Introduction

The intention of ISO 14001:2004 is to provide a framework for a holistic, strategic

approach to the organization's environmental policy, plans and actions. ISO 14001:2004
does not specify levels of environmental performance. If it specified levels of
environmental performance, they would have to be specific to each business activity and
this would require a specific EMS standard for each business.ISO has many other
standards dealing with specific environmental issues. ISO 14001:2004 gives the generic
requirements for an environmental management system.

This has the effect of establishing a common reference for communicating about
environmental management issues between Munchee Biscuits and their customers,
regulators, the public and other stakeholders.

However, a commitment to compliance with applicable environmental legislation and

regulations is required, along with a commitment to continual improvement – for which
the EMS provides the framework for the Munchee Biscuits.

Quality and innovation are one of MUNCHEE Biscuit’s greatest strengths and is
supported by a team of Food Technologists within the group.

The quality process begins from the raw and packing material, and Munchee Biscuits
has a well established supplier base that is constantly being evaluated and audited. The
company sources only the best quality raw and packing material. The factories follow the
group quality assurance procedures and some companies had accredited with SLS, ISO
9000:2000, ISO 14,000 and HACCAP.

The implementation of ISO14000 in 2002 has created a major reward for their
manufacturing system and shows that they concern the environment as well.

Introduction for the Munchee Biscuits Limited

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CBL Group is a Sri Lankan conglomerate specializing in the food industry. The Group
manufactures a wide range under their flagship brands.

Munchee … Biscuits & Wafers

Tiara … Cakes and Swiss Rolls
Ritzbury … Chocolates & Specialty Chocolates
Cecil … Natural Fruit Juices in ready to drink packs, Dehydrated Fruits
Lanka Soy … Flavoured Soya Meat Products.
Plenty Foods … Energy Foods and Herbal Foods
Canneries … RTD & RME

Most of the products today enjoy the coveted position of being market leader in their
respective category in Sri Lanka.

Ceylon Biscuits was founded in 1968 to manufacture high-protein biscuits to supplement

mid-day meals for school children under a joint programme of Care Organization, USA,
and the Sri Lankan Government. The success story was the company’s dedication to high
quality standards, constant innovation of the product line, aggressive marketing and high
focus on research and development.

CBL markets its prime product – biscuits, under the brand name Munchee. Dominate
market leader, of the biscuit industry in Sri Lanka, with a market share in excess of 50%.
Munchee is an award winning food brand with many coveted awards to its credit,
including the National Quality Award 2005, Product Brand of the Year for four
consecutive years, Brand of the Year for two consecutive years and National Award for
Export Excellence. Munchee products are backed by many local and international quality
and standard certifications such as SLS 251 product.

• Certification, ISO 9001:2000, Quality Management System

• Certification, ISO 14,001:2004 Environmental Management System
• Certification and HACCP Food Safety Management Certification.

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Today the Group has expanded its manufacturing to India and enjoys an international
reach with distribution channels in over 32 countries; spread over virtually every
continent. The company manufactures over 70,000 mt. of biscuits annually catering to
local and overseas markets. The factory is proud of its 10 high capacity plants, the latest
installed in 2007.

AIM

“Expanding without boundaries - Management driven with a conscientiousness

approach”

Values

“A better tomorrow for future generations”

• Motivated by a passion for perfection.

• Tradition, innovation and creativity all our most valuable assets.
• Offering our customers products that contribute to health, vitality, happiness and
satisfaction. Corporate Social Responsibility a constituent in the fabric of our
Company.
• Our greatest strength is our employees; their development within the company and
cementing the oneness of the “Munchee Family” values and ambitions.
• The environment is our concern and its active protection an essential duty.

The quality process begins from the raw and packing material,
and Munchee Biscuits has a well established supplier base that is
constantly being evaluated and audited. The company sources
only the best quality raw and packing material. The factories
follow the group quality assurance procedures and some companies had accredited with
SLS, ISO 9000:2000, ISO 14,000 and HACCAP. The R&D division is constantly adding
new products to the already diversified range.

What is ISO 14000 Series?

3
In the globalization world, the environmental issues seem to be one of the most important
topics. The pollution created in any manner such as air emission, effluent, land
contamination, etc., have several impacts to people throughout the world. Upon this
pressure, the International Organization for Standardization has developed the
environmental management standards which is known as the “ISO 14000 Series”

ISO 14000 is a group of standards covering the following areas:

• Environmental Management Systems/EMS (14001,14002, 14004)

• Environmental Auditing/EA (14010, 14011, 14012)
• Evaluation of Environmental Performance/EEP (14031)
• Environmental Labeling/EL (14020, 14021, 14022, 14023, 14024, 14025)
• Life-Cycle Assessment/LCA (14040, 14041,14042, 14043)

ISO 14001 is the only standard intended for registration by third parties. All the others are
for guidance. ISO 14001 is a management standard, it is not a performance or product
standard. The underlying purpose of ISO 14001 is that companies will improve their
environmental performance by implementing ISO 14001, but there are no standards for
performance or the level of improvement. It is a process for managing company activities
that impact the environment.

An EMS meeting the requirements of ISO 14001:2004 is a management tool enabling

an organization of any size or type to:

• Identify and control the environmental impact of its activities, products or services,
and to
• Improve its environmental performance continually, and to
• Implement a systematic approach to setting environmental objectives and targets,
to achieving these and to demonstrating that they have been achieved.

Some unique and important characteristics of ISO 14001 are:

4
It is comprehensive: all members of the Organization participate in environmental
protection, the environmental management system considers all stakeholders, and there
are processes to identify all environmental impacts.

It is proactive: it focuses on forward thinking and action instead of reacting to command

and control policies.

It is a systems approach: it stresses improving environmental protection by using a single

environmental management system across all functions of the Organization.

ISO 14001:2004 is a tool that can be used to meet internal objectives:

 provide assurance to management that it is in control of the organizational

 processes and activities having an impact on the environment
 Assure employees that they are working for an environmentally responsible
organization.

ISO 14001:2004 can also be used to meet external objectives:

 provide assurance on environmental issues to external stakeholders – such as

customers, the community and regulatory agencies
 comply with environmental regulations
 support the organization's claims and communication about its own
environmental policies, plans and actions
 Provides a framework for demonstrating conformity via suppliers' declarations
of conformity, assessment of conformity by an external stakeholder - such as a
business client - and for certification of conformity by an independent
certification body.

Forces influence the practice of ISO 14000

1. Product quality image

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Although they are acquiring a sufficient, large market shares in the industry, will be an
added advantage to improve their brand image. It is very much important to have such
certification to this type of manufacturing company.

2. As a basic requirement for exporting the product - Munchee biscuit.

Munchee is a reputed brand which exports to about 40 foreign countries. It is for their
best quality biscuit products. It is a basic requirement to have international level quality
certifications to export food items for foreign countries. Most of the European, American
and Asian countries are much aware about international certifications like ISO 14000
standard and they more think about the environment as they are more industrialized
countries.

3. Rivalry among the biscuit manufacturers in the Local market.

There is a huge competition among the companies. Specially, each and every company
should craft powerful strategies to win the market. Munchee is having a higher
competition from Maliban, Luckyland, Diana, Raigam, Uswatta, Harischandra and
Horlicks biscuit companies. Most of the companies try to do innovations and achieve
quality awards target to be the pioneer in the industry. Therefore, ISO 14000, HACCP,
ISO 9000 have become partial requirement to survive in the market. On the other hand
consumers are more knowledgeable. They seek best quality and value in their purchasing
decisions.

4. Prevailing business trend

With the effect which comes from society, most of manufacturing companies pay their
attention to do their production and production processes in an environmental friendly
manner. Therefore, Munchee also follows same practices. As the result of that they have
decided to obtain this standard.

5. Need for the continuous improvement

6
They have already achieved HACCP and ISO 9000 and SLAS. Then, they need to get
the international certification for environmental systems through developing a specific
environmental management system, they were required to minimize every other
environmental issues including wastage, sound pollution and polluted water.

6. Alignment with the environmental policy (mission and policy).

The organization’s policy statement should be based on its mission and values. The
Munchee Company has a value within their culture to protect the environment without
the pollution. It leads them to get the certification.

7. Identification of benchmark opportunities

When the other leading businesses implementing the environment management system
and gain competitive advantage in their field. The Munchee also wants to be that
position. So they identify ISO 14000 as benchmark opportunity to be success in the
business manufacturing industry.

8. Legal and other requirements

The standard requires the Munchee to have a procedure to identify and have access to all
legal and other requirements to which it subscribes. In general, legal environment
requirements are those attributed to government legislative and regulatory action. Other
requirements usually include industry codes practice, contracts, agreement with public
authorities and non regulatory guidelines. Even if some of these requirements are
voluntary, the Munchee is accountable to those with which it agrees to comply.

Steps to be followed to obtain the ISO

14000 certification

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 Environmental management system model

Munchee is the brand name for the biscuits those are produced by the manufacturing
plant under the Ceylon biscuits limited, founded in 1968. In 1983 the company expanded
its production capacity to meet the increasing demand in the domestic market. The
manufacturing plant is situated in P.O box 03, High Level Road, Makumbura,
Pannipitiya, which produces an average of 80 metric tons of biscuits per day for local and
export market.

The Munchee brand is proud of being the first biscuit manufacturer in the country to
receive the Sri Lanka standards (SLS) and ISO 9002 certificate from the Sri Lanka
standard institute. The Munchee brand intended to receive the ISO (International
Standards organization) 14000 (Environmental System) in 2002. They were faced by
various Internal and External factors in order to get the certification.

ISO 14000 registration requirements covered two areas to be considered by the

organization.

 Organization perspective
 Product perspective

All the impact cannot be stopped but the impact can be reduce through taking corrective
measures. Both organizational environment and production procedure including the plant
product should be well screened to find out the environment issues.

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Registration requirement and consultancy

SLIS provided relevant information and consultancies to get the certification. ISO14000
is received when all the audits confirm the better functioning of the environment system.
Internal environment audits and external audits should be done to identify the level of
environmental issue.

Develop an Environment policy- In order to get the certificate from the international
organization, lots of hard works to be done. They should perform as a team to develop a
better environment policy to be considered by the whole process of developing the
Environmental management System. It is not a simple task to be performed.

Quality assurance division was the main responsible people and cross functional team
was created, including director board and CEO of the company to perform the task.
Quality assurance department consist of general manager for Quality assurance, four
Quality assurance Executives, three for product quality and one for look after the ISO
SLIS certification. (SLIS is the intermediary party to get such type of international
certification)

Analysis of the Organizational Environment -It is required first to do an analysis relevant

to the environmental impacts in both perspectives for define the environment of Munchee
biscuits plant. Although the Munchee plant engaging the world best practices and
activities, there were a few issues to be considered. Quality Assurance division people
have done the environmental analysis for organization according to the instructions of the
SLSI. The appointed cross functional teams (consist of members in all departments) also
assisted in the process.

Planning stage – They identified all the environment issues and evaluate the causes for
them. Then it was required to generate possible solution with the guidance of CEO and
director board.

Objectives have been developed in order to solve above identified issues. Each and every
objective should have a clear plan to be implemented. Here, the company required an

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environment management system a whole which support to resolve all the issues that
have been identified and the system has been developed to integrate all the divisions and
sections to achieve set objectives.

Developing an environment management is not a simple task to be completed over a

night. It requires more effort, time and intelligent people who have the ability to crafting
strategies for the success of the organization. The team members enabled to generate a
new unique environment management system for “Munchee” it is one of their secret of
their success.

Budgeting, other resources planning and training plans were prepared in accordance with
first objective. (There is a sequential order to achieve the objectives. when the 1 st one
achieved, plans should be prepared to achieve second objective etc.)

E.g. their current plans are implemented in order to minimize the biscuit wastage when
biscuits produce in the process, high level of wastage can be occurred. Heats of the
Owens, or small breakdowns in cutting machines, problems with molds and cutters cause
to this wastage. Reduce the grinding waste was the objective for last year. The company
implemented a new plan to collect all the defects and grind them to produce a by-product.
But the dusts of the grinding machines again become a problem. Now they use machine
covers to avoid the impact. They are able to reduce the wastage and their next
consideration is on heat of Owens and noise.

Implementation stage – A whole plan for achieving one strategy is to fulfill one
objective at once whether the plan; the way they implement it will be the major fact for
success.

Employee involvement is essential in implementation of plans. All the organizational

divisions were educated / informed by the Quality Assurance cross functional team
members were added advantage for them in this activity.

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All required instructions that have to be performed by each division were sent for the
simplification of their role in the success of whole plan. All divisions got copies of
relevant documents.

E.g. Export division got the documents which elaborate things only that they have to do,
(not all the plan) but the divisional members know the important basics of the system and
procedure.

Training facilities were provided to all shop floor employees and they have been educated
about the new requirements and also the way they would perform. No big problems were
there, because protecting environment is a value of this company.

Checking stage

Internal audit schedules are there which should be done by an appointed team. All the
findings should be revealed to the top management and NCR (Non Confirming
Report)should raise to the personnel or divisions where non conformance has been
identified by the team .if the organization is unable to raise NCR or does the internal
Audit, SLIS will take actions and withdraw the certification from the company.

The SLIS does Audit. They visit the company premises and screen all to find whether
corrective actions have been taken by company to avoid impacts or whether NCR raises
to the requires place. If the findings of the internal audit show a gap two possible
alternative actions can be undertaken;

• Corrective actions – there some written corrective actions in the environment

system manual
• Raise a non conformance report against the individual or relevant department.

E.g. Liquids are using in the production and it has become a problem to the farmers in the
area. The company established an affluent treatment plant to control the “BOD” and
“COD” levels of liquids and the final output of this refinery process is pure water.

BOD
level
11
 Liquids Effluent Fish
Plant tank

COD
level

To emphasize the controlling of BOD and COD levels, they use the refining liquids for a
fish tank and the pipe line from treatment plant field with water (H 2o). If any
modification required a system is there to continue it. It is called revision control system

Challenges Confronted by Munchee in obtaining

certification

When it comes to food industry it is a necessary to having a high quality and standardized
production process. Therefore, basically they were not faced lots of challengers when
implementing ISO14000. But they had to face following difficulties.

1. Difficulty in zeroing the environmental impact

That is made to the external environment by the company. Therefore, an accepted level is
there to compromise to the standard. Different BOD and COD levels have been
introduced by the international organization for standards. The Munchee Company
needed to satisfy those requirements it was a major challenge to decide a strategy for this.

2. High competition higher the cost

It is required to take care of wrappers and labels. Eco friendly wrappers are the suitable
solution to obtain product quality under ISO 14000. But, if this organization tries to

12
introduce Eco friendly wrappers, it will increase the cost per unit and may become barrier
to win the market.

How they overcome the challenges?

Since, it is very difficult to zero the negative impacts to the environment; Munchee
Company identifies each and every small environmental impact to resolve.

1. There was a problem with the wheat flour unloading and putting in to the mixtures.
Both activities generated dust that can be harmful to everyone and it is a waste to
the company. The EMS suggestions were directed to solve the problem by using
Cylose (huge cylinders) to pump flour directly to the machine from the container.
2. Then, they build the sound proof rooms to absorb the noise of the heavy machines.
Finally, the Company enables to avoid the sound pollution that was encountered by
the houses.
3. The liquid they use in the production process earlier they pump to the nearest paddy
field. Then, farmers complaints against it and as result they introduce liquid refinery
system to the company.
4. The biscuit wrappers are very big threat to the environment. They know that it is a
threat to the environment, but if they take any action regarding that, that will cause
to increase their product price and cannot compete with competitors. Solutions for
this problem are make notice on the biscuit packets to recycle it or put them on the
dustbin and try to minimize wrapper usage in the production process (packaging).

The Barriers for practicing ISO 14000 in Munchee.

According to the Munchee Biscuits Company, ISO 14000 will prove to be no less
expensive. Additional costs occur due to the administrative costs, increased variable and
fixed operating costs. A possible non-tangible cost is the negative publicity that could

13
occur if undesirable or hazardous situations are brought to light during the certification
attempt.

The Munchee Biscuits that have sought ISO 9000 certification have the extensive
documentation introduces more bureaucracy into a company. Some say that ISO 14000
will build on top of ISO 9000 registration, but others point out that the ISO 14000
documentation requirements will only compound the already burdensome task and that
the extra administrative costs will reduce profit margin.

ISO 14000 requires not only additional personnel to take care of the documentation, but
requires knowledgeable personnel with expertise in the technical processes of Munchee
Biscuits and the effect they have on the environment.

Investment in fixed capital rose, if a company must implement pollution reduction

equipment. Other costs may rise if more environmentally friendly materials and processes
lead to higher production costs. If a company passes the increase on to customers, it
could result in reducing its share of the market if competitors do not do the same.
According to the Munchee biscuits, they required to moderate their wrappers as Eco
friendly. But they said that they did not do that because it will generate additional cost
and higher the production cost so they will not be able to compete with their competitors.

ISO 14000 standard, pay high attention on industry and factory environment but it
doesn’t pay attention to higher the product quality so it generates additional cost to the
organization.

Implicit behind ISO 14000 and ISO 9000 is the assumption that a quality process will
lead to quality products and a clean environment. However, both the ISO 9000 and the
ISO 14000 standards focus on the management processes behind the product. There is no
guarantee that a quality process will yield a quality product or a better environment.
Additionally, despite the claims that these standards will help to reduce costs, there is no
guarantee that certification in either or both will result in increased profits for a company.

14
Benefits of ISO 14000 for Munchee Biscuits

Environmental Management Systems (EMS) is the foundation of the ISO 14000 group of
international environmental management standards. An EMS can be registered as
meeting the ISO 14001 EMS standard.

Since the ISO 14001 EMS includes everyone in the Organization and all aspects of the
Organization that affect the environment, it can improve an organization's environmental
performance in many ways.

This improved performance comes at a cost to the Organization, a cost that can be
recovered by aggressively seeking benefits.

 It is an essential component/competitive requirement for international business

operations.

There is a huge competition in the global market and most of the foreign countries are
much aware about the quality of the products that are to be imported to their country.
Quality certificates are required for exporting food items for foreign countries.

Customers are also much more aware about the quality and they accept the quality
through the certifications that a certain company has taken. They always think about the
organizational contribution for the environment protection and all. Some of the European
countries have imposed regulations on importation of food items. A market opportunity
of those kinds of countries can be acquired easily with these kinds of certifications.

 It will give a good insight for the environment caring activities of the
organization to the society as a whole.

ISO 14000 series is deal with the Managing Environment through a system. The selected
company Munchee has created a value in their culture. Protecting and caring the
Environment is one of a major value to be accepted by the organizational members. The

15
achievement of the certification emphasizes the attainment of that value of the
organization. They enhance the value through practicing it actually.

 An acquisition of a recent business trend

The social acceptance has been increased for the company, because of this environmental
consideration. And also it is becoming a trend in the business world. Most of the
organizations are looking for ways to improve their environment focused practices.

 Create good working environment for all employees.

The certification requires a generation of a unique EMS (environment Management

system) for whole organization to be practiced. The environmental practices provide a
better working environment for all employees. A better example for the situational
change can be explained below.

There was a problem with the wheat flour unloading and putting in to the mixtures. Both
activities generated dust that can be harmful to everyone. The EMS suggestions were
directed to solve the problem by using Cylose (huge cylinders) to pump flour directly to
the machine from the container

A company had a problem with the noise of its grinders and mixtures. With the
implementation of the EM system, they were able to build rooms which can absorb the
sound and lesser the impact of sound to employees and community.

 A better way to minimize non-value adding activities and get the maximum
usage of available resources.

ISO 14000 recommends a system which should be implemented in order to identify and
resolve problems within the production process. It is not only for organization process but
also for the whole company. Non- value adding activities are identified through internal
audits and they were able to minimize them.

16
Uploading of the input was a non- value adding activity for them. The company
purchased wheat flour from PRIMA Company and containers are used to transport the
bags from PRIMA to Munchee warehouse. They directly pump the flour from container
to the mixture rather uploading and keep inventory for those.

Wastage of biscuits in the production floor due to heat of the Owen and machine
problems was another issue for them for along time.

Recently, they use a grinder to grind those stuff and defects are selling for animal feed
which can recover the production cost of the products.

Non on biscuits, raw material wastage can be identified in the company. It is because of
the EMS of the organization. All the set goals are based on environment policy.

 Implementing ISO 14001 can provide a basis for implementing the other standards of
the ISO 14000 series in the Munchee Biscuits Company. This incremental approach
can reduce overall costs to implement ISO 14000 because of lessons learned in each
phase by the employees.
 The quantity of materials and energy required for manufacturing biscuits may be
reduced, thereby reducing the cost of the product, material handling costs, and waste
disposal costs.
 An EMS of Munchee Biscuits can help reduce incidents of pollution and the
associated expense of recovery.
 Employee health and safety of the Munchee Biscuits can be improved, thereby
improving productivity, decreasing sick days, and reducing insurable risk.
 The EMS standards can define "best practices" of biscuit manufacturing and create a
foundation for the next level of improvement.
 An EMS of the Munchee Biscuits integrated with all other business systems improves
management's ability to understand what is going on in their organization, determine
the effect on the company, and provide leadership.

17
 An EMS can identify instances of redundancy in day-to-day efforts for regulatory
compliance. These can be eliminated, thus making the Munchee biscuits more
efficient.
 ISO 14000 provides feedback on the operations of the Munchee Biscuits that can be
used for daily action and to determine the appropriateness of pollution prevention
strategies.
 As ISO 14000 is accepted internationally, MUNCHEE Biscuits will need to meet
only one standard, thus simplifying environmental management.

Analysis of the survey results

Background of the Survey

Munchee Biscuits is a well reputed brand in the biscuit manufacturing industry in Sri
Lanka and over 48 countries in the world. The company operates as a SBU under CBL
Company. They have awarded SLS certifications, HACCP and many other quality
certifications. The main intention of this study is to define ISO 14000, Environment
Management System and EMS implementation activities relevant to the Munchee
organizational Context.

It was decided to do a field survey within the organization for more information. The
survey was required to cover specially the production floor employees as they are the
people who practice the plans of Environment Management System. But the
organizational privacy policy does not allow an external party to interview their
employees. Therefore, we had to do the survey in random sampling method.

Objectives

• To identify ISO 14000 practices of the organization.

• To renew employee’s knowledge an attitudes regarding ISO 14000 practices.

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 • To identify the benefits and costs of Environment Management System of the
organization in employee’s view point.
• To get an idea about the employees Management involvement in the concept.

Methodology

Random Sampling Method was used to select the sample. The survey was conducted to
get the attitude of employees about this ISO 14000 certification and to get an idea about
employees and Management involvement in the implementation of Environmental
Management System of “Munchee”. Qualitative data has been gathered.

Sampling Method

It was intended to select a sample from the shop floor employees for achieving above
objectives. But the organizational rules and regulation became a major obstacle for
sampling procedure. It was difficult to select the sample as we required. However random
sampling method was used to select a person from each division. It is somewhat similar
to cross functional sample.

Limitations

• Strict company ground rules do not permit to meet any shop floor employee and
get their direct responses.
• Sample contains 12 numbers only. We provided 20 questioners to develop a better
sample of the success of the study. But it was allowed for 12 questionnaires by the
organization.
• The questionnaire was prepared by having general idea about ISO 14000. After it
was identified that the practical scenario is difference than the theories and
information. But time did not permit to revise the questionnaire to fit
organizational EMS information.

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Department Service Period Knowledge Trained Whether there was Whether
(years) About The a plan to perform company
Basics Or continue the
Yes No
process
Not
1. Quality Control 20 years    
2. Quality Assurance 11/2 years   
3. Quality Assurance --   
4. Quality Assurance 7 months   
5. Quality Control 1 year  -- 
6. Quality Assurance 15 years --   
7. R&D 9 years    
8. Supplying 9 years    
9. R&D --  -- --
10. Supplying --    
11. Exports 9 years    
12. Production 8 years  --  -- 

Analysis

Question number 3-2, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 13 are open ended questions. The findings of the
survey include the answers for those open ended questions too.

Findings

 The responses of employees, for first question implies that they know what is
meant by ISO 14000.Ecept one who, is new comer to the company other know
what the basic concept behind ISO14000 is.

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 Seven people out of 12 have been worked for more than 8 years. They were there
when the Environment Management System implemented. But the quality
assurance division people were the main responsible people in the implementation
stage of Environment Management System in Munchee.
 All the employees were trained for practicing the procedure. But every
department was trained only to fulfill their responsibility in order to maintain and
manage the EMS. Each and every division do not have the EMS manual with
them other than quality assurance division, other divisions have been given the
required and related areas only.
 According to the employees’ responses, the organization had a good plan and they
created a procedure in order to get the certificate.
 And also Munchee is enabling in continuing the environment favorable practices
with the current operation.
 It was revealed that they (Munchee) conduct internal audits and do renewals to
renew certification from one year to another.
 Employees respond that the management is highly involving in the
implementation and maintains of EMS.
 Employees suggest that they do not feel any problem with EM system because it
is one of value in the organization culture. When newcomer arrives, he/she should
adapt to the culture.
 Employees believe that there are positive changes in their organizational
environment with the ISO 14000 practices.

o Minimization of wrapper wastage

o Minimize the water pollution and make a use of every water drop

 Advantages are
o Increscent of export orders
o Reduce the production cost due to less wrapper waste
o Motivate natural environment with fresh air

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 o Reduce accident rates
o Reduce wastage of production
o Improvement of good image

When implementing the procedure they have to advice suppliers and external parties
about this system. It incurred cost and time.

Conclusion of the survey results

The purpose of this questionnaire was to identify the knowledge of employees about ISO
14000 and the EMS implementation within the CBL. We provided these 20
questionnaires to the export executive and the data collected him through him. But we get
only 12 questionnaire feedback regarding ISO 14000. The filling data of questionnaire
was January 30th 2009 to February 02nd 2009. Data collected departments are,

 Quality assurance department

 Quality control department
 Supply department
 Research and development department
 Export department
 Production department

We have identified all the employees have the basic knowledge regarding the ISO 14000
though this survey.

They obtain the ISO 14000 certificate in 2001, and 07 employees out of 12 have been
working at that time. Balance 05 has not worked there. Even though they were not at that
time, they have gathered the basic idea of ISO 14000. Because of skillful management
they have to persuade that to all employees.

There were lots of methods to acknowledge the employees. Some of them are seminars,
workshops. Sometimes they have launched workshops weekly or monthly or yearly. Most
probably they give within the orientation period. Some people have obtained an enough

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training to engage in EMS and some of them are not provided the relevant information
regarding them.

The all of the responded employees believe that they act as they planed and maintain
standard procedures throughout the period. According to this survey there are no any
considerable difficulties regarding implementation of ISO 14000 standard.

All the respondents believe that they were able to create eco-friendly environment within
the Makmbura premises and that helps to reduce their cost and maintain the activities in a
standard way.

Due to the introduction of EMS of Munchee helps to increase their profit though by
taking new order from foreign countries.

Management of the company gives their fullest contribution to maintain to maintain the
ISO 14000 standard within the Munchee Company.

Finally we identified that, according to sample all the employee have clear idea,
regarding ISO 14000 standard. The management of the company has paid their full
attention regarding this EMS.

Interpretation of results

Question 1

The question required to get the idea from the employees

whether they are aware about the ISO 14000 concepts or
not.

92% of the sample knows at least what is implied by ISO

14000. 08% does not answer for the question.

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Question 2

50% of the sample was employed in the organization when

they received the certification.

42% of them were not employed at that time and 8% of

them were not answered.

Question 3 (I)

Whether organization provide a training to practice ISO,

• 58% of sample received the training to

practice the procedure.
• 8% said they did not received training
• 8% did not know about it
• 26% did not answer

Question 3 ( ii )

Whether the training is sufficient to perform it

• 8% said it is highly related and sufficient,

• 42% said it is ( average ) sufficient,
• 50% did not answer.

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Question 4

Whether the organization had a plan to implement and

whether they were working for certain procedure.

100% for accepting that there was and functioned

according to a certain procedures to get the certification.

Question 5

Whether the organization is continuing the procedure or

not.

92% agreed that the organization is continuing it. 8% did

not answer.

Question 7

Whether there is a change in the natural environment related

to the organization.

92% accepted that they observed a positive change. 8% did

not answer.

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Question 10

Whether it is advantage to the organization.

83% agreed and 17% did not answer.

Question 12

Whether employees are committed by themselves to

maintain the procedure.

92% said that they are highly committed to do it. 8% said

they will be committed.

Conclusion

Munchee is an award winning food brand with many coveted awards to its credit,
including the National Quality Award 2005, Product Brand of the Year for four
consecutive years, Brand of the Year for two consecutive years and National Award for
Export Excellence.

Forces influence the practice of ISO 14000 are Product quality image, As a basic
requirement for exporting the product - Munchee biscuit, Rivalry among the biscuit
manufacturers in the Local market, Prevailing business trend, need for the continuous
improvement, alignment with the environmental policy (mission and policy),
identification of benchmark opportunities and Legal and other requirements. In obtaining

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ISO 14000 certificate there is a process to implement. They are, Develop an Environment
policy, Planning stage, Implementation stage and checking stage.

They have barriers in obtaining this ISO 14000 certification like difficulty in zeroing the
environmental impact and higher cost. To overcome those barriers they implement
several methods like acknowledge the environmental friendly methods and build sound
proof buildings and liquid management system. Due to practicing this ISO 14000
standard they encounter some benefits like essential component/competitive requirement
for international business operations, give a good insight for the environment caring
activities of the organization to the society as a whole, Create good working environment
for all employees and minimize non-value adding activities and get the maximum usage
of available resources.

Then we analyze the employees attitudes through giving them a questionnaire and final
results of the survey is that, according to sample all the employee have clear idea,
regarding ISO 14000 standard. The management of the company has paid their full
attention regarding this EMS. Also, we finalize the results of the survey by using pie
charts. The each and every question they answered illustrate by percentage to show their
attitude towards ISO 14000.

References

 Besterfield H.D, Besterfield M.C, et.al, (2004), Total Quality Management, 1st
Edition, Pearson Education Publication.
 Ahuja, K.K. (1990), Organizational Behaviour, 1st Edition, Kalyani Publishers, New
Delhi, India.
 Robbins S.P, (2001), Organizational Behaviour, 9th Edition, Prentice-Hall Publishers,
New Delhi, India
 Company hand book

Mr. P. Bandara - Export Executive, export department

Ms.Shashini Jayasekara , Quality Assurance Executive

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Quality Assurance Department, Munchee

T.P Number 011-2749749 (141)

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