Al Safir Hotel ready to serve up QMS-approved hospitality experience

    Dumped value of 'ID':
'167222';

Dumped value of 'images_loop':
[
    {
        'caption' => 'Representatives from the Labour Fund, Al Safir hotel and Jaffari Consultants.',
        'col' => 'picture',
        'name' => 'alsafir.jpg',
        'url' => '/8/62968-alsafir.jpg'
    }
];

The Al Safir Hotel's QMS initiative is backed by the Labour Fund (LF) which launched a programme in June this year to enable SMEs in the Kingdom to gain much-needed international quality management certification. Using the expertise of Jaffari Consultants, the Al Safir Hotel & Tower has launched an ambitious three-pronged effort to gain certification of excellence in three different areas: Quality Management System- ISO 9001:2000, Occupational Health and Safety System - OHSAS 18001 and Food Safety Management System - ISO 22000:2005.

'The Al Safir Hotel is one of the first in the Kingdom to put in place the requirements for ISO 9001:2000 certification and are aiming to be amongst the first to be awarded the certification,'

said the Al Safir Hotel's General Manager Mr. Abdul Hamid Halwachi.

'But I think we are even more proud that we have undertaken an extensive and multi-layered approach to the whole quality question by simultaneously seeking OHSAS 18001 and Food Safety Management System ISO 22000:2005 certification as well.'
He added, 'This bold move has been made possible thanks to the support of the Labour Fund which has extended its Enterprise Development Support to include quality management and giving medium-sized organisations like ours access to expertise such as Jaffari Consultants. It just opened up so many doors for us.'

The consultation service would be provided by a Bahrain-based Jaffari Consultants (JAFCON), which provides comprehensive consultancy services world-wide, which include all type of quality management systems and productivity improvement services. JAFCON is one of the major service providers for the QMS scheme, as well as, the other Enterprise Development Programmes of Labour Fund. Dr. Akbar Jaffari, the Chief Executive of JAFCON, says that, the project has brought together international certification processes and moulded them to key local requirements.

'By involving consultants like us, the Labour Fund and SMEs like Al Safir are re-interpreting international standards to meet local needs and still achieve the highest quality,' he said, 'This is a very good indication for the future of SMEs in Bahrain as the Kingdom prepares for the impact of the US FTA and an increasingly global world.'

The primary goal of the Labour Fund's quality management scheme is to raise the standard of corporate productivity and performance and enhance its competitiveness in the markets. The quality management scheme comes under the Labour Fund's ambitious Enterprise Development Support Programme which seeks to assist and support SMEs in enhancing their productivity to enable them to develop and grow while providing high quality jobs to Bahrainis through providing access to world class consultation and training for upgrading business information systems, technology inputs and business growth and development.

'We want to show that international certificates such as the ISO, HACCP, Food Safety and OHSAS are not mere labels but actually help companies to improve performance, profitability and win international acceptability,' commented Labour Fund Acting Chief Executive Mr. Abdulellah Al Qassimi 'The BD 200,000 pilot phase cost and initial research for this project, which the Al Safir Hotel & Tower has put to such good use, will aid in validating and recalibrating a quality management business model, and provide a road map for the full implementation phase. We are happy at the way Al Safir has seized this opportunity to leapfrog into a vastly improved performance and productivity cycle.'

Through the Quality Management Scheme (QMS), the Labour Fund will provide a grant up to 60% of the total fees which includes consultancy services, pre-assessment audit and certification fees for two years. The co financing programme offers small businesses a maximum of BD10,000 and for medium-sized businesses, a maximum of BD15,000 in support.

The Labour Fund plans to expand the main project to include 150 SMEs in the process, thereby helping to raise quality standards across the board for Bahraini SMEs.

'Quality is the main differentiator between good and poor practices and products, SMEs which are run by passionate entrepreneurs, are short of the required international certification that will give them the winning edge in the marketplace,' observed Abdulellah Al Qassimi, 'Through the quality management scheme, we hope to empower the SMEs with yet another instrument to add value to their business and make them more competitive in the region and internationally.'