As part of the National Quality Week, the 16th edition of which took place this year around the theme "No quality without safety at work", the Laâyoune delegation of trade and industry and the Laâyoune-Boujdour-Sakia El Hamra Chamber of Commerce organised a study day last Tuesday at the headquarters of the Regional Investment Centre to debate the important role of safety at work in guaranteeing quality in any company.

According to the speakers, Quality Week aims this year to raise awareness among economic operators about the importance of quality and safety management in a context marked by the increase in workplace accidents impacting the company's production processes, causing human and financial losses, and damaging the company's brand image. For them, safety at work represents a competitiveness issue for companies.

"Promoting healthy and safe working conditions not only meets an increasingly strong productivity requirement but also prevents all kinds of professional risks, notably workplace accidents and occupational diseases," explains Bouchaib Kiri, regional delegate for industry and trade in Laâyoune. He added that the government's strategy for promoting quality is based on three axes: the first relates to raising awareness regarding the application of quality standards, the second consists of supporting and strengthening the technical capacities of SMEs. The third concerns the establishment of a comprehensive legal framework that guarantees and ensures competitiveness in the market, employees' rights, as well as consumer protection.

Participants in this day called for the implementation of a global approach that takes into consideration the aspects of quality, safety, and risk management, and for enabling the Moroccan company to appropriate self-assessment tools, measure the progress made in the fields of quality and safety at work, and identify its strengths and weaknesses with the aim of improving its performance.

During this day, several presentations were made on the themes of the assets and constraints of integrating quality and safety approaches.