Orion received the ‘Recognised for Excellence’ award granted by Excellence Finland (Laatukeskus), a Finnish central organization for promoting quality and a member of the European EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management). The recognition was presented by the President of the Republic of Finland Tarja Halonen to Orion's President and CEO Timo Lappalainen at the quality awards ceremony in Helsinki on 10 November 2011, the World Quality Day.

The assessment criteria for granting the recognition for quality are those based on the EFQM Excellence Award. Operational quality is assessed from the aspects of leadership, strategy, people, partnerships, processes and products and services, using a variety of performance indicators.  The awarded companies represent excellent performance meeting the criteria of the EFQM Excellence Model.

Timo Lappalainen regards the recognition as a great acknowledgement of Orion having built in quality into all activities. He underlines Orion’s commitment to systematic improvement of quality. Some quality development projects are quite extensive and conducted in collaboration with Orion’s business partners.

Mr. Lappalainen characterises quality: “All of us are re-producers of quality every day. We should also remember that the user of our products can be someone close to us or even ourselves.”

He stresses that everyday quality requires hard work: “Every healthcare company understands that quality is the provision for the licence to operate. Quality and safety are our values as fundamental elements in our products from the earliest research stages to the ultimate end of their life-cycle.”

Operational quality is the differentiating factor

 “Taking part in the quality assessment is a good way to measure our operations. We aim to show constant improvement as a company and we want our customers to experience this too,” says Harri Ikäläinen, VP of Orion’s quality assurance. He is accorded by Riitta Nevalainen, Head of Quality Development, who reminds that all activities must support goals. For companies with more or less similar strategies, it is the operational quality that makes the difference and leads to success.

Both quality experts also admit that the quality assessment revealed issues needing further improvement. “We are humble about our deficiencies. For various reasons, the availability of some of our medicines has not always been 100%, but the customers must always get the Orion medicine that is written on their prescription. We work very hard to ensure this,” Harri Ikäläinen promises.

Website of Excellence Finland (Laatukeskus): www.laatukeskus.fi
Website of EFQM: www.efqm.org

Orion's President and CEO Timo Lappalainen and the President of the
Republic of Finland, Tarja Halonen, at the quality awards ceremony
on 10 November 2011.

Picture: Excellence Finland