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Certification for Magnesita
Magnesita Refractories SA is a company dedicated to mining, production and supply of an extensive line of refractory materials. The products are used mainly for the steel, cement and glass industries. The industrial activities of the company began in 1940, soon after the discovery of magnesite deposits in Brumado, state of Bahia in Brazil.
Today the company operates 28 industrial and mining sites, with 16 sites in Brazil, 3 in Germany, 3 in China, 1 in USA, 2 in France, 1 in Belgium, 1 in Taiwan and 1 in Argentina. The company has the largest share of the refractories market in Brazil and South America and exports to more than 70 countries around the world.
The Challenge
Magnesita decided to implement a Quality Management System in 1990. Certification was seen as crucial to the business; the strategy of the implementation and future certification of the QMS would be used to both find opportunities for synergies among product and business areas and to foster changes in the way the company performed, both in processes and results.
Lucideon (formally known as CICS) was chosen as, at the time, it focused on the Ceramic and Refractories industrial sector, something which was reflected in their name - Ceramic Industry Certification Scheme. Later, the new name, Complete Integrated Certification Services, demonstrated that the registrar was now fully aware of the changes that the economy and regulations brought to our industrial sector.
Magnesita units in South America and North America are registered to Lucideon.
What We Delivered
Lucideon's audits took us to a new level of understanding about how the Quality Management System could help our services and products and led us to question which processes were actually adding value to the company. The process- approach line of auditing was fully absorbed by our own system and has been used as a tool for continuous improvement of our practices.
Value to Magnesita
We were first audited and certified by Lucideon in 1994. Since then, we have extended our certification process to other units in Brazil and Argentina and have developed additional management systems, such as Environmental and, more recently, Health and Safety. The resulting number of certificates obtained demonstrates our commitment to systematic planning and implementation of actions and strategies that have helped and will help the company in the competitive global marketplace.
