Staff magazine 3/2012

On the safe side: priority for industrial safety

Fair to all sides: out on the job with the damage assessor

No longer a side issue: increasing interest in climate protection

On the side of the environment: electro-mobility has arrived

2 internord 3/2012

What has been achieved, what is still to come

TÜV NORD Group has achieved the highest level of revenue in its corporate history, at over €1 billion.

The Group benefited from the revival of the world economy in 2011. Its core business segments relating to the in-spection of power stations, industrial plant and materials have continued to grow. Booming sectors such as the automotive industry have ex-erted a positive influence on business performance.TÜV NORD Group is one of the market leaders in the li-censing and inspection of wind turbines; it has also been able to defend its lead-ing position in the inspection of biogas plant.

The Group occupies a strong position in the future-driven en-ergy sector; this applies to the conversion, storage and trans-portation of energy and also to the expansion of transmission facilities and smart grids. By certifying energy management systems, TÜV NORD Group is providing powerful support to efforts to enhance efficiency in the utilisation of resources.

With the opening of its eSTA-TION solar charging station in Hanover TÜV NORD Group has signalised its commitment to electromobility. Environmen-tally friendly mobility, powered by electricity from renewable sources of energy, is becoming a reality.

The acquisition of Alter Tech-nology Group has led to the establishment of a new Aero-space business unit. This company is among the world market leaders in the selec-tion, procurement, certifica-tion and modification of high-reliability electronic compo-nents for satellites.

The Group has invested in this new and innovative business unit, as well as in other innovation and develop-ment and the expansion of a vari ety of laboratories in the areas of food, mobility, engineering and exploration techniques. Altogether, the company undertook capital expenditure amounting to €44 million in 2011.

Financial statements presented

The one billion barrier broken – TÜV NORD achieves highest revenue everTÜV NORD Group’s staff suc-ceeded in generating a record level of revenue in 2011: for the first time in its history, the Group broke through the €1 billion barrier. A year-on-year increase of 11.1% pushed rev-enue up to €1.025 billion (2010: €922.6 million). This represents a leap of some 40% within the past five years.

EBIT – operating profit – grew by 18.3% to €43.4 million in 2011 (2010: €36.7 million). The return on revenue, meas-ured in terms of EBIT, rose to 4.2% from 4.0% in 2010.

Never before has the Group had such a large workforce as in 2011: the average number

of persons employed, ex-pressed as full-time equiva-lents, was 9,982 (2010: 9,139), a year-on-year in-crease of 9.2%. The head-count of employees amounted to 14,232.

Presenting the consolidated fi-nancial statements at a press conference in Hanover on 8 June, the Chairman of the Board of Management and CEO Dr Guido Rettig an-nounced that the company was focusing on further boost-ing its international business in particular. “We want to sub-stantially enhance our position in global markets,” he said. “As a technical service provid-er, we see great potential par-ticularly in the emerging econ-omies of Asia and South America.”

In 2011, 21.9% of Group reve-nue was generated abroad; one in five employees works outside Germany.

Boost from the new Aerospace business unitThe establishment of the new Aerospace business unit gave a powerful boost to TÜV NORD Group in 2011. Alter Technology TÜV NORD (ATN) procures and tests products for the aerospace industry such as electronic compo-nents for satellites. ATN, with locations in Madrid, Seville, Toulouse and Rome, is for ex-ample involved in the current NASA mission with the Mars rover Curiosity, which is due to reach the Earth’s neighbour in August (see also page 11 of this issue).

Dr Guido Rettig (2nd from right) gives interviews to several journalists after the press conference at which the financial statements were presented.

internord 3/2012 3

The one billion barrier broken – TÜV NORD achieves highest revenue everEnergy forms of the future are gaining groundIn the field of renewable forms of energy, TÜV NORD is plac-ing its hopes above all on wind energy, biomass and intelligent energy networks, the so-called “smart grids”. “Germany’s en-ergy policy turnaround is far from being complete,” Dr Ret-tig declared. “It is already be-coming apparent that the con-struction of the necessary power lines alone will occasion far higher costs than were ini-tially planned. This is an area we need to make rapid pro-gress in.” Dr Rettig called on those responsible to press ahead with the construction of new conventional power sta-tions, in parallel to the devel-opment of renewable forms of energy. “We will continue to need the most modern coal-fired and gas-fired power plants in the future,” he stated. “Political reservations, legal uncertainties and unsatisfac-tory economic fundamentals have to be overcome quickly. This is the issue that will de-cide whether Germany’s turn-around in energy policy is suc-cessful, and whether the sec-tor is able to create sustain -able jobs.” Dr Rettig announcedthat TÜV NORD would also continue to offer its services in the field of nuclear power.

Expansion of the “Food Safety” global business areaThe demand for foodstuffs and agricultural raw materials produced in ways that do not harm the environment, and which meet new international quality standards, is rising throughout the world. TÜV

NORD is responding to this development in 2012, for in-stance by expanding its ultra-modern food laboratory in Pune, India. In addition, the extension of the Dubai labora-tory is currently nearing com-pletion.

Successful start to the 2012 fiscal yearTÜV NORD Group has made a successful start to the year 2012. “Revenue growth in the first five months amounted to 7%,” CFO Dr Elmar Legge explained. “In the area of ser-vices to the renewable energy sector, our order books are al-ready full, so that we have no spare capacity before the end of the year.”

“We are encountering positive business sentiment among our customers right across the board,” added CEO Dr Rettig. “In addition to achieving or-ganic growth, we are intending to further expand the Group by means of acquisitions in the course of the year. Talks relating to such takeovers are already in progress both in Germany and abroad,” he announced.

2009 850.4

2010 922.6

2011 1,025.1

2008 830.4

2007 735.3

Industry Services

Training and HumanResourcesNatural

Resources International

Mobility

13 %10 %

14 %

32 %29 %

Aerospace2 %

Group revenue has risen by almost 40% over the past five years, to €1.025 billion in 2011. €800 million of this was generated in Germany. The biggest contributions to revenue are made by the Industry Services, Mobility, Training and Human Resources and International business units.

Germany 800.7

America

Asia

Europe139.3

67.317.8

REVENUE BY REGION

REVENUE2007 – 2011

REVENUE BY BUSINESS UNIT

4 internord 3/2012

People want to know that the food that gets onto their tables is healthy – for example the muesli and oat flakes produced by the Peter Kölln factory in Elmshorn, not far from Ham-burg. And clearly, the same ap-plies to the process of produc-tion: there shouldn’t be any-thing about it that is detrimental to the workers’ health. Nadine

Hochschild certainly can’t be said to be a “foreign body” in this plant. She has being work-ing as an occupational physi-cian at MEDITÜV for nine years now; and over the last five years she has paid frequent vis-its to the old-established Peter Kölln factory, where she is re-sponsible for making sure that the workplaces are ergonomic

and do not represent any threat to health.She had grown tired of the day-to-day hospital routine and was looking for a new field of work, which she found in occupation-al medicine. “The greatest chal-lenge is the fact that that you are faced by a whole number of situations that have never aris-en in quite the same way be-

fore, so that there is no solution to them that you can simply look up somewhere,” says Na-dine Hochschild. That is what gives the job its variety and di-versity, she says: every day she makes discoveries and learns new things in the companies she visits – which include print-ing works, workshops or fac t-ories in many different sectors. She sniffs out the places where there is a danger of someone trapping a finger or stumbling. She instructs workers and managers on how to handle sources of heat, light or radia-tion, and gives talks on industri-al safety issues. And nowa-days, people come to Nadine Hochschild more and more of-ten with psychological prob-lems; this is particularly com-mon in the service sector, where the pressure to succeed is becoming more intense all the time.

Industrial safety at a high levelShe describes the standard of industrial safety at Peter Kölln as being exemplary. One of the management team there is the

Nadine Hochschild, occupational physician

Challenging, absorbing – and there’s always something new

Everyone in the company, including the forklift truck drivers, knows the occupational physician Nadine Hochschild.

For goodness’ sake keep your hands away! Nadine Hochschild of MEDITÜV makes sure that a worker at Peter Kölln is aware of the dangers.

This is MEDITÜV

MEDITÜV specialises in the field of in-company occupa-tional medicine, health and safety. It attends both to technical safety and to the general health of workers; so eye tests and the checking of blood pressure also form part of the service. Its major clients are manufacturing

companies, workshops and vehicle fleet operators. MEDITÜV has 70 employees plus additional freelancers on contract, who can give businesses the reassurance that everything is being done to promote industrial safety and the health of their em-ployees.

internord 3/2012 5

safety engineer Bernd Küsel, who declares: “Industrial safety is a very high priority here. We pursue industrial safety issues for safety’s sake.” Industrial safety is really lived out in the company, he says. “Only when it’s safe is the machine switched on.” There are hardly any serious accidents in the company, though it might hap-pen that someone stumbles from time to time. And precisely that is one of the very typical types of industrial accident in

Germany. Why did the compa-ny’s choice fall on MEDITÜV? TÜV NORD is a big company, Küsel says, and so able to give advice in many different fields. “And industrial safety is a com-plex topic, with so many ins and outs.” The company’s management system is also certified by TÜV NORD: those in charge have confidence in TÜV NORD’s competence.And the staff at Peter Kölln have confidence in Nadine Hochschild. Many of the work-

ers don’t have a GP of their own; “For many of them, I am the only doctor they ever see or talk to,” she says. So she car-ries out a whole variety of med-ical examinations in the compa-ny; for the most part these are done unspectacularly in her surgery, but they may become major events if medical equip-ment has to be brought in.

Every day is differentMedical examinations, plant walk-downs, talks – and every

business is different, has differ-ent requirements, there are dif-ferent hazards lurking every-where. The main thing is to see that workers do not fall ill or injure themselves in the first place. And in this respect, her working day continues even when she gets home: she has to “keep an eye on her men”, as she says, and see that they don’t go climbing ladders in the garden wearing flip-flops…

Eye tests too form part of the service to companies.

Three questions to ...

... Dr Stephan Hübner,General Manager of MEDITÜV

Is there an increase in psychological stress in the world of work?Indeed there is, at least in the industrialised countries. Phy-

sical strain is clearly declining, but there is an increase in men-tal and psychological pres-sures.

Why is that?Thanks to the increased use of new media and technologies, information is becoming avail-able more quickly and (almost) everywhere; as a result, the (expected) reaction times are also getting shorter and short-er. There is less time to work oneself into any matter, while at the same time there is a great-er need to consult with other people, so that the ability to work in a team and social

ment of staff. People want to know why decisions are made; then they will be pre-pared to accept them and implement them.It is important to be able to identify where particular pres-sures or stresses arise; then you can take proper action to counter them. A risk analysis may be a first step towards this.Thanks to the competence of our doctors, engineers and psychologists we can help our clients to find answers to the question as to what it makes most sense to do, and where.

competence are in ever greater demand. And then there is the fact that people are constantly within reach by mobile phone or e-mail. They must have times when they can really switch off from work.

How do you recommend your clients to handle this issue?In our experience, there is of-ten a lack of communication between managers and work-ers. But that shouldn’t in any way be taken to mean that the workers need to be given more information; they’re drowning in it already. It means social com-munication and the involve-

A worker in the grain washing station explains industrial safety measures to Nadine Hochschild.

6 internord 3/2012

The first TÜV NORD Group Quality Day took place this year, hosted by Erhard-Max Marquardt, Group Manage-ment Representative. All the members of the main manage-ment board and also the man-agement representatives of the individual TÜV NORD compa-nies were invited.

Marquardt emphasised the need for effective quality man-agement – which is particularly important if different people within the organisation have to perform identical activities according to one overall set of rules and instructions. Specifi-cation of processes and also description of the individual work steps and their se-quences are therefore impor-tant tasks within quality man-agement, and help to create much-needed transparency.Based on the positive re-sponse of those taking part, the Quality Day is to take place each year from now on, and will feature subjects of interest in the field of quality and pro-cess management.

Utilising potentials for improvementQuality management makes it possible to recognise devia-tions from planned work se-quences. “But recognition alone is not enough”, says Marquardt, “We also have to improve processes effectively.”

The Management Board Chair-man of TÜV NORD Group, Dr. Guido Rettig, also emphasised the importance of quality man-agement for the organisation.

“If there are problems, they have to be dealt with effective-ly.” However, as Erhard-Max Marquardt has observed, at-tempts are often slow or no real effort is made at all. And as Uwe Lewandowski, Manage-ment Representative of TÜV NORD Service says, “If quality management is to be effective over the long term, improve-ment of work sequences must be at the centre. This demands a high level of team spirit from all those involved. If people don’t work as a team, im-provements can only be random and sporadic.”

Internal and external audits show the potential for improve-ment within the TÜV NORD Group very clearly, but not all the potential recognised by the auditors is actually realised. The reason: many staff and managers feel that when po-tential is identified, it equates to criticism of their work. But

this response can be a hin-drance to further development of the business: the accredita-tions, certifications and approvals held by TÜV NORD Group depend on the quality of internal processes. It is even more problematical if process-es are seen as an end in them-

selves or are ineffective. Klaus Berndt, Management Repre-sentative of TÜV NORD Sys-tems, considers that there is still much potential for improve-ment in all the Group compa-nies and areas of activity.

The quality management of the TÜV NORD Group is third- party certified. And – as with any other system – work on quality has to be ongoing. Eyes should be open, work process-es should be analysed for the need for improvement and then optimised using targeted measures – that is the mes-sage of the 2012 Quality Day, which the individual companies now wish to put into practice. And for this they need to en-courage openness on the part of their staff: “We don’t want paper tigers, we need true de-scriptions of processes and procedures. That is the only way to achieve sustainable im-provement”, says Berndt.

The respected Quality Management Specialist and Consultant Dr. Joachim Franke (left) led the way through the Quality Day, hosted by the Management Representative of TÜV NORD Group, Erhard-Max Marquardt.

TÜV NORD Group Quality Day

We must improve quality management and develop it further

Quality management at TÜV NORD Group

Quality management is com-bined with environmental, occupational safety and health and data protection management to form an inte-grated management system. It is based on the require-ments of International Stand-ard ISO 9001 (Quality), ISO 14001 (Environment), OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health and Safety) and other legal requirements.It is based on the process approach and is regularly

audited, both internally and externally.

TÜV NORD is certified by SQS (Swiss Association for Quality and Management Systems) according to ISO 9001 for a current total of 16 companies; a growing number of companies are also certified according to ISO 14001 and OHSAS. Further information regarding quality management can be found on our website.

internord 3/2012 7

It is good year now since TÜV NORD Mobilität was granted recognition as a technical ser-vice in Bulgaria. Among the tasks undertaken in the coun-try by the technical experts of the Service for Import and Export (SIMEX) of the Institute for Vehicle Technology and Mobility (IFM) are above all individual and type approvals of vehicles.

The customers are vehicle fin-ishers and importers of vehi-cles not manufactured in Eur-ope. The SIMEX team has in-spected vehicles imported from the US, and trailers and special bodywork produced nationally or imported. As Rainer Hagemann, the head of the team, emphasises: “We are presenting ourselves as a partner for Bulgarian industry, and are seeking to act as con-sultants who can help the country to achieve integration into the European Union.” In particular, the aim is to prevent

vehicles that do not comply with the European safety di-rectives from being marketed in the EU.

In response to the substantial requirement for information and training, not only among customers but also among public authorities and institu-tions, a seminar on the theme of the homologation of vehi-cles in Bulgaria and the Euro-pean Union has been held at the Interpred World Trade Center in Sofia. This informa-tion event was organised in close collaboration with TÜV NORD Bulgaria. Some 60 rep-resentatives of the automotive industry, the regulatory bodies, the licensing authority, trade associations and the trade press took part.

Thanks to the success of this event, a further conference is now being planned.

Vehicle homologation in Bulgaria

Preventing unsafe cars from being placed on the market

Joy Jin is Manager of the Year. The General Manager of TÜV NORD China received the award during the General Man-agers’ Meeting in Essen in May.“There are many good reasons for our wanting to reward Joy Jin with this title,” said Ulf Theike and Dr Ralf Jung, both General Managers of TÜV NORD International. “Joy Jin maintains very good contacts with the Chinese regulatory au-thority CNCA,” Dr Jung said, “and she has implemented the strategy process in an exem-

plary fashion by deliberately placing her reliance on growth-relevant services such as wind energy, mobility, renewable forms of energy and railway engineering.”Cooperation with the joint- venture partners was proceed-ing excellently, Dr Jung went on. Joy Jin was very good at networking both inside and outside TÜV NORD Group, and one of her particular strengths was in the field of human re-sources. “Joy Jin has shown that she has the knack of re-cruiting very good people, and putting them in just the right positions,” he went on. “The growth figures confirm her suc-cess; in her first year alone she achieved growth of 43.1% in revenue, and took on 15 new members of staff.”“This is a very sound organisa-tion, which allows us to look to the future in compliance with the law and in accordance with the requirements of the market, and to achieve our targeted growth,” Ulf Theike summar-ised. “We are looking forward to working with Joy Jin in the coming years.”

Awarded distinction

Joy Jin of TÜV NORD China is Manager of the Year 2011

Joy Jin shows her pleasure at being declared Manager of the Year.

International certification

TÜV HELLAS has certified the leading telecommunications service provider in South East Mediterranean, Cosmote, in collaboration with its sister companies in Romania and Bulgaria. The company ist a subsidiary of Deutsche Tele-kom. The programme for the auditing of the company, which employs 9,000 people, was

Outside the Interpred World Trade Center in Sofia: participants in the information event on homologation organised by TÜV NORD.

very comprehensive: quality management, industrial safety, IT service management, environ-mental protection and the infor-mation security management system were all to be certified. “International cooperation is very important to us,” says George Kechribaris, Managing Director and Regional Manager Mediter-ranean of TÜV HELLAS.

8 internord 3/2012

Germany’s nuclear safety reg-ulations are recognised all over the world: and they are cur-rently being applied to the construction of a pressurised water reactor in Taishan, Chi-na. TÜV NORD EnSys Hanno-ver has been commissioned by a number of different clients to play a role in quality assur-ance in the manufacture of components for this power station.

“In addition, we have trained staff for the Spanish manufac-turer of major components,

Equipos Nucleares, so that they can apply the German regulations,” says project manager Dr Paul Kock. Hav-ing done that, TÜV NORD En-Sys Hannover was awarded the contract to supervise the manufacture of two boric acid columns. “This embraces both the qualification of the welding processes and overall inspec-tion and supervision,” says Dr Kock. TÜV NORD Group’s Spanish subsidiary Cualicon-trol is also involved in this task.

New contracts abroad are an important step forward“With these new contracts that we have won abroad, we have taken an important step towards compensating for the loss of work in Germany that is to be expected in the long term,” says Bernward Hartje, General Manager of TÜV NORD EnSys Hannover. Un-like other countries, Germany is intending to abandon the use of nuclear power com-pletely by 2022 as a conse-quence of last year’s reactor accident in Japan.

TÜV NORD EnSys Hannover

German nuclear safety expertise in demand in China

Staff of TÜV NORD and FAHSS/TÜV NORD Saudi Arabia have the task of carry-ing out regular safety checks on all vehicles operating at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah. This is no small matter, as it potentially involves several thousand vehicles which all need to be inspected at fixed intervals.

Those responsible for quality at the airport and at the Saudi Arabian aviation authority GACA recently visited Hanover and Berlin, in order to gather information about TÜV NORD’s competence in the fields of mobility, information technology and aviation. In ad-dition to the airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has three further international and 26 national airports which might also re-quire assistance with safety issues.

“We have already been put through our initial paces in Saudi Arabia, and have come through successfully,” says In-go Albes, who is managing the Saudi Arabian project for

TÜV NORD Mobilität. “In future, we want to make our broad range of know-how available in the cause for safety at the country’s air-ports.”

TÜV NORD monitors safety at Saudi airports Power inverter certified for General Electric

TÜV NORD has tested a pho-tovoltaic power inverter, spe-cially developed for the Ger-man market, for the American concern General Electric (GE). The variable-frequency invert-er, which converts the DC power produced by solar modules into three-phase AC current for the grid, is one of the key components that will be required for the building up of intelligent energy networks (“smart grids”) in Germany.

General Electric had commis-sioned TÜV NORD to test the photovoltaic inverter, which has been specially designed for the German market, under the German grid connection regulations; because before power from renewable sources of energy can be fed into the German medium voltage grid, the network operators require a so-called unit certificate. This certifica-tion ensures uniform feed-in management, which enhances the system stability of the power grid.

“With this variable-frequency 1 MW inverter, General Electric has developed one of the big-gest devices currently being built,” says Professor Ulrich Adolph, who is responsible for the Technology business area at TÜV NORD CERT. “We are contributing our know-how to the project, starting by investi-gating some of the fundamen-tal requirements such as the maximum output and behav-iour of the inverter when there are problems in the grid.”

Ralph Oldenburg of the TÜV STATION in Walsrode training staff in Jeddah to inspect vehicles.

internord 3/2012 9

Renewable forms of energy, efficient mobility and sustain-able development – these three topics were the focus of the first eTour Brandenburg. More than 90 participants took part, with 40 innovative elec-tric vehicles.

TÜV NORD Group was there as well, contributing two elec-tric cars and two “high-speed pedelec” electrically assisted bicycles to the starting line-up for this very special rally across the eastern German state. The eTour started and finished in the small town of Kleinmachnow.

“We wanted to show every-one that anybody can now use an electric vehicle, even to cover longish distances,” said Christian Förster of the Essen-based Institute for Vehicle Technology and Mobility. To-gether with Markus Bartsch, Elena Weisse, Marcus Win-kelkotte and Tuesday Porter, he completed 135 km of the rally course.

“Actually, the total length of the tour was 176 km,” ex-plained Tuesday Porter, head of TÜV NORD Group’s Repre-sentation in Berlin. “But we chose an alternative route at the end, because otherwise we would simply have taken too long to arrive. But ulti-mately, even we covered 135 km. That’s no mean distance on a bike.”

Showcase for electromobility

TÜV NORD does its bit for the Hanover Metropolitan Region

TÜV NORD at the eTour:

Electrically mobile

The decision has been taken: the Federal Government has determined which regions are to receive funding under the Showcases for Electromobility programme. Lower Saxony is one of the four regions cho-sen.

As a major provider of techni-cal services with decades of experience in alternative drive technologies, TÜV NORD is supporting the “electrification” of the Hannover Braunsch-weig Göttingen Wolfsburg Metropolitan Region – all in accordance with the motto of the State’s application for in-clusion in the programme: Our horsepower is going electric. E-Mobility in Lower Saxony.

“TÜV NORD was involved as a strong partner in Lower Sax-ony’s application as a Metro-politan Region, and will be contributing its expertise and its existing infrastructure to the development of the Region’s Showcase for Electromobility,” says Axel Richter, who is re-sponsible for all aspects of electromobility at TÜV NORD.

One centre of attention in par-ticular will be the eSTATION which TÜV NORD opened at the end of last year in the presence of the State’s Prime Minister, David McAllister. “The eSTATION, which we contrib-uted to the application as a project worthy of support, is providing some important in-sights into how to get safe electric vehicles with reliable batteries and an enhanced range onto the roads as quick-

ly as possible,” says Richter. “The further development of this solar charging station, for example by measures such as

adding a wind turbine to it, is therefore of particular impor-tance to us.”

The Hanover Metropolitan Region is to receive funding from the Federal Government’s Showcases for Electromobility programme. TÜV NORD is one of the project partners: the company is contributing, for example, its solar charging station, which was opened last November.

More than 2.5 million people live in the Hannover Braunschweig Göttingen Wolfsburg Metropolitan Region.

10 internord 3/2012

TÜV NORD is making its first excursions into the social net-works: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Xing and Issuu are the platforms that it is now ac-tively working on.

Social networks are an additional channelBusiness partners can find in-formation on TÜV NORD’s services and on TÜV NORD Group as an employer on the Xing and Linkedin networks. Human Resources Develop-ment presents career opportu-nities for students and school-leavers on a Facebook page

of its own. On Issuu the cus-tomer magazine explore: and the TÜV NORD Group corpo-rate guidelines, amongst other things, are available as inter-active flip page brochures. News from the Group is also disseminated on Twitter, a net-work on which there are al-ready very frequent mentions of TÜV NORD.All measures are evaluated regularly and intensively by Corporate Communications, so that action can be taken quickly if necessary. Guidelines on using social networks can be found on the intranet.

Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin & Co:

TÜV NORD is increasingly making use of social networks

A representative study by the German ICT industry federationBITKOM shows that half of all companies are already making active use of social media, while a further 15 per cent are planning to do so.

Businesses go in for social media

No38%

Yes47%

Definite plans for use 15%

82%

72%

68%

42%

32%

31%

23%

15%

To enhance aware-ness of the business

To win new customers

To cultivate good customer relations

To enhance the business’s image

To cultivate relations with multipliers

Market research

To recruit new staff

Cooperation with partners

Stated aims*

* Percentages of those businesses that use social media Source: BITKOM

Are social media used in the business?

Building work going ahead at TÜV NORD

Building work is going on at a number of TÜV NORD’s sites in Germany. The new head-quarters building in Hanover has now been topped out, and work on the interior is pro-ceeding apace. The Board of Management and the central departments are to move into the building in the autumn.

In addition, a new computer centre is to be built shortly; “This will be one of the most modern anywhere in Germa-ny,” says Dr Guido Rettig, Chairman of the Board of Management.

Starting in the summer, a new office building is to be con-structed in Hamburg. And in Essen preparations are under way for the move from Langemarckstrasse 28 to new premises in the Technology Park.

Job and family can be reconciled

More TÜV NORD Group com-panies have successfully sub-mitted themselves to the beru-fundfamilie audit, thereby high-lighting their particularly family-friendly human resources poli-cies. In Germany, the ease with which it is possible to recon-cile job and family is an impor-tant criterion when people choose an employer.

Kiev Airport’s environmental management certified

TÜV NORD Group has certi-fied the environmental and quality management systems of Borispol International Air-port near Kiev.

“Through this certification, Bo-rispol International Airport has demonstrated that it fulfils all the requirements of environ-mental management to reduce long-term environmental im-

pact as per ISO 14001:2004, and complies with the clearly defined quality standards as per ISO 9001,” says Galina Shpak-Levenberg, General Manager of TÜV NORD Ukraine. The final audit con-vinced the inspectors that the integrated management system performs on a high level.

TÜV NORD Group is top employer for the fifth time in succession

Once again this year, TÜV NORD Group is among the best employers for engineers.

It is the fifth time in succession that the Corporate Research Foundation (CRF) has award-ed the Group the title Top Em-ployer Engineers in recognition

of its attractiveness as an em-ployer.

“This award both recognises what we have achieved and spurs us on to go further,” says Ludger Halasz of Human Resources Management. And Harald Reutter, Labour Direc-

tor and Member of the Board of Management of TÜV NORD Group, adds: “Work-life bal-ance is an important indicator of an employer’s attractive-ness. We are therefore partic-ularly pleased to have been ranked 10th among 34 em-ployers in this category.”

internord 3/2012 11

TÜV NORD staff in Germany and Spain were full of exite-ment as they followed the docking manoeuvre of the third unmanned cargo space-craft ATV-3 with the Interna-tional Space Station ISS. Alter Technology TÜV NORD (ATN) has been involved in the de-velopment of the automated transfer vehicle (ATV), testing and qualifying electronic com-ponents. Dr Guido Rettig, who is responsible in the Board of Management for the Aero-space business unit, spoke of a “success story for European cutting-edge technology”.

Space transfer vehicle resupplies the crew of the ISSThe unmanned cargo space-craft ATV-3, named “Edoardo Amaldi”, which has resupplied the astronauts on board the ISS with food, water, fuel and spare parts, among other things, is equipped with high-reliability electronic compo-nents tested by ATN.

Selected, tested and qualified componentsATN, with its locations in Ma-drid, Toulouse and Rome, has been involved in the project for 14 years now. The company has selected, tested and quali-fied electronic, electrical and electromechanical compo-nents (EEE components), among other things, for the successive ATV models. The EEE components that are used in space travel have to meet particular requirements in respect of their resistance to

radiation, vibration and tem-perature.

ATN has selected, tested and qualified more than 2.5 million individual EEE components. Some of these have been used on board the ATV mod-els. “In this way, we have further reinforced our estab-

lished position in aerospace techno logy worldwide,” says Dr Rettig.

The cargo spacecraft are commissioned by the Euro-pean Space Agency (ESA) and launched with the aid of an Ariane 5 rocket.

Alter Technology assists in the development of cargo spacecraft:

High-reliability electronics ensure safety of docking manoeuvre at the International Space Station

The cargo spacecraft ATV-3 “Edoardo Amaldi” docks with the International Space Station (ISS). It had over 6.5 tonnes of cargo on board, including fuel, food and spare parts.

The cargo spacecraft “Edoardo Amaldi” approaching the ISS.

ATV-3 “Edoardo Amaldi” is prepared for its space mission at the Kourou Space Centre.

12 internord 3/2012

internord receives a visitor: Adams Zhang, Marketing Manager of TÜV NORD Hong Kong

TÜV NORD in China goes in for climate protection and photovoltaicsAdams Zhang is the new Mar-keting Manager of TÜV NORD Hong Kong. internord talked to him about the Chinese mar-ket, cooperation with compa-nies outside China and the Hannover Messe (Hanover Fair), which took place in April and at which China was this year’s partner country.

internord: What new contacts were you able to establish during the Fair in Hanover?

Adams Zhang: I got to know many of my German contacts within the company, who I had only been in touch with before by e-mail or telephone. But at least equally important were the potential business part-ners. In advance of the Fair we had talked to a lot of Chinese companies that were going to have a presence there, as we were ourselves. We had a lot of useful discussions.

Who are your main competi-tors in China? The other TÜVs have been active on the mar-ket for a long time already…

Yes, and as a result they are very well known. But people don’t distinguish between the various TÜV organisations, and the TÜV is known to be very reliable, competent and independent. In addition, there are 150 purely Chinese busi-nesses concerned with ISO certifications, most of them state enterprises. We are in tough competition with them. Our advantage is that we are able to react quickly to market requirements, and also to bring out new products quickly – with support from TÜV NORD International.

What are the topics that most concern TÜV NORD in China at the moment?

Climate protection is a boom area. In addition, we are cur-rently growing very fast in the field of photovoltaics. We certify the equipment for the European market. We are ex-pecting extremely high growth in this segment. The certifica-tion of management systems is going well too, so that we are looking for additional staff in this area.

And beyond that, do you per-haps see any business areas that you are not present in yet, but where there are opportuni-ties to offer further services in China?

Railway engineering is deve l-oping into a very important sector in China. It ranks very highly among the govern-ment’s priorities. We are ex-pecting a major boom in the next 15 years.

Adams Zhang, the Marketing Manager of TÜV NORD China. The railway sector is developing very rapidly and could become an important field of activity in the coming years.

This is TÜV NORD in China

China, Hong Kong and Tai-wan – TÜV NORD is repre-sented in these markets by no fewer than four subsidiar-ies. Guangzhou TUV Techni-cal Services was set up in 1999, with TÜV NORD Hong Kong following in 2001 and TÜV NORD Hangzhou in 2004; the laboratories here are certified by the ZLS, the Central Agency of the Ger-man States for Safety Tech-nology. TÜV NORD Hang-zhou employs around 140 people, Guangzhou TUV Technical Services about 35,

TÜV NORD Hong Kong 11 and the Taiwan branch of TÜV Asia Pacific 50.

Core business areas in the region are system and prod-uct certifications, inspections of industrial plant, climate protection certifications and the homologation of motor vehicles. Other important fields are the certification of photovoltaic equipment, IT security and training activi-ties. All the companies work for both domestic and inter-national customers.

internord 3/2012 13

Facts on sustainable forestry

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an interna-tional not-for-profit organisa-tion. It was the first organisa-tion to create a system for the certification of sustainable forestry. The council was established in 1993; it is based in Bonn.More than 120 million hec-tares of forest all over the world are certified in accord-

ance with the FSC’s principles; that is about twice the area of France. In Germany, over 775,000 hectares of forest are certified; that is about 7% of the total woodland area.

For successful certification, ten principles have to be complied with. These include, for exam-ple, the drawing up and imple-mentation of a management plan, the assessment of sus-tainability, the maintenance of forests with a high conserva-

tion value, and the upholding of the rights of indigenous peoples.

TÜV NORD CERT is accredit-ed to certify so-called Chains of Custody (CoCs), in which timber and wood products have to be marked with the FSC logo throughout the pro-duction process.

A CoC certificate is valid for five years; annual surveillance audits are provided for.

At TÜV NORD Group, eleven people from seven countries are concerned with the certification of sustainable forestry: Lena Jönsson (Sweden), Bertram Schall (Germany), Sylvain Ast (France), Dr Annika Blarr (Germany), Ümit Sinan Karan (Turkey), Robert Sajfert (Croatia), Iris Maass (Germany), C.A. Sahana (India), Jens Terberger (Germany), Markus Sturm (Germany) and Maria Carolina Coel-ho (Brazil).

International team concerns itself with sustainable forestry

Consumers demand products with the FSC label – TÜV NORD certifies producers all over the worldEleven people, seven coun-tries, one subject: the certifica-tion of sustainable forestry. This is a market that is boom-ing all over the world, for TÜV NORD Group as for others. The growth markets are above all Germany, the Balkan coun-tries and Sweden. “South-East Asia too will quickly start to play an important role,” says Dr Annika Blarr of TÜV NORD CERT.

FSC: the initials stand for the not-for-profit organisation For-est Stewardship Council, which lays down the principles governing sustainable forestry and administers an internation-al standard. TÜV NORD Group has been accredited since 2009; 260 customers put their faith in the company. A total of 20 companies in the world are entitled to certify under the standard.

In Germany, a lot of magazines are now printed on FSC certi-fied paper – including inter-nord. Particularly when it is a matter of furniture made from rainforest hardwoods, many customers in Germany nowa-days insist on the FSC logo. But this logo is found more and more often even on fruit juice and milk packaging to-day. The same applies in Bra-zil, where one-fifth of all maga-zines are now printed on FSC certified paper, according to José Luiz Martini of BRTÜV in São Paulo. So far, however, furniture with the FSC symbol has played only a minor role there.In Croatia the symbol is hardly known yet, but people are

gradually starting to pay atten-tion to it: “More and more products with the FSC symbol are being imported, for exam-ple magazines and newspa-pers,” says Hrvoje Kneževic of

TÜV Croatia. “But in addition, more and more businesses are exporting their wood products to countries where consumers explicitly ask for the sign.”

For José Luiz Martini, the sym-bol is simply an essential part of TÜV NORD Group’s portfo-lio. “With it, TÜV NORD Group can inscribe sustainability on its banners,” he says.

14 internord 3/2012

Jörg Hohmann painstakingly documents the accident damage to a VW Sharan. The side panel and door would have to be replaced; but the car is already 15 years old. A few days later, the vehicle damage assessor determines that it is an economic write-off.

Jörg Hohmann, vehicle damage assessor

“We want everyone to come out on the right side”His camera is as thin as a slice of bread, and as big a cigarette packet: it fits into the breast pocket of his blue jacket. How many photos he takes in a year, Jörg Hohmann can’t say. It’s a very large number. And this session, he adds a couple of dozen more - of a 15-year-old, “very used”, dark blue VW Sharan. There are some very obvious scratches in the paint-work, at the front, at the rear and along the side. The front bumper is no longer completely attached to the bodywork. But that’s not what the damage as-sessor is concerned with today. His attention focuses on a dent-ed door and a dented side pan-el. A woman on a supermarket car park was to blame, says Karsten Welsch, who uses the vehicle with his family. He had just backed out of a parking space and was about to drive off when there was a bang from behind.

A typical accidentThat was two months ago. Now, two insurance companies are quarrelling about the dam-age and who should pay for it. It’s a long story, which Hoh-mann listens to without giving an opinion, except to say that it’s a typical case. Painstakingly, he copies details from the registration document into his set of forms, which is three pages long: vehicle type, age, registration number, own-er. And then a record of any damage to the car predating the accident. In that respect, there is a lot to be written down – and photographed. He also

captures the registration docu-ment with his camera: “We have an electronic file,” Hohm-ann explains, and then turns to the windscreen to take a photo of the vehicle identification number that is visible behind it. “We want to be sure we’ve got the right car,” he says.It is his fourth car of the day. “Each case is different,” he says. He always has to go about his work with complete concentration, as it is a fine line he has to tread: it depends on him how much money a person who has suffered damage can expect to get from the insur-ance. “We want everyone to come out on the right side,” Hohmann says. His word car-ries weight. He has to work ac-

curately, and not overlook any damage that might not be obvi-ous. But he also has to assess whether the damage he sees is actually a result of the event concerned. He doesn’t want to allow himself to have the wool pulled over his eyes; although that is something he can never totally exclude. But he’s been in the business for 20 years, and he knows the tricks people get up to if they feel inclined.

A surprising find: rust under the bonnetKarsten Welsch isn’t one of those, however. No, the dam-age to the paintwork of the rear bumper is old, he admits when Hohmann asks him about it di-rectly. Later, Hohmann wants to

take a look at what is under the bonnet, which Welsch is only able to open with a certain amount of difficulty. Hohmann’s gaze immediately falls on the battery. And on the metal plate underneath it. And on the gear-box. There’s a lot of corrosion and rust; the battery must have leaked at some time. But that’s not the only problem, there’s another one as well: Welsch had asked about the right size of tyre. Hohmann looks at the registration document, and gives an answer that isn’t ex-actly what Welsch wants to hear. The tyres are not ade-quate: there is a gap of 75 kg between the load rating of the tyres actually on the car and those that should be fitted.

internord 3/2012 15

TÜV NORD Group’s business is becoming more and more international. Many employees are in contact with companies outside their own countries; they may be involved in pro-jects being implemented by in-ternational teams, or perhaps in the design of leaflets and websites. Sometimes there is no problem about this; but sometimes difficulties arise, because the people concerned are not familiar enough with each other’s cultures.This may apply, for example, to the feeling for time: what counts as being punctual? And accordingly, how soon is it okay to inquire whether a mat-ter is being dealt with; when can I expect an e-mail or a phone call?

How long should I give my counterpart to react?In Greece it is perfectly normal to send a reminder if an agreed or set period of time has been

exceeded. This would be done in a polite manner, however: “Could you please…” In Ger-many you can get in touch af-ter two days, or in really urgent cases even sooner. In Den-mark, on the other hand, one should wait a bit before send-ing a reminder; you need to be patient for three or four days. Anything else would be con-sidered rude. In the Nether-lands, five days are recom-mended. In the UK too it de-pends on the urgency: any-thing from a few days to a week is acceptable. You should also be patient for a few days when you are dealing with French business partners. In Bulgaria too, it’s fine to send a reminder; you should wait for five working days, but this can be shortened in urgent cases. It is however important to write a polite e-mail, and not simply put “Reminder” in the subject box. In Indonesia you can re-mind people at any time to an-

swer a mail or to deal with a matter. In India, business part-ners generally expect to re-ceive an answer within a work-ing day, so a reminder on the second day after the due date is perfectly acceptable. The main thing is to be polite about it; and this is very important in China too.

In the Arab world it is the telephone call that counts, not the mailAn important thing in the Arab world is that contacts are bet-ter made by telephone; so you should ring up rather than send an e-mail. Talking to someone directly is more help-ful than sending a written re-minder.

What is your experience? Do you have questions on this topic? Write to internord@tuv-nord.com

“You must do something about that,” Hohmann recommends.If he were carrying out a general inspection of the vehicle, there would be a lot of defects that Jörg Hohmann would have to report, such as a door that won’t open. But his job today is to make a damage assess-ment. So there are other things that count, such as whether there is any concealed accident damage. For this, he uses an electronic device with a digital display, no bigger than a spec-tacle case, but with a rather cumbersome name: a paint lay-er thickness gauge. The display settles down at a value of around 150 micrometres; so no, the car has never been re-sprayed throughout its long life, which means that in all proba-bility it has never suffered any serious accident damage.

An unexpected write-offIn the vast majority of cases Hohmann manages without any special equipment; but what he does need every time is two or three hours in the office. Only there can he put a figure to the damage, determine possible re-pair costs, and assess the re-sidual value of the car. When he has done this, he sends his re-port both to the insurance and to the vehicle owner. Both get the pictures as well, of course. So Karsten Welsch too receives a thick envelope in the post. The estimated cost of repairs to the door and side panel is €3,880. But the value of the car before the accident was only €1,200. So in fact, it is a write-off.

It’s all right to send business partners a reminder if they have missed a deadline; but it may be quite brief or longer, depending on the circumstances.

International cooperation

When is it okay to send a reminder, and how?

16 internord 3/2012

How healthy are you? Are you able to deal well with stress, to switch off, relax and regener-ate? These are questions that can be answered by an analy-sis of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Such analyses are now offered by many doc-tors, therapists and practition-ers of complementary medi-cine.

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is the body’s central switchboard: it controls breathing, metabolism, diges-tion, blood pressure and the heart rate. An analysis of it thus gives insights into possi-ble cardiovascular disorders, depression, diabetes, pulmo-nary complaints and disorders of the digestive system – even when the laboratory tests pro-duce unremarkable results.

Such an investigation of the body’s internal workings takes seven minutes, and does not involve either pain or side- effects. The heart rate is meas-ured using a chest strap, simi-lar to the transmitter of a pulse monitor. The doctor is interest-ed in the interval between heartbeats: the more diverse the values are during measure-ment, the better the ANS is regulated, and so the greater our well-being, health, joie de vivre and functional vitality.

Further indications are provid-ed by a comparison between the two constituent parts of the ANS: the sympathetic nervous system, which is re-sponsible for our readiness to

take external action, and the parasympathetic system, which is concerned with rest, refreshment and relaxation. An ANS analysis can provide such a comparison too.

There is no other diagnostic tool in state of the art of medi-cine today that can give an earlier indication of incipient or-ganic disorders. So an ANS analysis gives extremely useful results and is an ideal tool in preventive medicine.

There are many possible types of therapy for the autonomic nervous system. Both the sympathetic and parasympa-thetic systems can be stimu-lated or their activity reduced by drugs; beta-blockers or ACE inhibitors are among the types that can be used. Relax-ation techniques and psycho-therapy can also provide sup-port, and acupuncture and os-teopathy may be helpful as well.

Factors that are always of great importance are a bal-anced and healthy diet and a knowledge of how to deal with stress situations.

There are many books and sources of advice on these matters available on the inter-net:

www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_management_relief_ coping.htm

www.wikihow.com/ Deal-With-Stress

Contents

Our cover picture shows occupational physician Nadine Hochschild doing a plant walk-down at the Peter Kölln company in Elmshorn.

The one billion barrier broken – TÜV NORD achieves highest revenue ever ................................................... 2Nadine Hochschild, occupational physician: Challenging, absorbing – and there’s always something new ..................... 4Three questions to Dr Stephan Hübner, General Manager of MEDITÜV ...... 5We must improve quality management and develop it further ...................... 6Vehicle homologation in Bulgaria: Preventing unsafe cars from being placed on the market ............................. 7Awarded distinction: Joy Jin of TÜV NORD China is Manager of the Year ... 7International certification ............................................................................... 7TÜV NORD monitors safety at Saudi airports ............................................... 8TÜV NORD EnSys Hannover: German nuclear safety expertise in demand in China .................................. 8Power inverter certified for General Electric .................................................. 8Showcase for electromobility: TÜV NORD does its bit for the Hanover Metropolitan Region ...................... 9TÜV NORD at the eTour: Electrically mobile ................................................. 9TÜV NORD is increasingly making use of social networks ...........................10Building work going ahead at TÜV NORD ....................................................10TÜV NORD Group is top employer for the fifth time in succession ...............10Job and family can be reconciled .................................................................10Kiev Airport’s environmental management certified .....................................10Alter Technology assists in the development of cargo spacecraft: High-reliability electronics ensure safety of docking manoeuvre at the International Space Station ................................................................. 11TÜV NORD in China goes in for climate protection and photovoltaics ......... 12Consumers demand products with the FSC label – TÜV NORD certifies producers all over the world ......................................... 13Jörg Hohmann, vehicle damage assessor: “We want everyone to come out on the right side” ....................................... 14International cooperation: When is it okay to send a reminder, and how? .... 15ANS analysis – a sure way of identifying warning signals for stress.............. 16

The staff magazine of TÜV NORD Group

Published by: TÜV NORD AG, Am TÜV 1, 30519 HannoverIntranet: http://portal/c17/internord, Internet: www.tuv-nord.com

Publication dates: Four times a year, in January, April, July and October.

Typesetting and printing: diaprint KG, D-30952 Ronnenberg-Empelde

Edited by: Corporate Communications, TÜV NORD Group Jochen May (responsible within the meaning of the Press Act), Tel. +49 (0)511 986-1324; internord@tuv-nord.com

Photo acknowledgements: Volker Baldauf (15), C. Busch, Hamburg (9), Berhard Heinze (5), ESA (11), Marina Lukic and Andrea Kiesendahl (7)

Translation, English edition:Anthony Mellor-Stapelberg, Hemmingen-Arnum; Elizabeth Flint, Exmouth

The Editors are pleased to receive contributions of any kind. Please talk to the Editors before writing contributions. We cannot accept responsibility for illustrations or manuscripts submitted. Contributions bearing the name of the author do not necessarily represent the Editors’ opinions. The Editors reser-ve the right to edit manuscripts and to shorten readers’ letters.

Staff magazine 3/2012

On the safe side: priority for industrial safety

Fair to all sides: out on the job with the damage assessor

No longer a side issue: increasing interest in climate protection

On the side of the environment: electro-mobility has arrived

Heart, circulation, depression, diabetes:

ANS analysis – a sure way of identifying warning signals for stress