A new lease of life
Biomedical engineering enables today’s remarkable developments in medical knowledge to be applied in practice. DNV is involved in the CE labelling of medical equipment – a matter of life or death, and fully consistent with DNV’s objective of safeguarding life, property and the environment.
Rejuvenation the key to success
According to Miklos Konkoly-Thege, Chief Operating Officer of DNV’s Business Area General Industry, DNV is now in a transformation phase – ‘a transformation of one of the most important elements of the company, and that’s us and the way we work.’ He believes that the new economy, in its wider sense, is about more than just Information Technology. ‘It’s also about doing business differently from the way we’ve done it in the past. It’s about abandoning old-economy technologies and adapting to meet customers’ ever-changing needs and requirements.’
Steering towards the new global economy
DNV’s new chief executive officer Helge Midttun recognises that the global economy is changing, and its direction is clear. The ‘production’ economy, characterised by physical products, is developing into a knowledge-based economy, and in turn to a growing need for independent third-party players. Helge Midttun is well placed to lead DNV into this challenging future.
Quality drives expansion of Saab luxury cars
Within the next of five years, Saab aims to be a complete luxury-car manufacturer, to have doubled its production and to have launched new models. These are the very ambitious goals of the company’s owner, General Motors, which is investing a total of SEK 30 billion in order to reach them. ‘Central to GM’s expansion plans is its strong focus on quality and delivering a product that our customers want and trust,’ says Ragnar Drake, quality system manager at Saab Automobile AB, in Trollhättan, Sweden.
THE MODERN ROV ‘performance like a jet fighter’
Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) have been in use for many years at sea, often sent down to perform maintenance tasks by remote control, or for filming shipwrecks. Filming of the opening shots of the movie Titanic is a good example of such work. The manufacturer of the ROV used at that time was Houston-based Oceaneering, a leading supplier of ROV services to the offshore industry. DNV selected Oceaneering to help develop a new offshore ROV to be used for scanning hulls and other parts of offshore structures.
Client confidentiality
With clients such as Volvo, Saab, ABB, Electrolux, Ericsson and Hasselblad, Swedish consultancy company Gesab Engineering AB must prove that it takes information security seriously.
Producing CD-Roms: a worthy task for the monks of st Wandrille
Tradition and modernity. Humanity and know-ledge. Peace and realism. The impressions are many and the emotions mixed. One does not know what to expect at this DNV-certified Benedictine monastery, founded in the 7th century on the river Seine west of Rouen, France.
How Toyota protects the environment
In 1999, Toyota produced more than one million vehicles in its North American plants. ISO 14001 certification of its plants and suppliers by DNV has helped improve environmental performance.
A commitment to ethics
‘Being certified to SA 8000 by Det Norske Veritas demonstrates Honda’s respect for the individual,’ says Michele Della Zizza, business administration manager for the Honda Logistic Centre in Italy. Honda Logistic is the first in the Honda Group, and the first company in Italy, to be certified to this standard by DNV.
Harmonisation the keynote
QS-9000, VDA 6.1, AVSQ, EAQF, ISO/TS 16949. Though these abbreviations are incomprehensible to the uninitiated, they are extremely important for the quality of the global automotive industry. They are all quality standards issued by the national car-manufacturer organisations – with one exception, the ISO standard ISO/TS 16949. More and more players in the automotive industry now seek harmonisation and just one standard – the ISO/TS 16949.
Petrobras pioneers offshore Research and development
When the Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras was founded in 1953, the goal then was to create an oil exploration and production monopoly. Today, the country’s biggest company is changing direction: the monopoly period is over, and Petrobras is striving to become a transnational corporation, competing against the world’s oil majors. ‘It is crucial now that we build on the advances we have made, and stay at the forefront of offshore research and development,’ says Claudio Siqueira Vianna, head of exploitation at CENPES, Petrobras’ Research and Development Centre.
New economy, new commodities
‘In responding to the challenges of global climate change, businesses will increasingly have to account for and report on greenhouse gas emissions,’ says Nick Hughes, BP’s climate manager for Europe. The oil major has recently introduced a group-wide GHG trading scheme as part of its programme to achieve cost-effective emission reductions.
Securing the Chernobyl bequest
The explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant on 26 April 1986 has left a lethal legacy that will endure for a thousand years. The catastrophe at Chernobyl is the worst accident in the history of commercial nuclear power, and the environmental consequences have prompted an international response. Co-ordinating this effort and planning for the future are the challenges facing the Chernobyl Shelter Fund’s implementation plan as it moves to the critical second phase.
Safety for the Sydney Olympics
The Olympic Games are the pinnacle of international sport and the focus of world media attention. This Autumn, the eyes of the world were on Sydney, Australia. The organisers of the Sydney 2000 Olympics commissioned Det Norske Veritas to prepare Venue-Specific Safety Management Plans for a number of events and facilities.
DNV assists Kimberly-Clark’s zero tolerancce for injuries
Ask employees at Kimberly-Clark’s nonwoven facility in Neenah, Wisconsin about the importance of safety on the job, and they’re sure to say it’s a value, a part of everything they do. The facility has the record to prove it; plant employees have celebrated an entire year without a single injury.
Safety first at Cargill
Over the past 24 years 23,000 employees of the U.S. company Cargill Inc. have been trained by DNV in basic safety principles. During these years the company has doubled the size of its business while reducing incident rates by 50% or better. A major contributor to this success is a management team that puts safety in the forefront of productivity.
The Rolls-Royce of propellers
Following acquisition of the British engineering company Vickers by Rolls-Royce, Kamewa AB, a part of Vickers, became Rolls-Royce AB. The company is located in Kristinehamn, Sweden and recognised as one of the world´s leading manufacturers of marine propulsion systems. Rolls-Royce AB has an agreement with DNV that greatly reduces its classification costs.
ROYAL DANISH NAVY adopts ship classification
The Royal Danish Navy is the first to have DNV class all its ships. If all goes as DNV and the Danes intend, this will mean a better Navy at lower cost.
Value for the world’s airlines
Will a five-year-old Airbus A320 be worth US$ 26 million in the year 2015? David B. Fate is executive vice-president and head of Transamerica Aircraft Finance Group. He and his staff are specialists in financing aircraft. It is crucial for them to know the value of the assets for which they are lending money – not only the current value, but also their value in up to 20 years’ time.
Safety in railway construction
Massive railway development can be expected in Hong Kong over the next decade and beyond. Despite its small land area, Hong Kong’s present population of 6.5 million is likely to reach 10 million or more in a decade. A large proportion of them will need to travel by train.
Clean water for all
About 40 % of the world’s population live in water-polluted areas or have inadequate access to water. Rapid population growth combined with industrialisation and water-intensive lifestyles could result in global water crises. ‘There simply isn’t enough water for everyone; we have to share what’s left and make use of all technology available to improve its quality,’ says Shafqat Kakakhel, Deputy Executive Director of the UN’s Environment Programme.
Erika saw the turn of the tide
The sinking of Erika and loss of her cargo of heavy fuel resulted in an environmental catastrophe in one of the most sensitive areas of the European continent. It raised searching questions affecting those across the industry. At the core of the call for change lie the European Commission proposals for a post-Erika safety package which, if adopted, will have a far-reaching effect on all players in the maritime sector. Paal Frisvold, at the EFTA Secretariat in Brussels, shares his thoughts with Stuart Brewer, editor of DNV Forum.