on the necessity of using the IRIS standard to reach sustainable improvements in rail organisations. It stipulates a number of areas of cooperation between UNIFE and FMB on IRIS, but in particular on the maintenance processes and the development and dissemination of an IRIS scheme within the global supply chain. It will establish clear standards of quality requirements and ensure that customer specific needs are reached in terms of product quality.

UNIFE Director General, Philippe Citroën, stated, “I’m very pleased to sign this first MoU on IRIS with TMB of Barcelona, the first public transport operator to officially recognise the importance of IRIS. This MoU once again reaffirms the need for industry and operators to cooperate closely to improving quality through IRIS.”

Marc Grau, Metro Network Director at FMB remarked: “In our 2015-2020 strategic plan, quality is a must: we need added value in our organisations and at the supplier level in order to sustain our growth. We consider that the implementation of the IRIS standard in the industry is a key to achieving this goal and it will be a mandatory requirement for future tenders.”

For further information, please contact Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, at bernard.kaufmann@unife.org.

In line with the developments set out in the IRIS strategy last year, the IRIS Steering Committee and IRIS Advisory Board approved the concepts for further improvements in the assessment methodology (considering customer and market needs), and the related impact on the certification process, during the board meetings held in St Petersburg and hosted by the Russian operator RZD. The UNIFE-IRIS working group and the IMC will now work out the detailed contents and launch the improvements, together with the requirements, which will be published in an external document. This follows the decisions taken at the ISO/TC 269 plenary meeting in Porto, where it was:
- Approved to transform IRIS to an ISO/TS
- Approved to have an ISO publication date of no later than May 2017 

The detailed transition phase and important steps for all stakeholders will be communicated during the InnoTrans fair at the UNIFE Stand, Hall 4.2 Stand 302, during a dedicated IRIS session.

Contact: Bernard.kaufmann@unife.org

UNIFE, the European Rail Industry Association,  continues to expand the support of railway operators for the International Railway Industry Standard (IRIS) with this week’s signature of a MoU on IRIS with the French Railways operator, SNCF. The signing took place on 1 June  at the SNCF headquarters in St Denis, France with Pierre Izard (Director for the Railway System and Technologies and Chief Technology Officer, SNCF) representing SNCF and Philippe Citroën (UNIFE Director General) representing UNIFE.

The MoU confirms the commitment of the signatories on the advancement of the IRIS standard. In particular, it stipulates a number of areas of cooperation between UNIFE and SNCF on IRIS, but most notably on the design and development processes supported by quality monitoring and the development and dissemination of an IRIS scheme adapted to the industrial target in France. As with the many other MoUs on IRIS signed by UNIFE with other major operators, the signatories will seek to establish better control of quality requirements and ensure that customer specific needs are cascaded within the supply chain.

UNIFE Director General, Philippe Citroën, remarked, “Railway operator commitment to IRIS is central to the next stage of growth for the standard which already boasts over 1300 IRIS certified manufacturers throughout the world. We are especially pleased to sign this MoU on IRIS today with SNCF.”

Pierre Izard, Director for the Railway System and Technologies and Chief Technology Officer at SNCF declared: “A large scale rollout of IRIS will mean that the sector will efficiently progress, better take into account the expectations of rail customers and supply its products at an improved price. Three great reasons for SNCF to engage with UNIFE.”

For further information, please contact John Harcus, UNIFE Head of Communication

Today, 18 May 2016, UNIFE & IRIS Group is pleased to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the IRIS certification and has arranged a newsletter emphasizing the standard’s accomplishments over the past decade as well as taking a look at what the future holds for IRIS.  

PDF Document

Launch of the IRIS Addendum 2015!

PDF Document

On December 15th, the Certification Body Framework Agreement between Quality Austria and UNIFE has been signed between Konrad Scheiber, CEO of Quality Austria and Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager. Therefore, Quality Austria officially becomes the 15^th Certification Body, delivering the IRIS certification.

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

We believe that this cooperation will help IRIS to further develop the system.

IMC (IRIS Management Centre) is pleased to present you the 6th edition of ‘The Quality Rail Journal’. Published on time for the international trade fair InnoTrans in Berlin, the newsletter is focusing on quality culture in Germany.   The German Railway Industry Association (VDB), Deutsche Bahn AG, WEILBURGER Coatings, DQS, ZF Friedrichshafen AG…the testimony of all these companies or associations, involved in different way in the rail sector, give us a an interesting overview of the German market regarding quality culture and IRIS certification.  

From 23 to 26 September 2014 in Berlin, IRIS participated to the tenth edition of the international trade fair InnoTrans, which opened its doors to 138,872 trade visitors worldwide.

The tenth edition of the international trade fair InnoTrans gathered 2,758 exhibitors and was attended by 138,872 trade visitors worldwide. InnoTrans is unquestionably the most important trade fair event in term of industry’s product exhibition.

For the fourth time, IRIS Management Centre participated to the fair, on the UNIFE stand, welcoming visitors at the IRIS booth. During these four days event, IRIS talk sessions have been organised, opened to all visitors.

During the first session, on Tuesday, Philippe Citroën, UNIFE Director-General, Hubert de Blay, IRIS Chairman - Alstom Transport and Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, presented the last IRIS status and highlighted the added value of IRIS for all the rail sector.
Link to presentation in pdf

On Wednesday, Philippe Citroën welcomed Valentin Gapanovic, RZD Vice-president and Andrea Mihalova, Bureau Veritas (IRIS certification body) and presented IRIS worldwide development with a focus on Russia.
Link to presentation in pdf

During the last session, on Thursday, Bernard Kaufmann and Angela de Heymer, IRIS Senior Manager, received Axel Schuppe, VDB General Manager to present the future evolutions of IRIS.
Link to presentation in pdf

For IRIS Management Centre, this tenth edition was a real success, with a significant audience to the IRIS sessions, a lot of questions from visitors and the interest of several companies in becoming IRIS member, looking to obtain the certification later on.

Thank you for your visit and interest. We look forward seeing you again in two years for the InnoTrans 2016.

The IRIS Management Centre.

IRIS Management Centre cordially invites all interested parties to attend the following
IRIS presentations/discussions during InnoTrans 2014, at the UNIFE stand in Hall 4.2, Stand 302 from 23-26 September in Berlin, Germany:

Tuesday September 23rd:
12:30 to 13:00
Topic: IRIS Status, Strategy & Added Value

Wednesday September 24rd:
15:30 to 16:00
Topic: IRIS Worldwide Development with a focus on Russia

Thursday September 25th:
10:30 to 11:00
Topic: IRIS future evolutions

PDF Document

In the frame of the signature of MoU with the American Public Transport Association (APTA), a UNIFE delegation was present at the annual conference held in June this year in Montréal.

During this five days event which gathered more than one thousand members of the American rail area, we had several occasions to focus on IRIS. First, Philippe Citroën, UNIFE Director-General and Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager presented the updated status in the frame of the Rolling Stock Engineering Committee. Later on during the Standard, Research & Innovation session, a broad presentation was made by Mr. Kaufmann to explain the triggers, targets and achievements.

The APTA conference gave the occasion to IMC to highlight IRIS certification in order to make it more known in Americas and to work in developing the implementation of the scheme there. This conference brought an opportunity to discuss with the APTA Management team as well, about further development in the Americas. 

From the left side:Ms. Gabriele Feder (Lead-Auditor IRIS for the Brasov audit. TÜV SÜD Management Service GmbH);Mr. Peter Mühlbauer (Managing Director. TÜV SÜD Management Service GmbH);Mr. Dr. Michael Holzapfel (Director Sector Management Rail. Schaeffler Technologies GmbH & Co. KG);Mr. Alexander Rathiens (Co-Auditor IRIS for the Brasov audit and product compliance manager for IRIS in TÜV SÜD Management Service GmbH)

8 years after IRIS’ creation, IMC (IRIS Management Centre) is pleased to announce the award of the 1000^th IRIS certificate. This is a significant milestone for the IRIS certification. With 1000 companies now having undergone the IRIS certification process worldwide, the standard has become an international seal of quality, increasingly recognised by rail operators and producers alike.

TÜV SÜD Management Service GmbH, after a successful audit at Brasov (Romania) plant, issued the 1000^th IRIS certificate, to the S.C. Schäffler Romania S.R.L.

Alexander Rathiens, IRIS Product Compliance Manager at TÜV SÜD Management Service GmbH, comments the handover of this particular IRIS certificate.

“Traffic volumes are increasing all the time, so the railway sector is becoming more and more important worldwide. Rail transport has to be made faster, safer, and more comfortable both today and in the future. And to fulfill these increasingly high customer demands at all times, we need reliable and innovative technology.

In order to safeguard the production of this technology, business partners such as Siemens, Alstom, Bombardier, and Schaeffler agree on uniform quality assurance standards. The IRIS standard allows the safeguarding, continuous further development, and monitoring of the management and production systems to take place.

Schaeffler itself, a global automotive and industrial supplier with around 79,000 employees, holds the IRIS certification at 4 of its locations. TÜV SÜD, a certification body commissioned by the UNIFE, monitors the adherence to this standard by companies including Schaeffler, and particularly at Schaeffler's plant in Brasov (Romania), where special cylindrical roller bearings for railway applications are manufactured.

The Brasov location successfully passed the initial certification in January this year, and after closing several corrective actions got officially the 1000^th IRIS certificate. The certificate was presented on Thursday, June 12, 2014 at the offices of TÜV SÜD Management Service GmbH in Munich. This success was made possible by targeted efforts at the location and the cross-plant cooperation between Brasov, the company’s headquarters in Herzogenaurach, and its Railway Sector Management in Schweinfurt.”

After being 8 years in application, we could celebrate recently the 1000th IRIS certificate which let us step in a new dimensions...

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On February 4th, 2014, was held an IRIS Seminar in Madrid. Organised by MAFEX, Spanish Railway Association, and Cetren, this seminar gathered around 25 representatives of the local rail companies. Currently 40 companies have been awarded with the IRIS certificate and three others are in a preparation phase. The seminar was opened by Fernando Prieto, MAFEX International Trade Advisor, who welcomed the participants, introduced the activities of MAFEX and the agenda of the day. Angela de Heymer, IRIS Technical Manager, presented the IRIS status, the last and current evolutions and the quality approach promoted by IRIS. She highlighted the important commitments signed by the UNIFE Presiding Board and also explained the progress of several topical working groups (problem solving, special processes, …).Javier Fuentes, Quality Manager – CAF and IRIS Steering Committee member, focused on the evolutions in the rail sector: organizations, standards and as result IRIS. He pointed out the benefits of IRIS implementation from the System Integrator point of view and the application of the UNIFE commitment for the supply chain and the respective consequences for the suppliers for not compliance.Lorena Gómez, Quality Manager – Kelox, rail company IRIS certified since 2011, shared the experience by the IRIS implementation and the following years. She pointed out the IRIS benefits during the daily project work and the communication within the company. Being exposed still to frequent customer audits, by having IRIS, she is more confidence in the results and the company processes, which is also perceived by the customers. At the end of the seminar the participants had the opportunity to ask questions and shared their opinions with the speakers.

MAFEX, Spanish Railway Association is organizing a seminar on IRIS Certification on February, 4th 2014 in Madrid, Spain. IRIS will be represented by Mrs. Angela de Heymer, IRIS Technical Manager and Javier Fuentes, IRIS Steering Committee Member and Responsible for Quality Management Systems, CAF. The IRIS seminar will consist on an update of the IRIS status, the way forward and sharing the experience and benefits of IRIS.  

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We are pleased to present you the IRIS Communication Survey, giving the main results of the questionnaire “Your assessment on IRIS Communication” sent last summer to all IRIS stakeholders, on July 22nd 2013. 387 people have filled in the questionnaire, whether more than 20% of IRIS stakeholders. IRIS Management Centre (IMC) warmly thanks all the people having taken the time to answer this questionnaire. We retain from this survey a general satisfaction from the stakeholders of IRIS communication. However, all further comments, suggestions or critics made about IRIS communication tools and materials will help IMC to improve its global IRIS communication strategy. Enjoy the reading of this survey and do not hesitate to contact us for any comments or question.

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On January 21st, 2014, was held a conference called “New approaches to quality standards in the railway industry” in Kiev. Organised by the ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, this conference gathered 50 heads of the local rail industry companies. The conference was opened by the Infrastructure deputy minister Vladimir Kornienko, who welcomed the push to improve both the organization of the companies and the Quality of the products. The conference was conducted by Nikolay Gorbakha, Director of the transport safety department within the Infrastructure ministry. He insisted that Quality shall also enhance safety in the rail sector. The close cooperation with the Russian rail sector as well as the specificities of the Ukrainian were mentioned.Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, presented the IRIS status, the last & current evolutions and the quality approach promoted by IRIS. Following the presentation, a discussion was initiated on the need of recognition from  the authorities based on the international standards and the local economic area market needs. Further talks will have to be organised to set the necessary steps. Mr. Roman Mytsko, Director of Dniepropetrovsk Certification Authority of Railway Transport (DOSZT), pointed out the responsibility of each party for the success of the IRIS scheme in Ukraine. As co-organiser of the conference, TÜV Sud, represented by Mr. Alexander Rathiens, IRIS Compliance Manager and Mr. Michael Levitzkij, CEO of TMS, the local partner of TÜV Sud and former IRIS auditor, presented their approach on IRIS, on an internal organization point of view followed by the focus to be put on important elements of IRIS. Finally, several guests speakers analysed other aspects of the implementation of IRIS.

We are pleased to present you the 4th edition of the Rail Quality Journal. This new issue respects the format of the previous ones so you could find the famous sections IRIS News, Welcome on Board, From the Mailbag, Employee Profile, Quick Introduction and Tasty Figures. With 20 pages in total, this news issue of the newsletter contains many new topics. First of all, for the second time, IMC has decided to dedicate a page to a company expressing its experience with IRIS at a daily business. In this 4th issue, the word has been given to Harald Kilian, Sales Manager and Hans-Joachim Kruss, Head of Quality Management, at Bode Kassel. Furthermore, for the first time, this issue proposes the following sections: How IRIS gets new members, with the view of Jürgen Krista, Global Quality Manager at Amphenol, on IRIS; Certification Body’s point of view, by Cristina Bianchi, from RINA; Focus on Office & Witness Audit; Auditor training; Commitment for the supply chain; Focus on IMC Communication Study; IRIS products and IRIS Dictionary. IMC is sure that this new edition fits to your expectation and welcomes any contribution to a next issue, making a testimony or being interviewed for one of our sections; if you’re interested do not hesitate to contact us at info@iris-rail.org. The 4th newsletter is as usual available in printed version at the UNIFE office or can be downloaded on the IRIS Portal: www.iris-rail.org --> download area on the FOOTER of the homepage. Enjoy this new issue!

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The yearly DQS Forum IRIS took place on November 7th, 2013 in Munich at DB Systemtechnik GmbH. The Forum gathered around 30 attendees from different rail companies, who saw different presentations and could discuss and exchange about IRIS and safety requirements.

As an introduction to the Tracko fair held this week at Gdansk Exhibition Center, SIRTS, the Polish rail industry association, organized a conference dedicated to the different certifications necessary in the rail sector. Among product certifications and sub-systems certifications linked to European directives, it was the time to make a status on the development of IRIS in Poland.

During the Expo 1520 in Moscow, the IMC (IRIS Management Centre) jointly with the NP-UIRE (Russian Union of Industries of Railway Equipment), organized an IRIS Advisory Board dedicated to a deep analysis on the first achievements with IRIS in the region.

In the frame of the 10th edition of the TRAKO International Railway Fair, SIRT (Association for Rail Transport, Interoperability and Development) is organizing a seminar on Monday 23rd September 2013, from 13:00 – 18:00 in Gdansk, Poland. For more details please see the attached program.

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The 4th edition of the 1520 area fair was held mid of September at the Shcherbinka stage close to the RZD tests track in the suburbs of Moscow. During this major event for the rail sector of the large gauge zone, it was the time for several highlights around IRIS.?

One year ago, IRIS was publishing his first newsletter “The Quality Rail Journal” and today, we propose you to discover the third issue. This new issue respects the format of the previous ones so you could find the famous sections IRIS News, Welcome on Board, Customer Profile, From the mailbag and many more, with new facts and information. However, for the first time, this issue contains 4 extra pages. Indeed, the IMC found it important to add new sections as: IRIS at a daily business; Booklet’s electronic version; Focus on Working Groups and an article on the Evolution of the IRIS software platform. Furthermore, we dedicated a Customer Profile on Andreas Ripsam, Managing Director of Dürr Technik GmbH & Co. KG., wherein he reveals his views on IRIS benefits.
Moreover, for our new section IRIS at a daily business, Reinhard Auer-Knöbl from Siemens AG, gives his opinion on quality management and of the essential role of IRIS in it.
Everyone who would like to contribute to our next newsletter, make a testimony or being interviewed for our Customer Profile on any other new section, is welcome and should contact us at info@iris-rail.org.
Enjoy this new issue!

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IRIS has made deep changes in its IT system.
The functionalities of the IRIS Portal are unchanged unless that you have now to dial +32 2 880 79 49 from Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 17:30 (CET) to reach the support helpdesk.
We hope that you will continue to enjoy visiting us.

The IRIS Management Centre

On April 10th, 2013, IMC organized a working session dedicated to the special processes. With this occasion, the IRIS General Manager, Bernard Kaufmann has presented the current situation in the rail sector linked especially to the IRIS requirements.

The IRIS Management Centre has held the first official IRIS Auditor Training in 2013. The full training and examination sessions have been held from Tuesday 5th to Friday 8th of March 2013 in Brussels. All the trainees have successfully passed the steps which shows the competence of the candidates both in rail industry and management system experience. According the forecasts of development this year, more auditors will be needed, therefore other IRIS Auditor Trainings will be held end of June and October 2013. IMC invests a lot of energy into the development of the skills of the assessors. It is a key element for the confidence and the recognition of IRIS in the rail sector.

From left to right: A.Vinogradov (RZD), M. Andurand (RATP), B. Kaufmann (IRIS), H. Lemarechal (ASTS), Hubert de Blay (AT), Ph. Crauste (BT), A.de Heymer (IRIS), D. Foster (Invensys), K. Hajredini (IRIS), T. Luxenhofer (KB), H. Illmer (SM), M. Nilsson (Faiveley), H. van Mulekom (NedTrain), E. Daban-Haurou (SNCF), M. Schmid (Voith), H. Steinbrecher (Thalès), M. Schaub-Crouan (IRIS).

Philippe Citröen (UNIFE Director General), Hubert de Blay (IRIS Chairman) and Bernard Kaufmann (IRIS General Manager) welcomed the Industry and Operators Quality Directors to an IRIS Advisory Board (IAB) dedicated on the future of IRIS. Moreover a stronger involvement of the IAB members in IRIS was discussed.

As an example, Hans van Mulekom (NedTrain) shared with the audience, their internal approach of the integration of the IRIS in their supplier qualification process as well as the internal experience by the application of the IRIS requirements in a maintenance site.

?

After a 2008 fair focused on discovery, 2010 dedicated to the development, this edition of InnoTrans was the time of exchange of experience and the starting point of next steps.

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As it was announced during the official launch during InnoTrans 2012 (see news of Sept. 18th), the IRIS Management Centre confirms the distribution of the electronic versions of the IRIS booklet.

The worldwide rail event in Berlin was the momentum of an important evolution in the IRIS scheme. As it was highlighted by Philippe Citroën, Director-General of UNIFE, “a new step forward has been achieved today”. Hubert de Blay, IRIS Chairman, confirmed the importance of the IRIS target: improve the Quality in the rail sector with strong tools. As it was explained by Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, the new IRIS Revision 02.1 includes all published amendments and also the ISO 9001 requirements which better fulfill the needs of the rail sector companies. This standard will be distributed exclusively in electronic version from October 1st, 2012 on. The versions in English, French and Italian languages will be soon followed by German, Russian and Polish.

The IRIS Management Centre cordially invites all interested parties to attend the following IRIS presentations/discussions during InnoTrans 2012, at the UNIFE stand in Hall 4.2, Stand 103 from 18-21 September in Berlin, Germany:

During the UIC Highspeed Congress 2012, which took place in Philadelphia (PA) USA, UNIFE/IRIS has organized an IRIS round table discussion among local stakeholders. 

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Since June 1st, 2012, the IRIS Management Centre is glad to count a new member.

Angela de Heymer joined the team in Brussels and will deal especially with all technical matters related to IRIS. You can reach her at angela.deheymer@unife.org

She will progressively step in her new role and be fully operational after the summer holidays.

We welcome her warmly in the team and wish her a lot of success in her new job.

On 24th of May an IRIS Seminar „Practice certification and operation of IRIS” took place in Katowice, Poland. The Seminar was organized by Department of Railway Engineering, Silesian University of Technology (SUT) and IMQ Certification Body Rep. Poland, gathering around 50 participants including specialist from the major railway companies in Poland, representatives of the Railway Transport Office in Poland and part of the IRIS Group management represented by Giuseppe Greco, IRIS Senior Manager.

After the welcome speech of Adam Manka, SUT, and Piotr Goldzinski, IMQ CSQ Rep. Poland, Giuseppe Greco presented the current state of implementation and operation of the IRIS standard in Europe and worldwide. During the discussion part of the seminar attendees raised many questions concerning IRIS requirements and got detailed answers from Giuseppe Greco.

Federico Colombi, the representative of IMQ/CSQ Italy Certification Body, explained the IMQ/CSQ Certification Body tasks in relation to IRIS certification.

Piotr Goldzinski, IMQ/CSQ Rep. Poland, presented differences standing out IRIS to ISO 9001 and a comparison of development path of ISO TS 16949 and AS 9100 to the current development of the IRIS standard.

The last panelist, Adam Manka, SUT, presented practical approach to the functioning of the RAMS/LCC standard IRIS as well as theory and practice of risk analysis in the railway industry.

During seminar it was presented and passed officially to Giuseppe Greco a polish translation of the IRIS Standard made by Department of Railway Engineering.

The seminar was closed with joint proposal raised to the IRIS group about the  extension of the IRIS requirements to the rail infrastructure products.

Following the official launch of the IRIS scheme during the conference end of January 2012, the Mouvement Québecois de la Qualité (MQQ) organized a first session for quality managers of the province in Montréal on June 6th to 8th.

This session was held in French language, gathered 10 trainees and was performed by Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager. This intensive course permit to set clearly the frame of IRIS, the input brought by the rail standard as well as the targeted outputs.  

Other sessions will be needed to consistently develop the scheme in Canada and North America.

This major event always organized in Sochi end of May, gave this year the opportunity to highlight the competence of UNIFE and IRIS.

First, during the official signature session, two documents were signed by Mr. Valentin Gapanovitch, Vice-president of Russian Railways: a MoU with Mr. Henri Poupart-Lafarge, chairman of the UNIFE Presiding Board about further cooperation in technical and standardization fields, and a protocol with Mr. Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, about the upgrade of the translation of the IRIS booklet with the objective to become an official language.

Second, during specialized sessions in the conference, we could present UNIFE and IRIS to this huge market linked to the 1520 gauge. Finally, the large audience present in Sochi permitted an intensive networking.

IRIS has released its first newsletter: ‘’The Quality Rail Journal.’’

From now on, The Quality Rail Journal will be published every 3 months and will touch upon many interesting topics. It is not only IRIS and quality news that will be addressed in this newsletter, the scope of this newsletter is very wide; ranging from interviews with interesting people, to a welcome to our new customers, customer testimonials, impressive railway figures, and more.

In particular, this very first edition contains some very interesting articles concerning many influential people in the rail sector.  The foreword is presented to you by Mr Philippe Citroën – Director General of UNIFE, the European Rail Industry, who will present his views on IRIS and quality management. The IRIS Management Centre will be shortly introduced to you, in order to get to know the people who manage the quality scheme a little better.

Furthermore, we conducted an interview with Mr Philippe Crauste, Vice President of Quality at Bombardier (and a former employee of Airbus), who reveals his views on quality management in the rail sector.

Moreover, the journal contains a detailed employee profile of Mr Bernard Kaufmann – IRIS General Manager, in which he shares his views on the rail sector in general and its quality issues in particular.

Besides the articles concerning these interesting people and their views on quality within the rail sector, the newsletter contains many more topics. IRIS welcomes everyone who would like to read about a wide range of topics concerning IRIS in specific and rail quality in general to have a look in The Quality Rail Journal.

The newsletter has been digitally distributed to stakeholders, is located in printed versions in the UNIFE office and can be found on the IRIS Portal, in the download area:

www.iris-rail.org --> download area on the FOOTER of the homepage

or click here to find it

The IRIS Management Centre has high hopes that stakeholders in the rail industry will value The Quality Rail Journal.

A few days ago, we had the pleasure to welcome a new member in our team: Kujtesa HAJREDINI.

We will let her introduce herself: “ I am very grateful for this opportunity and I will try to contribute as good as possible in the development of IRIS  in regard to my educational background and working experience.”

We are sure that she will help us to continue the development of IRIS and to be dedicated to all stakeholders.

Meanwhile, we would like to warmly thank Nevena Petrova for the almost five years spent with us and wish her all the best for her new projects.

An international seminar „ Practice certification and operation of IRIS standard in Poland and Europe” is organized by Silesian University of Technology in cooperation with IMQ Certification Body on 24th of May in Katowice, Poland.

Vice President of the Railway transport Office, IRIS Management Centre, Management Systems, Inspection and ICT Security – BU Director & CSQ Director, Head of Department of Railway Engineering, Transport Faculty of the Silesian University of Technology, as well as the representatives of the Polish rail industry organizations will take part at the seminar.

The aim of the seminar is to promote the implementation and certification of the IRIS standard as well presenting the significant aspects of the IRIS scheme.

During the seminar there will be time for open discussion.

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On January 31st, 2012, the “Mouvement Québécois de la Qualité” (MQQ),
on behalf of the Quebec Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation
and Exportation gathered around one hundred representatives of the
rail sector at the first IRIS conference in Boucherville close to
Montreal.

The new generation of the IRIS Audit-tool brings the evolution of this
software to the next level, by introducing some long-awaited features
developed specifically for companies: and much more.

Some of the most relevant changes are:

- A new but familiar interface;
- A section AUDIT PLAN, to schedule and monitor the activities of the audit (internal and 3rd party);
- A section LONG TERM PLANNING to manage internal audits in a 3 years audit cycle;
- New functions in the questionnaire (new columns, improved visibility of maturity levels, ...);
- Executive report: a report taylor made for the top level management;
- ...

Please visit the IRIS Portal to know more by clicking HERE.

The IRIS Management Centre

On January 31st, 2012, the Quebec Society of Quality (MQQ) and the Quebec Ministry
for economic development organize a conference centered on IRIS. The event is located
 in Boucherville, close to Montréal and will be held in French language. This will be the
opportunity to launch officially the implementation of the rail standard in a new area and
continent. IMC and other european stakeholders will be present in Montreal.

You’ll find more information in the attached document or on www.qualite.qc.ca

The IRIS TFI (Technical Forum for Improvement) has finalized 3 new advisories and the
corrigendum 2:2012, that have been approved during the last IAB meeting in London.

These advisories deals with:

•    N°8 - Documental Veto check;

•    N°9 - Audit time clarification;

•    N°10 - IRIS Certificate validity.

The Corrigendum 2:2012 contains corrections for the following languages:

-    English
-    French
-    German
-    Italian

These corrections are superseding the current version in the areas and clauses
where an error occurred and complete the Corrigendum 1:2010.
 
The advisories and the corrigendum are officially released and enter into force from
02/01/2012 on.

The advisories and the corrigendum are available for download in the download area
free of charge.

The IRIS Group has released a new procedure to describe and manage the complaint-handling process,
which remains of fundamental importance for the rail sector to entrust the IRIS scheme.

This procedure applies to the IRIS Management Centre (IMC), to all IRIS Certification Bodies,
IRIS certified organizations and to all customers of IRIS certified companies.

The procedure includes a form to be mandatory used when raising a complaint towards an IRIS
Certified Organization Business Management System (BMS).

The procedure is available for download on the IRIS Portal in the DOWNLOAD AREA (link
on the FOOTER of the homepage www.iris-rail.org).

End of October, the IAQG (International Aerospace Quality Group)
annual meetings took place in Bordeaux. Bernard Kaufmann,
IRIS General Manager, was invited to attend the 30th Council
meeting and presented briefly the rail scheme to the 120
delegates from the Aerospace Industry.
Since the launch of IRIS, we are working closely together
and benchmarking the evolutions of each industry in order
to adapt the requirements of our standards to the most
accurate for the related supply chain.
Another guest of the council, Dr Lohl from the European
Aerospace Safety Agency highlighted the fact of a decisive
reduction of the fatal accidents in Europe in the last
years and therefore confirmed the members the close link
between Quality and Safety: all efforts done in the
improvement of the Quality of the systems and the products
enhance the safety of the operation!
During the day, the status of each IAQG working group
was given and next targets set.
Xavier Sahut d’Izarn from Safran was elected new
President of the IAQG. He thanked all participants
for the contribution and promised to continue to push
the Aerospace industry in the way of continuous
improvement throughout the established AS 9100 system.
These efforts and achievements are seen as a model for
the rail sector and therefore we will continue to
push IRIS to get the same kind of improvements.

On September 27th & 28th, the 13th "Quality management, innovations, management systems
certification” conference organized by Russian Register took place in Almaty (Kazakhstan).

XIII INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
“Quality management, innovations, management systems certification”

is organized on September 27th & 28th, 2011 at the Inter Continental Hotel
in ALMATY, Republic of Kazakhstan.

Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, will attend and present
the IRIS scheme and status in two dedicated sessions.

For more details
please see the web-site rusregister.ru/kazah/eng/index.shtml.
The contact information is rusregister.ru/kazah/eng/contacts.shtml

Dear Customer, we strongly suggest you to take profit from the promotion to welcome the launch of the next version of the Audit-tool !

The new generation of the IRIS Audit-tool brings the evolution of this software to the next level, by introducing some long-awaited features developed specifically for companies:

-     audit planning: possibility to make the IRIS audit plan, up to 3 years planning time, and monitor constantly the progress of the different processes audited;

 -     minimum audit days calculation: calculate the minimum IRIS audit days for your company in a few clicks;  

-     executive export: a new export dedicated to the top management, summarizing the key figures out from an IRIS audit;

-     a new interface: the new interface will be familiar to all users of Microsoft Office software;

-     and in addition: automatic spell checking, wizard for internal audits, auto-save function, questionnaire in line with the audit plan in one click, …

The new Audit-tool V4 will be launched by end of November 2011 (price 400€ without VAT).

Interested customers may already profit from following advantages, depending on their different situations (if you don't see the image, please go to the IRIS Portal, shop area Audit-tool here):



If you are interested in this promotion, please contact directly the IRIS Management Centre via email (info@iris-rail.org)

The IRIS TFI (Technical Forum for Improvement) has finalized a new advisory, that has been approved during the last IAB meeting in Rome.

This advisory deals with:

 
• Re-audit mandatory to close re-opened CARs;

The IRIS certification, key to providing innovative and reliable rail products, took another
important step in becoming the universal rail quality standard by awarding its 600th certificate
in early May 2011.

With 600 companies now having completed the IRIS certification process worldwide,
the standard has become an international seal of quality recognised by rail operators
and producers alike.

The 59th World Congress and Exhibition of the International
Association of Public Transport (UITP) hosted by Roads and
Transport Authority (RTA) was held in Dubai from
April 10th to April 14th, 2011.

The first UITP World Congress and Exhibition held in the
MENA Region was attended by 2,000 delegates coming from 80 countries.
The exhibition (252 exhibitors from 37 countries, 30,000 m2)
was visited by 9,700 visitors.
Hubert de Blay, the IRIS Steering Committee and UITP
Industry Steering Committee Chairman gave the answer to the question
“How IRIS helps the supply chain” during his slot on the 3rd day of the Congress.
In his presentation he responded to the requests of the operators
to improve the quality and the equipment manufacturers’ demand
to rationalize the quantity of audits and requirements by explaining
why IRIS is the answer.
He presented the scheme outlining the main differences towards
ISO and drew the attention of the participants to the benefits IRIS can bring.
He stressed on the reduction of the costs together with the improved
product quality and supply chain efficiency which IRIS carries.
The limited but more valuable number of audits, the simplification
of the suppliers’ evaluation and approval, together with the easy access
to the suppliers’ accurate and reliable data are only a few
of the advantages which the IRIS certified companies enjoy.
The IRIS Chairman gave a quick overview of the status of IRIS
after 5 years of existence and concluded that quality and continuous improvement
is mandatory in the rail sector and IRIS is the must to achieve it.

Here you can find an article about IRIS written by Mr. Serra (IRIS Auditor) and published by the Italian magazine QUALITA'.

The IRIS Management Centre

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TÜV Nord, an IRIS approved certification body, organizes a discussion forum dedicated to the Rail Sector and especially to IRIS on Friday November 26th, 2010 in Hannover.

If you are interested to participate, please find more information in the flyer available here and contact directly Kay Jürgensen at kjuergensen@tuev-nord.de or Silke Liehr at sliehr@tuev-nord.de.

The IRIS Management Centre

PDF Document

The Audit-tool update V 3.2 has been just released.

It includes following improvements:

 
1. - Questionnaire aligned with Corrigendum 1:2010
 
2. - Fixed a bug in the Document status view.
 
3. - IRIS scopes are preselected when creating a Reaudit or Surveillance audit.
 
4. - Fixed the position of the signature in the second page of the certificate.
 
5. - Added a possibility to choose the chapters when exporting the questionnaire.
 
6. - Updated Audit-tool help section.
 
7. - Removed NULL text from the questionnaire.
 
8. - Paint empty cells grey in the questionnaire export.
 
9. - Fixed Bug in PDF Export when questionnaire parts are excluded.
 
10. - Modified the title line in the CARs/IARs Excel export.
 
11. - Added a new section to manage “Site Extensions”
 
12. - Added the possibility to merge only results from “remote locations” in the merge function.
 
13. - Keep existing settings when upgrading to new version of the Audit-tool.
 
14. - Number of employees visible in the company information and in the report.
 
15. - Added a view to identify changed items compared to the previous audit.
 
16. - Added a view to identify the history of corrective and improvement actions.
 
17. - Added a notification when uploading a surveillance audit with different scopes.
 
18. - Add automatically the date for all findings.
 
19. - New filter function with “search” criteria.
 
20. - Fixed a bug with lost info about companies.
 
21. - Added a possibility to change the Current date in the certificate (This certificate was modified on...).
 
22. - Renamed the column “Findings” to “Findings/Evidences” in the Checklist.
 
23. - Fixed a bug in the activation dialog.

Update is MANDATORY for all  Audit-tool  Version 3  users.

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The IRIS Management Center full heartedly thanks all certified companies that helped making the IRIS presence at InnoTrans 2010 such a great success.

In three presentations at the InnoTrans Speaker’s Corner, the UNIFE stand and in Hall 11.2, the IRIS message was promoted to a large audience at the biggest rail industry fair in the world. It was a particular pleasure on this occasion to award the IRIS certificate in person to the following companies:

• CEIT (France) – AFNOR
• ABB (Italy) – RINA
• BEKRO (Belgium) – SGS
• GVE (Germany) – DQS
• SUNVIAUTO (Portugal) – Bureau Veritas
• FUNKWERK (Germany) – Bureau Veritas
• KASPER (Germany) – TUEV Nord
• VOSSLOH (Spain) - LRQA

This and other highlights of IRIS at InnoTrans 2010 can be viewed in our video below.

The IRIS Management Centre

IRIS Certification has been one of the protagonists of InnoTrans 2010.

More than fifty exhibitors proudly presented the IRIS logo, including market leaders such as Bombardier, Siemens, AnsaldoBreda, Knorr-Bremse, Harting and Voith.

The IRIS Management Centre organised an IRIS seminar on Tuesday 21/09, where IRIS Chairman Hubert de Blay and IRIS General Manager Bernard Kaufmann brought the audience up to speed on the aims and achievements of the initiative. The new IRIS Portal was launched and the five latest IRIS certificates were handed over on the same occasion.

Additionally, SUNVIAUTO, a rail seat producing company located in Portugal, was awarded with the 500^th IRIS certificate - illumining once more the enormous speed by which IRIS certification is expanding globally.

EURAILmag has just published an article about IRIS written by the IRIS General Manager, Bernard Kaufmann.

The article is available for download on the IRIS Portal.

The IRIS Management Centre

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DQS, an IRIS approved certification body, organizes a forum dedicated to the Rail Sector and especially to IRIS on Wednesday October 13th in Frankfurt.

If you are interested to participate, please find more information attached or contact directly Hans Jahn at Hans.Jahn@dqs.de

The IRIS Management Centre

BRUSSELS, 23 SEPTEMBER 2010 – INNOTRANS 2010 witnessed with many IRIS certified exhibitors a double celebration as the Portuguese rail equipment producer SUNVIAUTO was awarded the 500th IRIS certificate. With the launch of the new IRIS portal, IRIS has taken another important step in its standing as the world’s most recognised rail specific quality certificate.

“The new IRIS portal is an excellent tool for all certified companies and exhaustive information source for companies that are seeking to be certified in the future”, stated Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager.

“IRIS continues to be a success story, and we are continuing to improve the quality in the rail sector” said Hubert de Blay, IRIS Chairman. “With the new improved portal, we are certain that this success story will be continued.”

After just four years of implementation, 500 companies completed the IRIS certification process worldwide, making IRIS an international seal of quality.

Under www.iris-rail.org you will find an interactive world application showing all certificates and the details of the certified companies. With the new, more user friendly layout you can access key information on the spot. It also contains a new and re-designed shop area for improved usability where you can find the IRIS booklet and the IRIS Audit tool.

The new IRIS Portal has just been launched during INNOTRANS 2010 by the IRIS Steering Committee Chairman, Hubert de Blay.

Come and visit us at: www.iris-rail.org

The IRIS Management Centre

The IRIS Management Centre cordially invites all interested parties to attend the IRIS presentations at the InnoTrans 2010 (Berlin, Germany), both at the UNIFE stand in Hall 4.2, Stand 120 and at the "Speaker's Corner" in Hall 14.2 - all from  21-24 September in Berlin:

Tuesday 21 September:
+ 15h00 - 16h00 / Speaker's corner:

    * IRIS status update
    * Launch of new IRIS Portal
    * Handover of 5 IRIS certificates

Wednesday 22 September:
+ 16h00 - 17h00 / UNIFE stand:

    * #Focus on:  IRIS' Product impact

Thursday 23 September:
+ 16h00 - 1700 / UNIFE stand:

    * Focus on: Added value through IRIS audits

On July 27th, 2010, RASTIA, the Bulgarian association member of UNIFE organized
a seminar dedicated to IRIS and they were glad to welcome around 30 people.

Bernard Kaufmann, the IRIS General Manager made a general presentation on the scheme.

He presented the objectives, the current situation, involvement of stakeholders,
the Rev.02 improvements and the next steps of the IRIS scheme.

Questions linked to the mandatory application of IRIS by the companies as well
as the advantage of application of IRIS at tier 2 level were raised.

In separate meetings, Mr. Kaufmann and Mr. Dourchev, RASTIA General Manager had the opportunity to meet also Deputy Director-General of the State Enterprise National Railway Infrastructure Company - Mr. Krumov and the Chairman of the Transport, Information Technologies and Communications Committee – Mr. Valkov where the possibility of implementing the IRIS requirements in the Bulgarian companies was discussed.

The IRIS TFI (Technical Forum for Improvement) has finalized 3 new advisories, that have been approved during the last IAB meeting in Istanbul.

These advisories deals with:

• definition and application of SITE EXTENSION;

• upgrading from other standard to IRIS Rev. 02;

• IRIS scope coverage during readiness review and reaudit.

IMC has just launched the IRIS Rev. 02 / Corrigendum 1:2010 which informs about
corrections in the IRIS Rev.02 booklets.

This corrigendum contains corrections for the following languages:

-    English
-    French
-    German
-    Italian

These corrections are superseding the current version in the areas and clauses
where an error occurred.
 
To get the Corrigendum, you shall go to the download area on the IRIS Portal, no
login is required. You can download the PDF document free of charge.

Please note that the Corrigendum will only be available in electronic form.

This Corrigendum is the result of the feedbacks collected in the past months
throughout IRIS working groups, and the online feedback system which allows
everybody to inform about errors and mistakes. This is a part of the continual
improvement system placed within IRIS. We encourage our customers to continue
using this tool, available in the IRIS Portal under “send feedback” (login is
required) and therefore to contribute to the excellence level of the IRIS standard.

On May 11th, 2010, ABB and CC-Rail organized an IRIS Experience sharing session for Swiss
companies in the ABB’s IRIS certified site of Lenzburg.
Andreas Heinzmann CEO of CC-Rail presented some potential benefits reachable with an
accurate IRIS Rev.02 implementation.
Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, presented the current status of the scheme
and focused on the targets for the companies and the next steps for IRIS.

All other speakers shared their experiences in implementing the IRIS processes in their
organizations:

•    Susanne Schaub from CFF/SBB/FFS about the steps towards Excellence,
•    Lorenz Trachsel from Railtec Systems and André Hasler from CC-Rail about the
     preparation for a Rev.02 certification,
•    Antje Schmidt from ABB about the necessary steps to move from IRIS Rev. 00 to
      IRIS Rev. 02,
•    Markus Matter from EAO and Kay Jürgensen from TUV Nord about the synergies
     between IRIS and a TSI product certification,
•    Finally Peter Stauffer CEO of Hasler Rail explained how the company implemented
     a measurement system to capture all the Costs of Non-Quality with the experience of four
      years IRIS implementation.

After a visit of the new ABB semi-conductors plant, another part of the day was spent on
small workshops, dedicated to following topics linked to IRIS: KPIs, RAMs and IRIS processes.

This first session gathered 25 registrations and a decision for a second session in 2011
was taken.

During the discussions, it became obvious that:
•    IRIS is used and accepted as a tool for continual improvement in the Swiss Rail
industry as well as on operator level,
•    IRIS sets high level requirements and herewith increases the sector standards,
•    IRIS becomes more and more the state of art,
•    Synergies exists between IRIS system certification and product certifications.

Some interesting hints for improvement of the IRIS standard itself were given as well.

On May 11th, 2010, ABB Lenzburg will host an IRIS Seminar dedicated on the progress
and status of the rail certification scheme in Switzerland.

IRIS Management Centre will be a speaker as well as SBB, equipment manufacturers
(ABB, EAO) and certification bodies. 


If you’re interested please contact: reinhard.schlegel@ch.abb.com or andre.hasler@cc-rail.com

IMC has just launched the update V3.1 for the Audit-tool which will bring some nice add-on features, including the MULTI-LANGUAGE (EN, FR, GE, IT) questionnaire for all IRIS Rev. 02 audits.

To run the update, you shall:

- launch the former Audit-tool V3
- follow the instructions which appear on your screen OR click on help --> software update
- download the update file and install it

The Audit-tool V3.1 is currently under production, all new orders from now on will be referred to the new V3.1 release.

Other important improvements are:

- possibility to merge multiple findings during the merging phase,
- Advanced PDF questionnaire printing: by printing the questionnaire also the evidence and the scored ML are now shown.

The IRIS Management Centre

The two IRIS seminars organized by DEKRA Certification in Cologne on February 25^th  and Nurnberg on March 11th,gathered 50 attendees.

Several presentations overflew the Quality field of the rail sector.A lot of questions were raised to all speakers which showed the need of the seminars.
Some private operators participated in the sessions and, through questions, emphasized their needs and expectations around IRIS. 

As introduction, the point of view of a system integrator – Siemens Mobility- was explained  by Michael Wix. He highlighted the areas of importance for them within the scheme as well as their requirements.

The IRIS General Manager, Bernard Kaufmann enhanced the information with the achievements after almost 4 years and the Rev 02 specificities. He insisted on the 2010 targets in term of certificates and the survey to be launched to show measurements of improvements coming out from an IRIS deployed system.

Another presentation was made by DEKRA experts, to explain the Interoperability challenge through the TSI tools.

 Finally, a consultant gave some past experience about IRIS implementation in 15 companies.

 Wolfram Domke, from DEKRA Certification moderated the seminar and conclude with hints about the IRIS Audit-tool and the certification body tasks.

PDF Document

   DEKRA Certification GmbH, is organizing 2 IRIS seminars on February, 25^th

   in  Cologne and March, 11^th in Nuernberg

   The major topics will be:

         ·       UNIFE introduction – IRIS standard and new Revision
              by Bernard Kaufmann, General Manager UNIFE

   ·         IRIS from the view of a system integrator
   by Hubertus Illmer, Siemens AG Industry Sector Mobility Division Rolling Stock
  (Only in Nuernberg)

   ·         Experience from a notified body concerning interoperability (TSI)
   by Andreas Schirmer, Product manager Rail DEKRA Industrial GmbH

  ·         Critical factors and benefit of IRIS-implementation projects
  by Vitalis Nowacki, General Manager Vistra GmbH

   ·         IRIS Audittool, IRIS compensative and rewarding approach
   by Wolfram Domke, IRIS Manager and IRIS Auditor DERKA Certification   GmbH

The workshop is free.

      If you’re interested please contact Wolfram DOMKE at certification.de@dekra.com  

      and download the invitation form below and send it back.

PDF Document

Another IRIS appointment with TÜV Rheinland Italia, is planned for March, 31st in Milan.

The major topics are:

    * UNIFE introduction – IRIS standard, implementation and development.

    * Certification process - differences between ISO 9001, ISO/TS and IRIS (Rev. 2)

    * IRIS certification’s gap analysis, main non-conformity, use of IRIS portal.

    * Case history

Speakers:

    * Ing. Giuseppe Greco – IRIS Senior Manager
    * Ing. Pierdomenico Baldazzi – TÜV Rheinland Italia Senior Auditor
    * Dott. Riccardo Lasagna - TÜV Rheinland Italia Lead Auditor

The workshop is free.

to download the invitation form, please visit the IRIS Portal, section News.

PDF Document

The new DOWNLOAD AREA is online on the IRIS Portal!

This new section contains useful documents available for download for all IRIS Portal users:

- Public (no login required)
- Registered companies (login required)
- Certification Bodies (login required)
- IRIS auditors (login required)

Depending on which user type logs in, different downloads will be available.

You can find the link on the left side menu.

The IRIS Management Centre

On November 26th, 2009, SIRTS, the polish rail transport association organized
a seminar dedicated to IRIS and they were glad to welcome around 35 people.

Marek Pawlik, member of the board of SIRTS introduced the seminar and gave the
latest information about TSI’s, standardization in Europe and UNIFE work status.

After a preliminary analysis of the certification schemes ISO 9001, ISO14001
and ISO 17025 done by PKP, the floor was left for a presentation made by
Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager.

He presented the objectives, the current situation, involvement of stakeholders,
the Rev.02 improvements and the next steps of the IRIS scheme.

Questions linked to the mandatory application of IRIS from the companies as well
as the situation of IRIS versus CMW were raised.

The seminar then focused on specific areas of IRIS which were analyzed by
representatives from Bombardier Transportation SWUS Katowice, such as Supplier
Management, RAMS/LCC, Configuration management.

Finally a statement of a certification body was made commonly with a polish
company about the implementation and preparation for an IRIS Certification.

SIRTS, the Polish rail industry association, is organizing a dedicated IRIS Seminar
in Warsaw on November 26th, 2009.

Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, will attend and communicate last status of
the IRIS scheme.

For more details, please contact directly Karolina Hendler at +48 22 473 15 02 or
k.hendler@sirts.pl

Even when France rail industry is one of the main contributor to IRIS certificates today,
there is still a need of communicating to its members about the evolutions, the benefits
and the requirements of the IRIS scheme.

Therefore the French Mechanical Industry Association (FIM) together with AFNOR
Certification, an IRIS approved Certification Body, have organized a dedicated seminar
with 70 of their members and customers on November 17th, 2009 in Paris La Défense.
Jacques Cracosky (FIM) and Florence Méaux (AFNOR Certification) opened the seminar.

Among all invited speakers, three IRIS Advisory Board members made very clear statements
on evolutions and requests towards IRIS.

Hubert de Blay, IRIS Chairman and Alstom Transport representative has presented the
objectives and global position of the industry.

Nicolas Gravier, Supply Quality Director at SNCF, presented the vision of an operator
and the requests of SNCF towards their supply chain.

Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, presented the current status of the scheme,
gave overall information about the IRIS Rev.02 and showed the comparison with other
industrial schemes (AS, ISO, TS) versus IRIS.

The seminar gave also the opportunity to the representative of a certified company
to share the experience of a successful implementation. Dominique David, Compin Group
Quality Manager has explained the benefits during the deployment in the group.

Last but not least, Claude Bouteaud, AFNOR Certification IRIS Lead Auditor, highlighted
the specific features of IRIS for a sustainable organization and gave his recommendations
from his auditing experience.

A very technical question/answer session closed the meeting.

On November 11th, ISO/CASCO organized his second workshop on the role of the International
Standards.

The purpose was to analyze and discuss on major topics linked to the conformity assessment
of Standards. After having addressed the concept of market surveillance last year, the emphasis
was this year on the private sector and its management of the supply chain with a focus on
traceability.

This workshop was mainly dedicated to the ISO members. 80 persons were participating
physically in the workshop in Geneva at the WMO, whereas 60 people attended through
a webinar connection.
All these attendees represent locally ISO in more than 30 countries all around the world.

Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, was invited as a speaker by the ISO/CASCO
Chairman, Mr. Olivier Peyrat. It was the opportunity, within the industry association panel,
to show how IRIS is bringing the Rail Sector Supply Chain towards sustainable business
with the aim of having better products through better organizations. Configuration management
requested by IRIS is the answer in our sector to the need of traceability.

The conclusion of the workshop among all presentations done by the different industries was
highlighting the need of managing the global supply chain in line with clear standards.
Traceability appears obviously as a mandatory tool by dealing with safety, security and business
issues.

We thank ISO/CASCO having given IRIS the floor for explaining our scheme to a worldwide attendance.

The 2nd IRIS Conference gave reason for a double celebration as the Hungarian rail
equipment producer Jarmuszerelvenyt Gyarto RT was awarded with the 300th IRIS certificate.

With Rail Operators now playing an active role in the certification process, IRIS has
taken another important step towards becoming the universal standard for rail technologies.

“IRIS is a European dialect that shall become a world language”, stated Dr Manfred Lerch,
Executive VP at Voith Turbo, encapsulating the spirit of the 2nd IRIS conference held in
the European quarter in Brussels. With now 300 companies having completed the IRIS
certification process worldwide, the standard has become an international seal of quality
recognised by Rail Operators and Producers alike.

This view was shared by Peter Boels, Head of Quality at Bombardier Transportation, as he
reconfirmed commitment to the IRIS standard, realising that “today, many rail operators
give preference to IRIS certified rail suppliers.”

Great support of IRIS was also expressed by Massimo Baldinato, Member of Cabinet of
Transport Commissioner and Vice-President of the European Commission Antonio Tajani.
In his statement he emphasised that “in order to ensure rail safety, rail companies have
to rely on strong business management systems that can only be achieved through IRIS
certification.”

Hubert de Blay, IRIS Chairman and Urban Platform Product Director at Alstom Transport,
confirmed this point of view: “The remarkable output of IRIS after just three years is the
product of constructive team effort. Rail Operators are already deeply integrated in the
certification process, thereby simplifying the qualification procedure.”

This viewpoint is shard by Rail Operators, as Alain Flausch, President of UITP and CEO
of STIB Brussels Public Transport, highlights: “The goal of UITP is to double the market
share of public transport against private car use in the medium term. Key to this is
innovative and reliable rail products certified by the IRIS standard.”

The IRIS Management Centre

On September 3rd, 2009 TÜV Nord has organized a railway seminar centered on IRIS. Around
50 people attended several presentations. Mr. Alexander Iulian Stan from CFR on behalf
of the Transport ministry summarized the railway infrastructure situation in Romania.

Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, developed the basics of IRIS and the last
evolutions linked to the IRIS Rev. 02. Kay Jürgensen, IRIS Product Manager at TÜV Nord,
explained the steps for implementation and certification for IRIS.

After this main part, several presentations completed the seminar:

- EU Directives and Regulations (EC Testing procedures, TSI, ETCS, CCS) by Mr. Stefan
Andree from TÜV Nord,
- Sharing experiences of an operator and a manufacturer in Europe by Mr. Frans Zoetmulder
from EMD,
- Railway Safety Management System and Certifications by Mr Valentin Berca from BRK Systems,
- Maintenance and repair service provider and CMW by Mr. Florentin Nicolae, Lead Auditor at
TÜV Nord Romania.

During the whole day, many questions were raised by the audience, which gave the opportunity
to the speakers to clarify all interrogations.

IRIS is indeed of interest for the local rail industry.

The presentation from IMC is attached.

ZIP File

TUEV Nord, an IRIS approved certification Body is organizing
the first dedicated IRIS seminar in Brasov (Romania) on September 3rd, 2009.

Several speakers will also present the current standards and regulations
linked to the rail sector nowadays.

For more details, please see the attachment or
contact Mihaela Sarbu at +4021 315 0303

ZIP File

On 05 and 06 October 2009, the IRIS Management Centre will host the second IRIS Conference in the Renaissance Brussels Hotel (Brussels, Belgium).The first day will gather high level speakers from Industry and Operators to highlight the need to move forward in the direction of an entire rail sector scheme. The second day event will bring together representatives from Rail Stakeholders to discuss mainly the necessity and the advantages to be IRIS certified, how and why IRIS is quickly expanding worldwide and the differences of IRIS Revision 02 .

IRIS approved certification bodies will be present to provide advice and guidance in the IRIS Certification process.

We expect the participation of CEOs, Managing Directors and Quality Managers of the Rail Sector companies.

DUE TO LIMITED SEATS, WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU TO REGISTER ONLINE BEFORE THE 31st JULY 2009.

Please visit the IRIS Portal, there is a special link on the left side menu addressed to the Conference.

On June 23rd, 2009 TÜV Rheinland was having his IRIS Symposium in Cologne. Around 45 attendees were having the privilege of getting the first details of the new IRIS release.

Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, explained the evolutions linked to the IRIS Rev. 02 launched officially on June 18th. Then, several feedbacks and best practices were given by following speakers:

- Successful IRIS implementation in a cabling company PRETTL by Mr. Wilhelm Noll,
- Preparation for IRIS certification at ALSTOM site Salzgitter by Mr. Torsten Baumann,
- How DEUTA-Werke performed IRIS Certifications by Dr. Rudolf Ganz,
- European Certification requests by Mr. Jürgen Steingräber from TÜV Rheinland.

A final Q/A discussion gave the opportunity to clarify some interesting points.



The presentation from IMC is attached. All other presentations are available on www.tuv.com/iris2009

ZIP File

Immediately after official launch of the IRIS Revision 02, you will be able to get
detailed information about this major evolution of the Rail Standard during the seminar
organized by TÜV Rheinland in Cologne on June 23rd, 2009.

We are sure that this seminar will gather many companies interested to improve their
performance through IRIS.

Please refer to the flyer attached. 

PDF Document

On June 11th, SGS and IMC held the first Webinar.

Within the two sessions, more then 50 people located worldwide attended the
presentation proposed by Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager and Dominique Kugler,
SGS Product Manager.

A poll on the spot, confirmed the accuracy of this Webinar while the Q/A sessions were
mostly focused on IRIS operative application and on the Rev. 02 changes.

This kind of seminar is indeed a modern and quick mean to spread IRIS news around the
Rail world.

Please refer to the attached document.

ZIP File

18th of June 2009 is a date to remember – the date of the official launch of the
new IRIS Rev. 02.

After three years from the official launch of the first IRIS Standard and after
a huge and intensive improvement work, the IRIS Group is proud to announce big
evolutions.

MAIN CHANGES

-    Standard in line with ISO 9001:2008 requirements
-    Integration of ISO 9004:2009 guidelines
-    Requirements improved and now in line with the needs from Rail Operators who
     contributed to the development of the Standard
-    Remote Functions rules improved
-    IRIS auditor time chart improved
-    Rules how to score the questionnaire have been clarified
-    Required and recommended processes, procedures, KPI’s and records are now
     summarized in one single table.
-    Reduction scheme available for Companies upgrading from other standards,
     having single IRIS activity and benefit from compensative and rewarding approach
-    Availability of a simple tool to calculate the audit time depending on company
     characteristics
-    Readiness review improved and now fully supported through the new  Audit-Tool V3

IMPACT OF CHANGES

The IRIS Rev. 02 booklet will be available on the IRIS Portal in 4 languages
(English, German, French and Italian) from June 22nd on.

Spanish and Czech languages will be immediately available directly by our partners.

Certification audits against IRIS Rev. 01 can be performed until the end of 2009.

From January, 1st 2010 only Rev. 02 certification audits will be allowed.

Existing Rev. 01 certificates can be kept until their natural validity date.


The IRIS Management Centre and the IRIS approved certification bodies will further
support you.

contact the IMC
contact the Certification Bodies

Stay tuned

The IRIS Management Centre

SGS, an IRIS approved certification Body is organizing the first IRIS web seminar
on June 11th, 2009. If you want to attend, please sign up here.

On March 10th, VDMA, a German association of machine tool industry organized a Workshop /
experience exchange day in Hamburg. Many members of the association are also involved in
the Railway industry and were expecting some information about the IRIS Certification scheme
which is an important step for entering more deeply in the business.

Around 40 members attended the seminar hosted in the Hamburger Hochbahn (public transport
operator) premices.

Axel Sandvoss VDMA Nord, introduced the meeting and presented the agenda which was built
to give a large overview of IRIS.

Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager presented the targets, the relation with other
certification schemes, the current status as well as the next steps of IRIS.

Eckhard Schultz from IFV gave his view related to the German needs.

Andreas Heinzmann, Bombardier Transportation Quality Director showed a system integrator
involvement and their internal deployment. He explained also the supply chain management
strategy of Bombardier.

Luay Sander explained how EVAC implemented IRIS in their organization, step by step and
focusing on the difficulties and achievements. He expressed a final satisfaction and highlighted
the opportunity of improvement for companies through IRIS.

Heinz Welling, Harting Central Quality Manager gave his feedback as the first IRIS certified
company. He focused also his presentation on the multi scheme certification of his company
linked with their presence in several markets like automotive, telecom,…

Finally, Christof Höbing, Lead Auditor of DQS explained the vision of a certification body.
He gave the focus to be taken into account as well as some hints how to overcome easily the
difficulties.

All the presentations were completed by a Q/A session and Axel Sandvoss assessed the day
as a positive signal for its industry and agreed that clear statements were given by the speakers.

On February 3rd, took place the first IRIS seminar in Iran organized by IMQ in Tehran.

The conference room of the Tehran Urban & Suburban Railway Co hosted 100 attendees from
industry and operation.

Dr. Mohammad Montazeri, Deputy Managing Director of TUSRC, welcomed the seminar by pointing out the challenges of the public transport in Iran: environmental and urban development. 

Mr. Saied Kavkani, Quality Deputy, Vice-President of Iran Khodro Industrial Group, presented
how the implementation of the ISO/TS 16949, 15 years ago, forced the Quality improvements
into the local industry. He welcomed that Railway will step now into the same scheme.

Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, presented a complete view of the IRIS scheme,
from early definition to the current status and the forecasts for 2009. After the presentation,
many questions were raised to Mr. Kaufmann mostly dedicated to the implementation in Iran of IRIS.

Mr. Seyed Bahrehdar, Vice-President of the Iranian Association of Rail Transport Engineering
closed the seminar by looking forward for an active local interest to the global Certification
scheme of the Rail Sector: IRIS.

ZIP File

IMQ, an IRIS approved certification Body is organizing the first dedicated IRIS seminar
in Teheran (IRAN) next February 3rd, 2009. The local railway supply chain is very developed;
this is a reason why around 100 attendees are registered until now.

Several presentations are forecasted on supply chain & quality management.

For more details, please contact Mitra Milani at + 9821-88529400

On January 8th, 2009, took place the first IRIS seminar in the USA organized by TÜV Rheinland in
Newark (NJ).

30 people attended this seminar and participated to very interesting discussions during the
Q/A session. Several presentations were done by the speakers:

- Thomas Rettig, TÜV Rheinland Division Manager: introduction of TÜV Rheinland and their IRIS approach
- Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager: principles, methodology, status and evolution of IRIS
- John Novotny, Wabtec Sales Manager: Why Wabtec took the decision to implement IRIS?
- Bruce Thomas, Wabtec Quality Manager: How Wabtec implements the IRIS requirements?
- Richard Strouse, TÜV Rheinland IRIS Lead auditor: IRIS – the auditor’s perspective.
 
During the discussions, the need of implementation of IRIS in the US market became obvious with
the expectations to bring more reliable organizations and more confidence towards the rail customers.
Information on IRIS must therefore be continued and US transit authorities should be quickly involved.
First contact exists and several operators are already aware about IRIS.
The strong involvement of the system integrators through their local locations (AT, BT & ST were
present at the seminar) is also good news.

A good start for IRIS in the US indeed!

Presentations are available for download on the IRIS Portal.

ZIP File

On November 20th, BSI Management Systems organized their first IRIS Seminar in UK.

It was hold in Whittlebury and close to 40 persons attended the presentations.

IRIS Management Centre was represented by Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager,
he gave the current status of the scheme and its next developments.
An industrial experience with IRIS was given by Dr Stephen Hughes from Bombardier
Transportation. Davis Scrimshire from TEC explained some tips for an efficient
implementation in the Business Management System of the companies.
Finally, John Hele, BSI Product Manager showed how BSI would achieve the IRIS
certification process in the companies.

Time was given for answering questions of the audience where the focus was made
on implementation in the UK market.

The presentation is available for download here.

ZIP File

Using the opportunity of their annual seminar, the Portuguese Association for
Railway Standardization and Certification (APNCF), decided to promote in 2008
the IRIS Scheme within the local industry.

More then 130 participants attended the presentation done by Bernard Kaufmann,
IRIS General Manager, where he explain the scheme throughout following topics:

- IRIS principles & evolution,
- IRIS Methodology,
- Status & forecasts
 

A debate followed the presentation, which showed the interest of the Portuguese
Railway Stakeholder on the IRIS Scheme.

The presentation is available for download here.

ZIP File

The 7th Railway Standardization and Certification Seminar will be organized
by the Portuguese Association for Railway Standardization and Certification
(APNCF) on November 27th, 2008.

There will be a dedicated part for IRIS. A detailed information with a
current status will be presented.

The event will be located at the auditorium at Monte de Caparica.

Flyer is available for download on the IRIS Portal.

PDF Document

TÜVRheinland® in collaboration with Wabtec Passenger Transit will hold
North America’s first seminar on IRIS.

Industry insiders expect that IRIS will be adopted in the U.S. and Canada
beginning in 2009.

The free seminar provides a forum to learn about the standard and its
certification requirements. It is expected to attract railway suppliers
exporting to Europe and Asia and/or preparing for the standard’s impending
introduction in North America.

Key speaker is the IRIS General Manager from UNIFE
(The Association of the European Rail Industry) in Brussels.
He is going to present a detailed overview of the standard and offers
regulatory insights.

The event also provides first-hand accounts from Wabtec as well as from a
TÜVRheinland® IRIS Lead Auditor.

TÜVRheinland’s IRIS seminar will take place on Jan. 8, 2009 from
9:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. at the Hotel Spring Hill Suites at Newark Liberty
International Airport.

For more information please visit the IRIS Portal and download the flyer
in the news section
.

PDF Document

It’s time to exchange experiences in order to ensure that IRIS standard represents an excellent
choice in the certification world.

LRQA and Bombardier, together with all involved IRIS actors, believe that IRIS certification
can become the main tool for organisations who want to evaluate and improve all opportunities
for Client satisfaction.

The invited speakers are coming from Railway Industry, LRQA and IRIS mMnagement Centre.

This free seminar will take place at Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnica – Milan,
on 14 November 2008.

See attached agenda

PDF Document

Suppliers to the rail industry share a common purpose in seeking to provide increased
reliability and continual improvement in terms of their business performance.

With issues such as safety, sustainability and risk at the top of the agenda,
BSI Management Systems invites you to attend a FREE seminar.

The seminar is designed to educate organisations on how achieving certification to the
IRIS standard can help address the complexities and challenges involved in developing
and growing a lucrative business, and to discuss the requirements for certification
to this standard.
 

With guest speakers from UNIFE and Bombardier, the event takes place at Whittlebury Hall,
Towcester, Northamptonshire on 20 November from 1pm.

Agenda is available for download here.

PDF Document

This first seminar was organized by TUV SUD Japan on October 3rd and introduced
by Dr. Andreas Stange, General Manager of their Kansai Office.

About 30 people attended the IRIS seminar in Tokyo, where Dr Stange first presented
the TUV SUD activities and figures.

The IRIS Management Centre was represented by Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager.

He informed the audience about the:

1- IRIS principles,

2- Status & evolution,

3- IRIS methodology

Numerous interesting questions such as operators involvement, service improvements,
safety relation,…were proposed to the speakers for more explanation.

The presentation given from the IRIS Management Centre is available for download here.

ZIP File

Nearly 70 people attended the IRIS seminar organized in Beijing on 10 October 2008
by AFNOR International.

The seminar was introduced by Foucauld de Lauzon, Director Asia of AFNOR International,
who gave an overview of AFNOR activities in Asia.

The IRIS Management Centre was represented by Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager,
and by Giuseppe Greco, IRIS International Manager.

The presentation provided to the audience was structured in 3 parts:

1- IRIS introduction & status: motivating the “need for IRIS” of the Industry
and giving reference numbers on IRIS current status and further steps for the future.

2- IRIS Rev 01 and addendum: explaining what the IRIS Rev01 and IRIS Addendum,
19th June 2008 have introduced in terms of requirements and process improvements.

3- IRIS quickly: how to set up the Business Management System to become compliant
with IRIS requirements and how to use IRIS products at best, giving details on the advantages
of using a common database (IRIS Portal) and a software to run audits (Audit-tool).

Many questions arose from the audience, mainly focusing on requirements which are very
specific of the Railway Industry, such as RAMS and LCC.

In the afternoon the Quality Manager Zhicheng Dai from Bombardier CPC Propulsion System gave information on the IRIS Certificate awarded by the Bombardier Chinese location.

Finally Mr. Nelson Zeng (AFNOR International) detailed all steps done so far for the development of the IRIS Certification in China.

All presentations are available for download here.

PDF Document

AFNOR International (China) is organizing an IRIS Seminar in Beijing on 10 October 2008.

Location:  Beijing Yihai Business Hotel（7F）, .33 Xueyuan South Road Haidian District Beijing P.R China.

The speakers will be:

- Foucauld de Lauzon (Director Asia of AFNOR International)
- Bernard Kaufmann (IRIS General Manager)
- Giuseppe Greco (IRIS International Manager)

Additional presentations will be given by IRIS certified companies to provide direct field
information experience.

Please find the agenda and invitation letter enclosed.

For any additional information please contact Mr. de Lauzon (foucauld.delauzon@afaq.afnor.org)

ZIP File

The seminar IRIS: A SUCCESS STORY took place on Friday 26 September at
Innotrans 2008.

The seminar was introduced by Michael Clausecker, UNIFE Director-General, and moderated
by Hubert de Blay, Chairman of the IRIS Steering Committee who gave an overview of
the current IRIS status and the objectives for the future.

Susanne Schaub, SBB/CFF/FSS Quality Manager, explained how IRIS is actually a “gift
for our passengers…” and how the IRIS Certification is helping SBB/CFF/FSS on the way
to Excellence (customer focus).

Colin Clarke, Chairman of the Americas Aerospace Quality Group (AAQG), discussed mostly
on the new AS9100 2008 edition, reporting on objectives, processes and on key changes
which have occurred within the latest release.

Peter Stauffer, CEO HaslerRail AG, presented the IRIS status in the company after 2
years of implementation and how this can be linked with the economic growth HaslerRail
is facing in the recent years. Additionally, he gave interesting tips to companies who
are now approaching the IRIS Certification.

Luigi Buonocore, Faiveley Italia Quality Director, summarised how Faiveley Italia
prepared internally to meet all IRIS requirements and which business areas are mostly
affected by improvements introduced by the IRIS system.

Finally, Mark Flint, Sigma Coachair Group Asia Pacific Development Manager, explained
how the IRIS Certification can assist companies in delivering a cost effective high quality
product that will meet or exceed customer expectations for its life duration.

Following the question & answer session Hubert de Blay concluded by looking forward
to meeting all interested parties during the 2nd IRIS Conference in Autumn 2009, in Brussels.

The full presentation is available for download here.

The IRIS Management Centre

PDF Document

TUEV Sud organizes an IRIS seminar on 3d October, 2008 in Tokyo, Hotel Meilparque Tokyo,
Room Ha-ku-cho from 10 AM to 3PM. 

Conference will concern following next issues: IRIS introduction & status, RAMS-LCC,
targets for the railway industry.

The lecturers are:

Mr. B. Kaufmann – IRIS General Manager IRIS

Mr. A. Stange – TUEV Sud Japan General Manager.


A Q/A session will follow the presentations.

For more information please contact: infoservice@tuv-sud.jp

TÜV SÜD JAPAN Ltd
INFOSERVICE　Dept
Direct:  +81-3-3372-3497
Central: +81-3-3372-4821
FAX:   +81-3-3372-4121
www.tuv-sud.jp

IRIS will take part at the biennial INNOTRANS fair in Berlin from 23-26 September 2008.
There will be a dedicated IRIS area on the UNIFE corporate exhibition stand, located in
Hall 2.2, opposite Bombardier Transportation.

The IRIS Management Centre will distribute leaflets, giveaways and will be pleased to
provide any interested party information about IRIS in order to facilitate as much as
possible the approach to this new certification scheme.

Visitors will also have the possibility to directly buy on-site the IRIS booklet and
the IRIS Audit-tool.

Moreover, on Friday the 26 September, from 10h00 to 12h00, there will be an IRIS seminar
(Hall 7, room Europa) with the running title IRIS: a success story.

Entrance is open to the public without any need of registration.

The programme is available for download here.

PDF Document

During the UNIFE General Assembly 2008, hosted in Paris on the 19th of June,
Hubert de Blay, Chairman of the IRIS group, reported about IRIS achievements
of 2007/2008 as well as IRIS objectives for 2009.

Furthermore he officially launched the IRIS Addendum, 19th June 2008, which
aims to inform about the extension of IRIS to maintenance activities and
contains key changes and new requirements to be fulfilled in order to become
IRIS certified from now on.

To download the IRIS Addendum, 19th June 2008 please visit this page.

The Conference “Modern Methods of Quality and Competitiveness Improvement in Railway
Industry - International Railway Industry Standard (IRIS)” took place June 3rd, 2008
in Kiev, Ukraine.

More than 80 representatives of the Ukrainian Railway stakeholders visited
the Conference.

The Conference was opened by Deputy of Ukraine Zalizhnitsya General Manager A.Lashko.
IRIS General Manager B. Kaufmann developed the status and the key drivers about
IRIS scheme. Then Bureau Veritas Lead Expert P. Bonnaerens presented his Master
Class – What you should know in advance.

Lead Auditors of Bureau Veritas Certification Ukraine told about their experience
in implementation and certification of Management Systems according to ISO 9001;
140001 and BS OHSAS 18001 on Railway Industry.

Gathering more than 200 participants from the global rail sector, the International
Railway Industry Standard (IRIS) conference kicked-off in Brussels on 21 May. 
All stakeholders from the rail industry were present at the two-day event - from
operators to manufacturers to infrastructure managers.

“This is the first time that the Industry and Operators are working together to
achieve a common Quality International Rail Standard.  The standard aims at enhancing
the quality image of the railway sector, enhancing the efficiency of the business
programme, the various processes and therefore the product,” commented Bernard Kaufmann,
General Manager of IRIS.  “By complimenting the internationally recognized ISO 9001
quality standard with the specific requirements of the railway industry, IRIS establishes
itself as the new global rail standard,” he added.

Opening the conference, Bernard Gonnet (Vice-President Product & Strategy of Alstom
Transport and Member of the UNIFE Strategy Committee), reminded the audience of the
daily challenges being faced by the rail sector especially in relation to the hot
topic of product efficiency and sustainability.  He stated, “by improving the business
management system, IRIS implementation leads to quality improvements and cost reductions
by incorporating more efficient and effective business processes throughout the entire
supply chain.”

Pierre Attendu (Chief procurement Officer of Bombardier Transportation) reinforced the
Systems Integrators’ message saying that Bombardier Transportation would charge the cost
of non-IRIS certification to its suppliers.

Pierre Pelouzet (Purchasing Director of SNCF) explained the clear commitment from SNCF
to work with IRIS, stating “IRIS is a key element of trust in the certification to improve
the quality of the product.”

Mr. Smaxwil (Senior Vice President Siemens Mobility) stated “IRIS increases the chances
for the European Rail Industry that a good product will be made at a reasonable price.”
He explained that the European Market can increase its competitiveness through by better
quality and innovations. Thanks to IRIS, it is visible.

Mr. Köhler (Member of the executive board of Knorr Bremse) stressed that “Railway needs
high quality audits”.

The second day of the conference was dedicated to in-depth presentations such as project
management and risk management issues. Certification bodies, equipment manufacturers and
system integrators were present to discuss technical topics in details.

Olivier Peyrat concluded the conference by explaining the future strategy of ISO.

The list of participants, the programme and the CV of the speakers are available for download here.

All presentations are available for download in the dedicated news just below.

ZIP File

Day 1: 21st of May

16:00 – Introduction
    -    Bernard Kaufmann     IRIS General Manager   
               
16:05 - Welcome speech
    -    Bernard Gonnet         Member of the Strategy Committee UNIFE                
    -    Eric Fontanel         UNIFE General Manager
                           
16:30 - High level certification: A necessity for Rail   
                   
    -    Pierre Pelouzet     Purchasing Director of  SNCF                       
    -    Pierre Attendu         Chief Procurement Officer of Bombardier Transportation           
    -    Albrecht Köhler     Member of the Executive Board Knorr Bremse
    -    Axel Schuppe         Vice-chairman of VDB                            

    Moderator: Eric Fontanel     UNIFE General Manager
                        
18:15 - Asian competition, a challenge for European manufacturers?

    -    Friedrich Smaxwil     Member of the Executive Management Board of Siemens TS       
    -    Pierre Sainfort     Chief Operating Officer Faiveley   
    -    Foucauld de Lauzon     Director Asia AFNOR Certification       
    -    José Taborda         VP Sourcing Alstom Transport                         
 
    Moderator: Bernard Kaufmann     IRIS General Manager

PDF Document

Day 2: 22nd of May                                    

09:30 - Welcome Speech
    -    Hubert de Blay             IRIS Steering Committee Chairman               
    -    Bernard Kaufmann         IRIS General Manager
                           
10:00 – Success stories of the other industries.

    -     Implementation in a multi-industrial environment
    Jacques Fleurat     Director General Duhamel                   
    -     How Certification Bodies deal with a new industry standard?
    Peter Bonnaerens     Product Manager Railway Bureau Véritas           
    -     How the Aerospace has succeeded?
    Alain Bonnard         Operation Manager EAQG

11:30 - Strengths of IRIS’ certification process: an opportunity for continuous improvement.

    -    The only worldwide railway business management standard
    Hubert de Blay         IRIS Steering Committee Chairman
    -    IRIS system: a way for continuous improvement
    Andreas Heinzmann     Head of Quality Bombardier Transportation   
    -    Strengths of the Certification Bodies and Auditors
    Harald Brandt         Product Manager TÜV Nord   

13:30 - Project Management at the heart of IRIS.

    -    Importance of the Project Management and the IRIS in the Business Management Unit
    Holger Schmidt         VP Quality Management Siemens Transportation Systems       
    -    How to implement the process?
    Marcus Schmid         Director Quality Management Voith Turbo Rail           
    -    How to audit Project Management?
    Robert Milner         IRIS Auditor LRQA
                       
15:00 - Risk management: IRIS contributes to safe projects.

    -    Why Risk analysis?
    Jan-Bert Hoekman     Product Manager DNV                   
    -    What can a good risk management bring?
    Susanne Schaub     Quality Manager CFF/SBB/FSS                 
    -    Application of the principles in the industry
    Christian Sahr         Quality Assurance Manager Hübner   
           
16:00 – Conclusions
    -     Vision from a Standard point of view
        Olivier Peyrat         ISO CASCO Chairman                       
    -     Conclusions of the first IRIS conference
    Hubert de Blay         IRIS Steering Committee Chairman           

PDF Document

Ukrzaliznytsa, in collaboration with Bureau Veritas BSD, organizes on 3d June, 2008
in Kyiv, Hotel Express -  blvd Shevchenko 38/48, the seminar "Modern Methods and
Competition in railway industry. International Railway Industry Standard”. 

Conference will concern following next issues: UNIFE activity; IRIS, Lean Manufacturing;
Implementation ISO 9001; 14001; OHSAS 18001 in railway business.

The lecturers are:
Lashko – Deputy of General Manger of Ukrzaliznytsa, Prykhodko – Head of Supervisory
Board of Krukov Railway Plant;
Mr. B. Kaufmann – General Manager IRIS;
Dr. Yakubovskiy – General Director BV BSD; Dr. Tsopa – Stratigic Department BV BSD;
Dr. Sokolov – HSE Department BV BSD; Dr. Adamenko- Certification Department BV BSD;
Mr. P. Bonnaerens – IRIS expert.

Due to limited seats, we highly recommend you to pre-register, by phone to
Ms. Anna Dovgopol (tel. +38 044 490-2979) or via email to: training@bureauveritas.com.ua.

AICQ, the Quality Control Italian Association, Railway sector, organized a
second common IRIS conference in Florence on the 15th of May 2008.

The event followed the one already performed in 2007, when the IRIS certification
was still not well known in the Italian market and many stakeholders where
questioning about the added values given by the IRIS Standard to the Industry.

The conference was moderated by Mr. Ferrazzini (ANIE/ASSIFER) who introduced the
topics and the speakers.

Mr. Greco (UNIFE-IRIS) gave a general overview of the IRIS system, highlighting the
differences between the ISO 9001 and the improvements introduced in the Standard
with the launch of the Rev01 in November 2007, providing as well some key figures
that showed the current development of the system and the next steps.

Mr. Buonocore (Faiveley Transport) and Mr. Muolo (Mer Mec SpA) reported the
challenging path to achieving, first in Italy, the IRIS certification which brought
this 2 companies to become the first IRIS certified in Italy.

Some very interesting analysis where given by the 2 speakers, who detailed
the activities performed internally to align their business management
systems to the more demanding IRIS requirements.

All presentations are available for download here.

ZIP File

RINA, in collaboration with GSI SLV, organizes on May 14th 2008 in
Florence, Hotel Embassy - Via Jacopo da Diacceto, 8, the seminar "The new
norm EN 15085:2008 (Part 1-5): implementation, differences with DIN 6700
norm and IRIS standard ", concerning the main items of the EN 15085.2008
norm and the differences vs the DIN 6700 norm and the IRIS standard.

The lecturers are: Ing. Antonio Pezone (Alstom Ferroviaria) and Ing.
Albrecht Hans (GSI SLV), who will describe the EN 15085 norm, and Ing.
Cristina Bianchi (RINA), who will shown the possible integration between
IRIS and EN 15085.

Due to limited seats, we highly recommend you to pre-register, by phone to
Mrs. Dea Biani (tel. +39 010 5385460) or via email to dea.biani@rina.org.
The confermation has to be sent to RINA, using the attached form, before May 5th
2008.

PDF Document

AICQ, the Quality Control Italian Association, Railway sector, is organizing
its yearly conference in Florence, which contains includes a specific part to
monitor the progress of  IRIS certification in Italy. UNIFE is invited to
highlight the main points of version 01 of the standard and the development  
of IRIS certification worldwide; moreover,  two important italian railway
manufacturers will report on their direct field experience for obtaining the
IRIS certificate in accordance to version 01.

AICQ considers that the conference will be a refreshment of the conference  
of May 2007, where the IRIS standard and the certification process were explained
and discussed with an attendance of more then 200 italian industry representatives.

Other conference topics wil be the setting up of the italian Railway Safety  
Authority and a round table on "Sustainable signalling ".

The conference will take place on May 15th in the Hotel Londra, Florence.
 
If you are interested, please contact  Mrs.Alessandra Suardi, AICQ Secretary,
at  aicqna.segreteria@aicq.it

PDF Document

Rina, approved by UNIFE as IRIS certification Body, and CETREN, Notified Body in the
Spanish railway sector, are organizing a second common IRIS Seminar in Spain.

With the aim to know the IRIS standard, its benefits and the process to follow for
obtaining certification, all interested parties are invited to participate in this
seminar with the collaboration of UNIFE-IRIS representative, which will take place on
April 29th, 2008 in the hotel Fira Palace, Barcelona.


If you are interested, please contact directly Marta Carvajal at mcarvajal@cetren.es

PDF Document

On April 4th, 2008, AENOR, an IRIS approved certification body conducted an IRIS
dedicated seminar for the Spanish Railway stakeholder in Madrid.

Nearly 60 people attended the presentation of Bernard Kaufmann IRIS General Manager
dedicated to the principles, status and targets. Angela de Heymer, Bombardier
Transportation Group Quality Manager and IRIS Technical Forum for Improvement Leader
explained the position of a system integrator. David Martinez de Miguel, AENOR Product
manager, presented the role of the AENOR and their certification approach.

Many technical questions were raised, as well as on system integrator position.
The participant feedback was very positive and reinforcing the need of the high
level IRIS scheme.

On April 2nd, 2008, ACRI the Czech National Railway Association organized an
IRIS dedicated seminar for its members. 40 people attended the presentation of
Bernard Kaufmann IRIS General Manager dedicated to the principles, status and targets.

Angela de Heymer, Bombardier Transportation Group Quality Manager and IRIS Technical
Forum for Improvement Leader explained the position of a system integrator.

Many questions were raised, on technical and process point of view, where both
answered explicitly. The success of the seminar was achieved by giving the Czech
Railway industry the necessary information to be convinced about the need of
implementation and the high level of IRIS scheme.

A following meeting will be held in November 2008.

In the occasion of “Affidabilità e Tecnologie” and “Expoferroviaria” trade fairs
TÜV Rheinland, international certification body for products, management systems
and services, will organize two workshops whose purpose is to explain, step by step,
what companies should do in order to adapt their Management System to the
IRIS Standard Rev. 1: gap analysis, action plan, intervention areas,
certification process to obtain the final certification within the requested deadlines.

All interested parties are invited to participate to the workshops that will take
place on the 17th of April at “Affidabilità e Tecnologie” and on the 21st of May at
“Expoferroviaria”.
 
For details and registration form please download the attached file

PDF Document

ACRI, Association of Czech Railway Industry will organize an IRIS Seminar in Prague
on April 2nd, 2008.

The aim of the seminar is to reinforce the IRIS scheme and to explain the benefits
of the certification. IMC and a system integrator (Bombardier) will be speakers in this
seminar.

If you are interested to participate or for any further information, please contact
Marie Vopalenska at vopalenska@acri.cz.

IMQ, Italian body operating product and management systems certification,
approved by UNIFE as IRIS certification body will organize two workshops
in Milan and in Turin, in the course of  the specialized trade fair Expoferroviaria.

The purpose of these workshops is to provide some information about IRIS objectives,
certification process and technical issue.

All intersted parties are invited to participate to the workshop that will take
place on April 3th in IMQ  Milan, and in Turin on 21 of May.

For any detailed information and registration please download the attached file

PDF Document

AENOR, national and international recognized organization, accredited for the
certification of management systems and approved by UNIFE as IRIS certification Body
will organize an IRIS Seminar in Madrid, Spain.

The aim of the seminar is to introduce the IRIS system, assessment guideline and its
benefits and steps to follow for certification.

All interested parties are invited to participate in the seminar, which will
take place April, 4th 2008 in AENOR facilities, Madrid.

PDF Document

On 21st and 22nd of May, the IRIS Management Centre will host the first IRIS Conference
in the Crowne Plaza Brussels. The 2-day event will bring together representatives
from the Rail Industry to discuss the necessity to be IRIS certified. It will be a
great opportunity to learn more about the IRIS Standard and network with key
decision-makers. The first day will gather high level speakers to present the need for
a high level certification for Rail and the challenge of the Asian competition for
European manufacturers. We expect the participation of CEOs, Managing Directors and
Quality Managers.
The second day will be dedicated to technical exchanges on various subjects such as
Risk and Process management, continuous improvement and IRIS Revision 1.

DUE TO LIMITED SEATS, WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU TO PRE-REGISTER ONLINE BEFORE THE 21st MARCH 2008.

Available for download the program of the conference.

To pre-register online please click here.

PDF Document

On the 12th March 2008 BSI Management Systems signed the framework agreement with
UNIFE to enable audits to IRIS to be carried out globally.
The agreement was welcomed by Flemming Norklit, Managing Director of BSI Management Systems and Bernard Kaufmann General Manager IRIS Management Centre.
Robin Pilcher and John Hele will develop the new IRIS Scheme within the BSI client panel.

BSI Management Systems is a global certification body, conducting assessment
to a large range of management system and product standards to a complete range of
product and services sectors.
BSI Management Systems has over 60 offices around the globe and operates in over
100 countries from Australia to Iceland.

Agoria, the Belgian Association organized for its members an updated information
seminar dedicated to IRIS. It took place on February 22nd, 2008 in Brussels.
35 managers were present, representing 22 companies in order to update or integrate
the IRIS scheme and status.

Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, Louis Baeyens, Bombardier
and Heinz Welling Harting informed and answered about their current experience
and expectations.

It was a good opportunity indeed, for the Belgian Railway Industry to enter in the
improvement scheme lead by the IRIS Initiative.

On invitation of the approved CB AFAQ, more than 70 Railway responsible attended
an IRIS Seminar in Shanghai (PRC) on February 2nd, 2008.

Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager presented the initiative and its current
status before Mr. Xie Weida, Professor at Tongji University showed a technical
analyze of the Chinese Railway market and needs.
The requirements of the System Integrator were given by Mr. Jose Manuel Tabuenca
from Alstom Transport and an application example shared by Mr. David Dupen from
Air International Group.

After the seminar, it was the time where the two first certificates for Chinese
companies were officially awarded. The Air International Transit and Bombardier
CPC Propulsion Systems companies are now part of the currently 55 certified companies
in 4 continents.

End of January 08 took place the first IRIS Auditor training located in Asia.

During 4 days, Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager and Gregor Pitikaris, IRIS Trainer,
transmit knowledge and experience and finally examined 13 auditors in Seoul (Korea).
The outcome was positive for 12 of them.

After final validation from the IRIS Auditor Validation Committee, new auditors in
Australia, China, Japan, Korea and India will be available for CBs and companies.
This extension around the world of IRIS will once more confirm the need of improvement
of all railway stakeholders wherever they produce parts.

Another training is forecasted in Asia in June 08, let’s believe that it will be also
fully booked!

TÜV SÜD  is organizing a seminar in Ljubljana on March 4th, 2008.

This will be the first event dedicated to the Railway specific Standard.

During the seminar the new EN 15085 and the opportunity for the development of IRIS will be introduced in Slovenia and Croatia.

The speakers will give their expectations and/or experiences on EN 15085 and IRIS.

For detailed information please download the attached pdf-file.

PDF Document

Based on the strong railway experience, and as one of the 12 Certification Body
recognised by UNIFE, RINA organises a seminar on February 26th 2008
(see the program in the annex) in

RINA S.p.A. VIA DELL’ELETTRICITA’, 5/D – 30175 MARGHERA VENICE

in order to show the difference in the new Rev. 01 of the IRIS standard, issued 
November 1st 2007, and the certiifcation process. 

Ing. Pecchioli (Ansaldobreda Quality Manager) will partecipate to the event.

During the seminar, a demonstration of the Audit tool will be made.

The agenda and registration form are available for download.

ZIP File

AFAQ/AFNOR International is organizing an IRIS Seminar in Shanghai on February 2^nd, 2008.

It will be the first dedicated event to the Railway specific Standard.

Railway Industry is largely represented in China and also all major worldwide
System Integrators are present in the country.

During the seminar, where Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager, will introduce
the scheme and its current status, AFAQ/AFNOR will take the opportunity to show
its strategy for the development of IRIS in China and also handover the two first
IRIS Certificates for Chinese companies.

Other speakers will give their expectations and/or experiences on IRIS.

Available for download the agenda and invitation letter.

ZIP File

November 19th was the day were RINA an IRIS approved Certification Body in collaboration
with CETREN (Spanish Notified Body) organized an IRIS Seminar in Madrid.

More than 100 representatives from the Spanish Railway stakeholder were present.
Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager and Angela de Heymer, IRIS Technical Form for
Improvement Leader from Bombardier presented the status after launching the Rev. 01 on
November 1st and gave details on the assessment process and the specific IRIS requirements.
Pedro Ferrer an IRIS approved auditor showed a deep process and procedure analyze versus
the ISO 9001:2000 Standard. Finally, Cristina Bianchi, product manager RINA presented
the roles of the Certification Bodies and their involvement in the deployment of IRIS.
It was also the opportunity to answer precise questions raised by the attendees.

Javier Villen Barranco (General Director CETREN) and Jose M. Cerruto (Technical Director
Railway Department RINA) evaluated the seminar with a positive feedback.

The Spanish Railway community organized the fifth International Railway Forum in Valencia
last November 13th.

This was the opportunity for Bernard Kaufmann, IRIS General Manager to develop for the
first time the IRIS scheme in Spain. Around 60 people attend the conference were he
highlighted the importance of this unique standard for our industry.

Certified companies and a certification body were our relay during the fair with 100 stands.

The workshop “IRIS 2008: a train you can’t miss”, organised by TÜV Rheinland Italia srl
together with TQM Consulting srl, took place in Milan on November 5th with the following
speakers:

•    Ing. Marco Fornara - TÜV Rheinland Italia srl
•    Ing. Giuseppe Greco – UNIFE
•    Dr. Bruno Paonessa – TQM Consulting srl
•    Ing. Luca Tuci – AnsaldoBreda
•    Dr. Massimo Mortarino – Moderator

In front of 40 participants, representing 36 companies, the whole path for the
upgrading of the existing quality system to the IRIS Business Management System
for the railway industry was explained into the details.

The workshop was positively evaluated by the attendants, who gave their active contribution
with specific questions and requests for in-depth analysis.

The documents of the workshop are available for download below.

PDF Document

Rina, international known entity in the certification of management systems and
approved by UNIFE as IRIS certification Body, and CETREN, NoBo in the Spanish
railway sector, both acting as notified body for the member state of the European
commission for the TSI certification, have agreed to work together in the
implementation of the IRIS system in the railway sector in Spain.

With the aim to know the IRIS standard, its benefits and the process to follow
for obtaining certification, all interested parties are invited to participate in the
seminar organized by RINA and CETREN UNIFE-IRIS with the collaboration of
UNIFE RINA and CETREN, which will take place November, 19th in the hotel Chamartin, Madrid.

PDF Document

The 1st of November 2007 is a date to keep in mind because it is the official
launch date of the new IRIS Rev01.

After one year and half the official launch of the first IRIS Standard and after
a huge and intensive improvement exercise, the IRIS Group is proud to announce
the evolution.

Certification audits against IRIS Rev00 can be performed until the end of 2007,
from January, 1st 2008 only Rev01 certification audits will be allowed.

The IRIS Rev01 booklet will be available from the IRIS Portal in 4 languages
(English, German, French and Italian) from November, 1st and its price will be 60 EUR + VAT.

IRIS booklet order page (Rev01 available from the 1st of November)

A few anticipations:

-    The Standard will be applicable to Rolling Stock AND Signalling
-    Companies shall have activities in manufacturing AND/OR design
-    Remote Functions rules improved
-    IRIS auditor time chart improved
-    Reduction scheme available for Companies upgrading from other standards
-    12 K.O. questions
-    The Audit-tool Version 2 will be the only source for the IRIS questionnaire
-    Specific Audit-tool Version 2 for companies with reduced costs (250 EUR per license)
      and special price to buy together the Audit-tool and the booklet (300 EUR)
-    New face to our stakeholders by improving the design of the IRIS Portal
-    …

The IRIS management Centre and the IRIS approved certification bodies will further support you.

contact the IMC
contact the Certification Bodies

Stay tuned