Background

Specac, a part of the global conglomerate the Smiths Group, designs, manufactures and tests optical and analytical instruments for the spectroscopy market. It deals with the analysis of substances for customers such as DERA, Government Agencies, Biomedical Research Agencies and the two world leaders in the spectroscopy field.

Project

Statius originally worked with Specac in setting up their ISO 9000 systems. In 2002 Statius were commissioned to review the existing environmental practices so that original quality processes could be integrated with the requirements of the ISO 14001 environmental standard.

The work undertaken helped Specac identify their environmental aspects and impacts associated with their manufacturing processes. The Specac manufacturing process ranges from small scale one-off optical specials involving the control of potentially environmentally harmful substances such as mercury, KBrS5, ZnSe, to large volume CNC machining and material preparation with all associated waste byproducts.

Being part of Smiths industries Specac had already been set tough environmental targets to be met by 2006, however, the following results were obtained by 31 December 2003!

Benefits

• Various changes were made, £2084.00 alone being saved from projects requiring no additional financial outlay.

• The ISO 14001 project also raised the profile of Specac within the Smiths Group to a “best practice” site

“The ISO 14001 project helped us to meet, and even exceed, environmental targets imposed by the Smiths Group and we delivered significant cost saving.”