Peter Mitchell & Son - EN 1090

Peter Mitchell and Son General Engineers are a family run business established in 1954. Based in Fogwatt, beside Elgin in the North East of Scotland; they have a wide range of experience in welding, pipework, steel fabrication and cater to the distilling and food processing industries which have thrived in this area for centuries.

With CE Marking being required by law for businesses fabricating structural steel, the company was very keen to get certified to adhere to regulations and continue operations.

“EN 1090 was a relatively new standard to us; we worked closely with a consultant and opted to get an assessment done fairly quickly to give us a benchmark to work from.” – Kevin McGarvey

Following their first audit in 2014, their consultant from KR Welding Ltd brought documentation and filing structures up to standard, evaluated procedures and introduced new practices to help modernise the business and maintain the standards set forth. They also engineered new welding procedures along with the training and qualification of welding personnel.

Peter Mitchell and Son successfully passed their second audit in September 2015; allowing the company to continue their structural fabrication projects, whilst keeping clients happy knowing they are working to this high standard.

“Since we started working with this standard we have dramatically improved the running of our office and workshop. Projects are managed much more effectively with a higher priority being placed on quality and traceability. With the office running more efficiently, we are hoping for an increase in productivity from the workshop along with a better turnover”.

Working with the Standard was fulfilling for the entire team. “Seeing everyone in our team working together when faced with the challenging task of building our office and workshop into what it is now, certainly has changed the way we view things. Everyone is now striving to improve themselves personally, whether it is learning new skills or techniques in the workshop or mastering new procedures in the office. This has been an incredibly motivational and morale-boosting experience, bringing the whole team together to work towards a single goal.”

Their 2015 assessment went smoothly as a result of the significant improvements made. “The whole auditing process was surprisingly stressed free. The Centre for Assessment assessor was very helpful, she identified things we could work on and gave us suggestions which we have found useful. It was interesting to see how far we had come since our first assessment in 2014 and how the hard work everyone has put in has paid off.”

Peter Mitchell and Son are now determined to continue improving the business in any way possible; aiming to maintain their EN 1090 CE Marking and also gain ISO 9001 certification in the near future.

“From speaking to other business owners in our area, it is a common opinion that these ISO standards are not applicable to smaller businesses, perhaps more hassle than it’s worth. One thought is that they have done just fine for the past 20 or so years, why change now? Well, from our personal experience we have discovered times have certainly changed, bringing ourselves up to date with our procedures and technology has drastically improved the way we operate. If you want to increase future prospects for your business, working to ISO standards is the way to do it.”

For more information on EN 1090 or to request a quote, please contact us.