ISO 9001, ISO 14001 AND ISO 45001: TUBESCA-COMABI IS HEADING TOWARDS A TRIPLE CERTIFICATION

Tubesca-Comabi, the French leader in the manufacture and marketing of solutions for accessing and working at height, confirms its ongoing commitment to quality, environment and safety. For more than 20 years, the company has been implementing a structured quality approach in order to fulfil the expectations of its customers and to support its development. After obtaining the ISO 9001 certification for its quality approach, followed by the ISO 14001 certification in 2021 for its sustainable development policy, Tubesca-Comabi is now working to obtain the ISO 45001 certification, to confirm its commitment to health and safety in the workplace.

The ISO 45001 certification was launched last year and Tubesca-Comabi aims to obtain this certification for its two industrial sites in Ailly-sur-Noye and Trévoux by the end of this year. In order to obtain a triple certification, it is setting up a joint action plan, which includes all the company’s stakeholders, from production units to marketing, the design office and its customers, so that quality, environment and safety can be managed within one management system.

Concrete actions to reinforce Tubesca-Comabi’s responsibility towards the environment

As part of its investment in machinery and its product development programmes, the company is committed to incorporating environmentally friendly technologies to prevent pollution, reduce its energy consumption, and reduce and recycle its waste.

Zoom in on some key actions.

• The company has reviewed all the oils in the machines (for metalworking). It has worked extensively with its subcontractor and manufacturer of machine oils to replace evanescent oils with water-based oils that do not contain solvents. These new oils used by Tubesca-Comabi are no longer considered dangerous for the health of the operators and can now be disposed of with ordinary waste, instead of being classified as hazardous products. This work took two and two and a half years, as it was crucial that the machinery could withstand the change.

• Changes have also been made in maintenance, in terms of cleaning the production tools such as the crimping, cutting and pressing machines, and others. Solvent-based cleaning has been replaced by cleaning with water-based detergents. This transformation was revolutionary and required a significant investment, for a complete cleaning installation for tools used to transform the company’s organisation, products and cleaning processes.

• Tubesca-Comabi is collaborating with its customersto continue its packaging optimisation approach by eliminating unnecessary packaging wherever possible. This initiative has been extended to the company’s flagship products, such as scaffolding towers, which now come without packaging, as well as future PIRL ranges, in response to the customers’ expectations to reduce waste. To prevent friction between products during transport, the company now uses cardboard dividers and a non-shrink, non-heat resistant stretch film. These initiatives have not caused an increase in product breakage, and have in fact had the opposite effect. In 2022, Tubesca-Comabi noted a reduction in the number of breakages compared to the previous year.

As part of this approach, the Ailly-sur-Noye site has also removed a shrink oven that was operating continuously, which reduced the consumption of plastic and associated energy. This initiative shows Tubesca-Comabi’s commitment to reducing its environmental footprint and to contributing to a more sustainable future.

The result of this work is a reduction of 9 tonnes in the use of plastic packaging, saving 7 tonnes for plastic film and 2 tonnes for other types of packaging.

At the heart of the CSR approach: close collaboration between the various departments in the company

Tubesca-Comabi’s CSR approach involves all its departments and activities. The Marketing Department listens carefully to its customers’ needs to select the most relevant opportunities to improve existing ranges or develop new products. The R&D department creates innovative and sustainable products by reshaping the life cycle while staying in line with market requirements.
Before the products are launched, prototypes are tested by professional users to validate the orientations selected and improve the functions.
The company is also working with independent bodies in order to challenge its practices, particularly for raw materials, to reduce fossil fuel consumption and improve the performance of its solutions.

Tubesca-Comabi includes eco-design in its manufacturing and design process while also improving the health and well-being of its employees, rationalising its production lines, automating operations with no added value, and aiming to reduce the environmental impact of products.
It considers the health and well-being of its employees to be of great importance and also takes measures to prevent work-related accidents and illnesses by offering regular training to employees in accordance with the standards in force. Tubesca-Comabi believes that the human aspect is essential to ensure the company’s sustainability and customer satisfaction.

A full commitment to occupational health and safety: the process to obtain ISO 45 001 certification

In order to meet the requirements of ISO 45001 certification, Tubesca-Comabi has put in place actions to protect the health and well-being of its employees in the workplace. The company initially invested in modernising its production tools and then turned towards automation, which improves safety, quality and – as a consequence – profitability. Customised machines have been developed with digital operating procedures. As part of a programme to review its production tools, all the production lines will be reviewed within the next five years to ensure product quality.

The company aims to achieve ISO 45001 certification by the end of this year, and is determined to continue with its efforts to ensure the product safety and quality, while improving ergonomics for its operators and automating low value-added tasks.

“Our commitment to social and environmental responsibility has already been recognised through the EcoVadis Silver Medal in 2022, rewarding our significant efforts. However, the company does not intend to stop there and its next objective is to obtain ISO 45001 certification by the end of the year. We believe that having a triple certification will reinforce our quality and sustainability strategy, and provide both high standards of quality, health, safety and security for our teams and partners and strong environmental guidelines. There are new challenges involved in these actions, but Tubesca-Comabi is determined to meet these challenges by making regular investments, as it has done every year since 2017,”

Christophe Wattelier, Industrial Director of the Tubesca-Comabi site in Ailly-sur-Noye.