13 May 2019

Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS) managing director, Ms Masego Marobela has congratulated Flo-Tek Pipes and Irrigation for attaining a BOBS ISO 15877-2:2009 licence award.

Speaking at the licence award ceremony recently, Ms Marobela said the certification licence conferred the company the right to apply the BOBS mark of quality to the company’s (Chlorinated poly vinyl chloride) PVC piping product.

She explained that they could do so by indicating its compliance to the requirements of BOS ISO 15877-2009 – Plastics piping systems for hot and cold water installations – Chlorinated poly vinyl chloride) PVC – C standard.

“It is pleasing to note that this certificate is not the first conferred to the company. Flo-Tek pipes and Irrigation first attained its certification licence in January 2017 for its plastic PVC-U pipes in compliance to the BOS ISO 1452-2:2011 – Plastic piping systems for water supply and for buried and above ground drainage and sewerage under pressure-unplasticised poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC-U)”, she said.

Ms Marobela further stated that the award was an indicator and proof that the company ‘manufactures products that comply with standards and in a consistent manner, geared towards satisfying customers.

She clarified that the certification handover was not the same as the BOS ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems – “Requirements certification, as this was a product standard and confirms the product’s compliance to the requirements of a specific standard. It is therefore both the product and the process used in manufacturing the product that this certification process centres around,” she noted.

Furthermore, she said, “Flo-Tek Pipes and Irrigation’s latest journey to certification began in July 2018 with an application for certification. An initial inspection of the process by BOBS’s inspectors was conducted in October 2018 when the product was sampled for testing.”

In addition, she stated that the product complied with all the specifications outlined in the standard and the company was certified on March 8, 2019.

She urged companies to fully take advantage of the government initiatives and policies such as the Economic Diversification Drive (EDD) to market and sell their quality assured products.

Ms Marobela pointed out that  initiatives aimed at developing sectors that would contribute to the diversification and growth of the nation’s economy.

She also encouraged consumers and enterprises to demand quality products and services in their procurement processes.

Ms Marobela said BOBS would continues to monitor Flo-Tek’s conformity to the requirements of the standard through surveillance inspections and product testing.

For his part, managing director of Flo-Tek Industries, Mr Vijay Naik said that they had been enjoying a mutual relationship for a good number of years; as they had contributed towards one another’s existence.

“At Flo-Tek, we believe that innovation is very critical. we have committed ourselves that we are going to bring more innovative products to our customers in order to create the necessary value for them,” he stated.  ENDS