A Northern Ireland factory that produces Hyster and Yale forklift trucks has achieved the prestigious Northern Ireland Quality Award 2011 (EFQM).
Alan Little, plant manager at the NACCO Materials Handling Ltd factory in Craigavon, accepted the award on behalf of the company and employees at a ceremony in Belfast City Hall on 26th January.
The Northern Ireland Quality Awards, organised by the Centre for Competitiveness, is the premier business event in Northern Ireland aimed at recognising organisations that have demonstrated excellence in their overall business performance.
Established in 1994, the Awards are based on the internationally recognised European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model which provides one of the most robust methods of assessing how well an organisation is performing.
As part of the judging process, the plant was compared against other leading world-class manufacturers by a team of external experts and is based on 500 hours of assessment across nine areas of the business including Leadership, People, Strategy, Partnerships and Resources, Processes, Products and Services, Customers, Key results and Social Welfare.
Accepting the award Alan said: “This is a fantastic achievement – everyone at NACCO Materials Handling Group is proud of the quality of the equipment we manufacture. We are therefore delighted to see the hard work and contribution made by everyone in our organisation officially recognised through this award.”
The NACCO Materials Handling Ltd factory in Craigavon employs over 600 people and produces approximately 14,000 forklift trucks annually.
Pictured (l to r): Gordon Milligan, Translink, Ian McIlveen, Training Officer, Carole Stalker, Manufacturing Quality Processes Manager, EMEA, Sarah Bondi, HR Superintendent, Alan Little, Plant Manager and Stephen Kingon, Chairman, Centre for Competitiveness