HALYARD (Marine and Industrial) Ltd, which has a base in Whaddon and designs and manufactures marine exhaust systems, has achieved one of the world's highest standards in business management in double quick time.

The company, which planned to have its ISO9001:2000 programme completed by December, has already achieved it in less than six months from beginning the process.

One requirement was the ability to measure customer satisfaction levels and one of the reasons why the company achieved the standard so quickly was that it already had in place a comprehensive internal customer satisfaction process.

Halyard, which employs 80 people, contacts random customers each month to survey matters such as first impressions, information quality, punctuality and value for money.

Managing director James Grazebrook said: "We know that customer satisfaction is the most important aspect of the business.

"By having these procedures in place we can react quickly to any changes in our customers' perception of the way we treat them."