- Companies
- Certification of companies
Certification of companies
Pre-qualification of service providers
The DVGW certificate demonstrates the competence and technical quality of professional entrepreneurs such as, for instance, pipework constructors, vis-à-vis potential customers. Customers, for example a public utility company, can rest assured that the DVGW certificate reliably proves a company's qualification, rendering superfluous the need to re-appraise the qualification aspect in the course of supplier assessment.
Successful certification criteria
Professional enterprises have to meet the following criteria first and foremost to be successfully certified by the DVGW:
- Qualified staff,
- appropriate technical equipment, and
- professional documentation of their principles of work.
The DVGW Technical Rules stipulate these and many other important requirements, always focusing on the specific area a company is active in. The DVGW looks back on more than 50 years of experience in pre-qualifying professional entrepreneurs in the gas and water industry on the basis of its Regulations, and we advise our members to insist that the qualification requirements defined in the DVGW work documents be met when issuing invitations to tender.
Pan-European invitations to tender
When it comes to awarding contracts, proof positive of professional qualification is of crucial importance also within the European competitive environment. The EC Sector Directive of 17 September 1990, obliges all public gas and water utility companies to issue invitations to tender on a European basis if a certain order volume is exceeded.
Par. 24 of the Sector Directive permits those seeking tenders to establish and operate a system for supplier and company assessment. In Germany, for instance, industry branch-specific certification in accordance with DVGW work documents GW 301, G 468, G 493, and W 120 has proved to be a reliable pre-qualification procedure. At the European level, there are no such procedures as yet, so that mentioning DVGW certification in accordance with GW 301 is not only permissible but also makes sense when issuing, for instance, a pan-European invitation to tender to pipework constructors.
Joint certification advantages
All professional DVGW companies go through a simplified procedure when having a quality management system certified by the DVGW in accordance with DIN EN ISO 9000, in that all QM-relevant parts of the test are accepted for the quality management procedure. Companies without an industry branch-specific DVGW certificate may receive a joint certificate on request in a simplified and cost-advantageous process. Joint certificates comprise QM certification and an industry branch-specific certificate in accordance with a DVGW work document.