Company:DQS

Short description: German holding company

Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Zertifizierung von Managementsystemen (DQS)

Type	Standards Organization
Industry	Assessment, Certification
Founded	1985
Headquarters	Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Area served	Global
Key people	Michael Drechsel (MD) Ingo Ruebenach (MD)
Products	Assessment and Certification of Management Systems and Processes
Revenue	145 Mio. EUR (concern, 2018)
Number of employees	2500
Website	DQS Group

DQS Holding GmbH based in Frankfurt am Main is the holding company of the worldwide DQS Group. The group provides assessments and certifications of management systems and processes of any type.

History

DQS was founded in 1985 in Berlin and was the first German certification body. The aim of the founding partners, DGQ (German Society for Quality) and DIN (German Institute for Standardization), was mainly to promote the German economy. The foundation overlapped with the publication of the first drafts of the ISO 9000 series of standards, which also include the most important quality standard worldwide today: ISO 9001.

In 1986 DQS became the first certification body in Germany to issue a certificate according to ISO 9001.

After the merger of DQS with the Management Systems Solutions (MSS) division of the American product certification body Underwriters Laboratories Inc. in March 2008, DQS-UL Group is currently one of the world's largest system certification bodies. Since June 2015 the company changed its name to DQS Group.

Corporate Organization

DQS Holding GmbH has more than 85 offices in over 60 countries. DQS Group currently has about 20,000 certified customers across almost all industries with approximately 65,000 certified locations in over 130 countries.

The concern employs 814 people and commands 2,500 auditors in 2019 (annual average). Among the largest companies within the group are DQS India.(Bangalore), DQS Inc. (USA), DQS do Brasil Ltd., DQS Japan Inc., DQS Medizinprodukte GmbH (Medical Devices), DQS CFS (sustainability) and DQS GmbH (all Germany).

DQS India

Headquartered in Bangalore Main and with a local offices in Chennai, Pune, Gujarat, DQS India is the largest subsidiary of DQS Holding GmbH.

DQS GmbH in Germany

Headquartered in Frankfurt am Main and with a local offices in Hamburg, DQS GmbH is the largest subsidiary of DQS Holding GmbH.

Service spectrum

The group’s services include cross-industry assessments to customer or industry-specific requirements and certifications to national and international standards and specifications.

• ISO 9001 (Quality)
• ISO 14001 (Environment)
• ISO 45001 (Workplace safety)
• IATF 16949 (Automotive)
• ISO 22301 (Business Continuity)
• ISO 27001 (Information security)
• ISO 28000 (Security Management System for the Supply Chain)
• ISO 37001 (Anti-Bribery Management Systems)
• ISO 50001 (Energy management)
• ISO 13485 (Medical Device certification)
• ISO/TS 22163:2017/IRIS (Rail sector)
• EN 9100:2018 series (Aerospace)
• International Featured Standard (IFS)
• FSSC 22000
• GRI

In addition, the group also offers assessments in the areas of Risk Management Systems, Sustainability, Education, Data Privacy, Business Excellence, Health and Social Services, and Integrated Management Systems.

Network

DQS is a charter and full member of the international certification network IQNet Association which was founded in 1990. The main objective of the currently approx. 40-member global network is the mutual recognition of certificates issued by the member companies. Dr Sied Sadek, former Managing Director of DQS CFS and DQS Middle East, who is now the Managing Director of SQS Deutschland GmbH, pointed out in an interview to share DQS's expertise in the field of CSR reporting and DQS's understanding of the necessity to do so sensitive to the regional and cultural context, in the development process of the Islamic Reporting Initiative (IRI).