October 29, 2024
‘Quality’ is something that is at our core at Jensen Steel Fabricators. Since we began the business in 1987, ensuring we have quality throughout our business has remained a key focus – from our people, product, equipment, plant, processes, technology and health and safety standards.
We have a thorough Quality Management System (QMS) that we’re constantly improving and we’re committed to operating under a Quality Assurance System that conforms to the requirements of the Construction Industry Quality Standard.
We hold the international ISO Standard 3834 Part 2: ‘Quality Requirements for Welding’, and are certified to the highest category, Steel Fabrication Certification SFC (an industry-led quality scheme) Construction Category 4. We were one of the first two companies in New Zealand to gain Construction Category 4 accreditation and we are audited each year to ensure we are meeting the standard. Our Quality Assurance system is based on the requirements of this ISO standard, alongside SFC, which remains a cornerstone of our industry’s quality and compliance activities.
The initial focus and our first certification for quality was based on welding. Steel Construction New Zealand (SCNZ) and Heavy Engineering Research Association (HERA) are continually looking at ways to improve the quality standards within steel construction. An additional AS/NZS 5131 standard has since been created to define best practice for the fabrication and erection of fabricated structural steel in New Zealand. This standard sets out the minimum requirements for the construction of structural steelwork involving fabrication, preparation of steel surfaces for corrosion protection, and corrosion protection comprising painting and galvanising, erection and modification of steelwork.
In June this year, Jensen Steel Fabricators achieved SFC Certified Erector CC3 to AS/NZS 5131, meaning we’ve now been signed off as operating to this new standard. This includes preplanning and documentation of erection methodology and requirement of additional training such as the high strength bolting course which is provided through SCNZ.
Quality auditing plays an important role and determines whether a company is complying with the requirement within a specific quality system and/or standard. At Jensen Steel Fabricators, we’re involved in a number of quality audits to ensure we comply to the standards for our industry and the high standards we set ourselves. We do self-audits – this is constant work throughout the year to ensure what we say we are doing, we are actually doing. People from all areas of the business (not just the quality team) are involved and it allows us to continually tweak and make improvements. We are also involved in periodic audits where an external auditor review us and our quality practices to ensure compliance - these types of audits occur annually, every 5 years and every 10 years.
"10 years of delivering quality throughout our business and to our clients is a great achievement. Having a comprehensive QMS provides us the opportunity to look at how we can maximise on any changes made to our processes, to ensure the best efficiency and quality is achieved”.
- Luke Te Whau, Quality Manager at Jensen Steel Fabricators.
Our Quality Team consists of a number of staff who work across different areas of our business and who have different backgrounds and experience. Having such diversification allows us to consider things from all angles and collectively come up with the best solutions for all.
All our work at Jensen Steel Fabricators is underpinned by specific, industry designed, quality systems such as StruM.I.S our project management system which is integral to everything we do, Tekla Structure Software for our modelling and Conqa our online system for site checking.
The quality of the materials we use is critical too. Materials and grades specified are made known in structural drawings and specifications. A large portion of our Quality Assurance Plan is dedicated to make sure the materials we use not only meet the grades required but also come from suppliers and steel mills who meet the ISO3834 standard and ACRS accreditation.
When our clients choose Jensen Steel Fabricators, they can be assured that ‘quality’ is a constant throughout the business. By us adhering to such standards, our clients:
We never sit still; we’re always working on ways to be better and do better and the quality audit processes enable us to do just that. Te Whau explains:
“The audit process, be it the way of self-auditing or external auditing, allows us to collaborate and come together as team and come up with the best solutions. We’re transparent too – across the business we share learnings and we all work together to embrace any changes and move forward in a positive way. At the end of the day, we’re focused on doing a good job for our client and making the project the best it can be”.
SFC is wanting to ensure the whole steel construction process is addressed with quality standards. Future plans are being made for SFC Certified Protective Coatings – this will be based around the requirements of AS/NZS 5131. So watch this space!