March 22, 2013: R.F. Binnie & Associates Ltd. (Binnie) has received its Organizational Quality Management Certification. The company is strongly committed to leading in quality management and is an early adopter of the program.

The certification is in recognition of Binnie’s compliance with the APEGBC’s Organizational Quality Management (OQM) Program, which endeavours to improve the quality management of professional engineering and geoscience practices at the individual and organizational level. Binnie pursued certification to ensure that its policies and procedures were in line with the APEGBC’s expectations of professional engineers employed by the company.

The program is a structured plan designed to guide APEGBC professionals in carrying out their engineering work.  There are six components of professional conduct applicable to Binnie’s engineering team:  applying the APEGBC technical practice guidelines, retaining project documentation, completing documented checks of engineering work, following the appropriate use of the APEGBC seal, directly supervising delegated engineering work, and carrying out documented field reviews.

Sharon Goddard, P.Eng., led the effort to bring Binnie’s quality management practices into alignment with the APEGBC standards. She affirmed, “The OQM program aims to address the significant influence that Binnie has on the practice of their engineers by addressing that influence and providing guidance for professional practice quality management at the organization level.”

As a result of the commitment to OQM, Binnie has developed a structured plan to guide the company’s engineers through their professional work.  All the engineers follow the same process and procedures which ultimately streamlines the work, provides better quality management, customer satisfaction, market recognition, and improved efficiency.  Certification saves time, effort and money as all of Binnie’s engineers are exempt from random selection for Practice Reviews.