Volvo Truck Australia

Environmental Management System Solutions

Challenge

Volvo has been a client of Graham A Brown & Associates since 1989.  Volvo Truck Australia required certification to the ISO 14001 international standard, which was mandated by its Swedish parent company. The EMS needed to cover the Volvo truck factory at Wacol in Brisbane, national parts distribution warehouse at Minto in Sydney, office facilities in Brisbane and Sydney and several company dealerships in the eastern states of Australia. It also had to be flexible enough to incorporate additional facilities when required. Additionally, the EMS needed to comply with regulatory requirements in several states as well as Volvo’s own corporate standards. Volvo required a system that could be operated by personnel at each site and be reviewed and managed by the Australian National HSE Manager.

Strategy

We implemented the Intelex Environmental Management System. This was initially PC-based then became a web-based system hosted by Intelex in London. Key features included:

  • Using Objectives and Targets as the day-to-day environmental management tool, enabling signoff of action programs to achieve them and tracking of continual improvement.
  • Regularly reviewing Aspects and Impacts to incorporate any changes in operations – an important ability when the Volvo and Mack truck factories were integrated on to one site in Brisbane.
  • The listing of all regulatory requirements and corporate standards in Intelex made it easy to keep track of changes through regular review triggered by the program, informing the responsible person when they are due.

Results

The experience with the PC-based EMS enabled rapid conversion to the web-based system when it became available. The hosting by Intelex has provided regular updates, backup and maintenance, and has avoided any conflict with other programs on the Volvo server. By having the program hosted by Intelex, all of Volvo’s sites have immediate access, and our EMS consultants can also keep an eye on how the EMS is being implemented. Using Objectives and Targets as the day-to-day environmental management tool enables tracking of continual improvement by Top Management.

Follow-up

Graham A Brown & Associates continues to provide software and consulting services to Volvo.  Intelex has enabled Volvo to develop and maintain an EMS certified to ISO 14001, which has been expanded over time to include additional operations such as Volvo Mack Recycling and other sites. The reporting function of Intelex has proved to be most valuable in providing regular progress reports to management.