World Quality Day – Interview with Lincad’s Quality Manager

An interview with Stephen Jenkins Lincad’s Quality Manager about the impact of Covid-19.

Q – What are the main challenges facing Lincad’s quality team at the moment and how are you overcoming them?

A – Covid-19 has not had a massive impact although we have introduced several new health and safety procedures.  It has somewhat restricted our ability to do training as we cannot bring in any training experts, due to a restriction on visitors to site.

Q – How have you adjusted Lincad’s quality management systems over the last few months?

A – Well, we’ve identified that there is extra training that’s needed within the business. Especially with regards to our sustainability plans. We are looking at accrediting our environmental management system so our recycling and disposal processes have changed slightly.  For example, instead of putting all our recyclable waste inside one bin, we now break it down into different metals, paper/cardboard and plastics, so it’s completely segregated.

Q – How important and effective has your business and quality management system been in dealing with Covid-19?

A – It’s been very effective. Our health and safety systems were already in great shape as a result of the work we have done over the past few years. However, we have recently focused more on our business continuity plans and we did some further analysis of pandemic risk on our risk register last December, which has obviously proved very useful.

Q – How is quality structured within the business to meet Covid-19 guidelines?

A – So, quality always remains the same, it’s the health and safety that’s had to step up and we’ve had to put more processes in place to keep our employees and visitors safe.  Due to Covid, we have had to look closer at deliveries to and from Lincad. We have also upped our cleaning process to multiple times a day just to make sure all surfaces are virus free.

Q – Why has Lincad recently invested in upgrading its testing facilities?

A – We have invested in some environmental chambers which can simulate jungle environments, they mimic the humidity and moisture in the air.  This is to make sure that when our batteries go out in the field, they are capable of working in a range of extreme weather conditions and temperatures.
Lincad’s new battery testing facilities allow tests to be done over a week or even over a year, there is no time scale on the tests.

To view the full PDF interview, click here.