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| KOMO: 55 years young and a new face! |
In 2018 we celebrate more than 55 years of KOMO. More on that later. But first of all, we carried out an intensive makeover. Our new website is proof of this. KOMO is refreshed, reloaded and ready for the future. A future in which the focal points are renewal, the stimulation of innovation and promising market initiatives. And the quality of construction comes first. Because that is what everything is about.
From then to now: quality as promised
In 1962, the Civil and Hydraulic Engineering sector and the Association of Dutch Municipalities were there at KOMO's cradle. Aim: to obtain certainty when purchasing, in terms of infrastructure and residential construction as well as non-residential construction. Today, KOMO is 100% private and voluntary. With more than 4,300 certificate and/or attestation holders in more than 40 countries, jointly accounting for around 6,300 valid KOMO certificates and attestations. KOMO means: objectively tested, according to established Assessment Guidelines and based on independent and collective quality requirements. Repeatedly checked and therefore: quality as promised.
What has changed?
KOMO innovates and takes initiatives with the aim of creating more visibility and becoming even more widely known. Obviously, first where it concerns professional clients. But it is also intended for the private ‘Construction Consumer’. Our new website is tangible proof of this. Aim: to let the widest possible market become familiar with the advantages of products, construction processes and services delivered under the KOMO certificate or attestation. To make added value visible and to stimulate familiarity. It’s in everyone’s interest. KOMO is also going to strongly support the demand for KOMO-certified and attested products and processes in other ways. This will take definitive shape in the course of 2108.
New! Innovation Assessment Directive (iBRL) and Innovation Certificate
KOMO has introduced the Innovation Assessment Directive and the corresponding KOMO Innovation Certificate (text in Dutch) for innovative products and services promoting construction and infrastructure. The KOMO Innovation Certificate offers a fast-track procedure: prospective certificate holders benefit more quickly from the advantages of KOMO certification. The competition cannot ‛watch’ either, because the procedure and documents are confidential. The Innovation Assessment Directive and Innovation Certificate both result from a frequently heard market demand.
The future belongs to quality
With all the new initiatives and possibilities, KOMO certificates and attestations are gaining in importance. At the same time, the gouvernement plans for a new system for the construction sector which honour objectively assured quality in advance. Where it concerns products, construction processes, services and people: it’s quality as promised. |
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Why important clients ask for KOMO
(and will do that even more in the future) |
The agricultural sector with its specific property requirements. The Civil and Hydraulic Engineering sector, which is committed to safety. Top architects who prioritise construction quality. And the serious do-it-yourselfer who only wants the very best. KOMO offers Important market parties certainty about quality. It has the KOMO quality mark on it? Then the quality is objectively assured. That’s why clients ask for KOMO. Because where it concerns buildings and infrastructure: with KOMO, quality is an established fact!
Time after time and objective
That’s because KOMO is a ‛real’ quality mark. It guarantees that independent experts repeatedly determine the quality of a product, construction process, service or person, in accordance with objective rules. So that is something different to an indication of product characteristics made by the provider. And also something that differs from the result of an incidental product or process test in which the criteria are often drawn up ad hoc. KOMO is not only independent and objective; it is also 100% voluntary. In other words: a conscious choice made by the market party opting for the best quality. That makes the KOMO quality mark the favourite, par excellence, in infrastructure and construction.
Quality assured to lower the costs
New building regulations will probably be introduced in the Netherlands. The bill is currently under review in the Senate. The essence is that it is obligatory to use an external quality inspector for every project that falls into a certain risk category. In addition to using an approved ‛instrument’ to demonstrate the realised quality in a construction or infrastructure project. The greater the number of certified products and processes applied, the lower the external costs for the quality inspection. Because KOMO-certified means that the quality is already assured. And that all market requirements and construction regulations (both the Dutch and the cross-border European versions) have been demonstrably met. That is why the demand for KOMO-certified products, building processes, services and people will continue to increase.
The experts speak
Dré Boidin (Director of Maintenance & Projects) and Jaap Uithof (acting Project Manager) of Housing Corporation Staedion (tekst in Dutch) in The Hague: “Our specifications already state that KOMO-certified products, if available, must be applied. And that for construction processes for which KOMO process certificates exists, builders in possession of a relevant process certificate must be engaged. Under new construction legislation, in principle the Quality Assurance Act on construction, certified products and processes are entirely preferable,” according to Uithof and Boidin.
Trust and confidence for the residential consumer
“After all, it has already been objectively established that qualitatively they are entirely in order, which means that the external quality assurer does not need to monitor quality again. This gives the client the desired quality, saves on external assurance costs while giving the residential consumer the confidence that he/she is buying a good home or, for example, is renting from a trustworthy corporation. That certified processes are becoming increasingly important is certain. After all, everyone is looking for maximum certainty,” in Staedion's opinion. |
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| Finding everything with the KOMO quality mark. Quick and easy! |
You can use the KOMO quality mark checker to quickly find all products, construction processes and services that have the KOMO quality mark. You can also search by company name, the number of the certificate or attestation, or the corresponding Assessment Directive. This way it is quick and easy for you to gain certainty about ‛quality as promised’. Because objective and successful prior testing for quality is guaranteed for everything you find through the KOMO quality mark checker.
Be sure of KOMO quality
When something is accompanied by the KOMO quality mark, it is proof that all relevant quality requirements stated in the Assessment Guidelines have been fully met. This has been repeatedly examined and determined. KOMO quality is available in raw and auxiliary materials, construction products, construction systems, processes and services in the construction and infrastructure chain. The KOMO quality mark checker helps you to choose the best of what is sold within the market. And you are sure of KOMO quality (tekst in Dutch).
75,000 audits, tests and checks per year
Each year, independent experts (the so-called certification bodies, tekst in Dutch) perform 75,000 audits, tests and checks to determine whether the KOMO quality mark can be issued and/or to establish whether all requirements are still being fully met. This means 600,000 hours of work by specialists each year. This provides confidence. The KOMO quality mark is therefore packed with certainties that offer you the ‛quality as promised’. If for any reason problems should arise with a product, construction process, service or person in possession of the KOMO quality mark, the relevant certification body will deal with your issue(s).
With KOMO, everything is fully compliant
KOMO is not a governmental organ, it is a fully (100%) independent, private foundation. Everything bearing the KOMO quality mark has been objectively tested for legal requirement compliance, including the Building law, the Soil Quality law, The European Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD), the Drinking Water law (requirements on drinking water pipelines and Legionella Bacteria prevention) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD, LCA). Moreover, the KOMO quality mark proves that specific, professional market and/or project requirements have been fully met in the construction and infrastructure sector. Find the KOMO quality you are looking for (tekst in Dutch).
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| Five good reasons to do business with KOMO certificate holders. |
Clients of KOMO certificate holders do business with leading companies. KOMO certificate holders invest in sustainable quality. Demonstrably and in black and white. Year after year! Through this they supply products, construction processes and services that are clearly distinguishable from those without KOMO certification. Already a strong argument in itself. Another four reasons for any client to undertake business with KOMO certificate holders.
2) More efficient and therefore more economical to prescribe
After the design, specification experts work out the technical specifications of a structure. Preferably with Open Specification Format (OSF) provided by specification software houses including KUBUS, DUNCAN, Zeeboer and De Twee Snoeken. The free KOMO specification service is included in the OSF: the correct, certified answer for every construction issue. Allowing the specifications to be created much faster.
3) Lower transaction costs and saving time
When products for residential, non-residential construction and Civil and Hydraulic Engineering are not accompanied by KOMO certification, it means the quality has not been objectively determined and is therefore unknown. Before these products can be applied they have to be subjected to laboratory testing. That results in: additional costs and delays. Cheap often turns out to be expensive further on down the road when things fail. If it bears the KOMO quality mark, the product(s) can be used immediately: quality is assured.
4) Placed in a legal framework, demonstrable quality.
Those who use KOMO-quality raw materials, products and construction processes can rest-assured that these comply with national legislation and the international laws and regulations applicable in the Netherlands for the construction and the infrastructure sector. Have other raw materials, products and construction processes been used? If they have, then in the event of problems there is evidence available regarding the work delivered.
5) KOMO process certificate? Guaranteed certified craftsmanship
Specialised builders in residential, non-residential, civil and hydraulic engineering, with one or more KOMO quality marks for certain processes of realisation, know exactly what they are doing. Construction elements placed by them are skilfully processed. And certification means that the construction work they perform is guaranteed to be true craftsmanship. Moreover, the final result is also unselective checked by an independent expert.
Added value based on both the demand side and the supply side characteristics
For the demand side of the market the KOMO quality mark means: certainty about quality.
For the supply side of the market the KOMO quality mark means: distinctiveness and a preferential market position when compared to products, the realisation of processes, and to people without a KOMO quality mark, and whose quality has not been objectively established.
Read the blog on Construction Quality (tekst in Dutch) |
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