BS 8300 helps Stannah to raise the standards of access for people with disabilities

Stannah Group Director, Jon Stannah The Andover-based Stannah Group is a global market-leader in stairlift products, having fitted more than 300,000 stairlifts in 52 countries. On average, a new Stannah stairlift is installed somewhere in the world every ten minutes of each working day.

The family-owned and run business is also the UK's largest independent manufacturer of passenger lifts and vertical platform lifts. Stannah has more than 1,500 employees and turned over more than £100m in 2005.

Stannah was the first stairlift company to be assured to quality-management standard ISO EN BS 9001. It also works with BS 5776 (a technical specification for powered stairlifts) and BS 8300 (a standard concerned with the design of buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of people with disabilities).

Group Director Jon Stannah explains how working with standards helps his company:

Bullet-point shape the wider industry through involvement in standards working groups

Bullet-point meet legislative requirements and help other organizations to do the same

Bullet-point be more efficient and profitable

Shaping Standards

Stannah representatives participate in British Standards working groups. This means they helped shape draft proposals of BS 8300: 2001.

Jon says:

"We're committed to helping to shape standards. We believe in standardization because it helps to deliver harmonization, safer products and greater fit-for-purpose solutions to the market place.

"We'd expect our customers to assume that, as a caring organization, we provide products shaped by best practice. Standards help us to do this. Because of our involvement in standards working groups, often our new products are compliant before the relevant standard has been published formally."

Key Business Benefits

Quote from Stannah Group Director, Jon Stannah

As well as helping to shape the wider industry through its involvement in standards working groups, Stannah enjoys many other benefits from standardization.

Jon says:

"Working with standards allows us to make our products and services comply with legislative requirements."

"It also provides a benchmark against which customers can expect all suppliers to comply, creating a more level playing field and preventing disparity in product quality and compatibility. Such consistency helps businesses and the wider industry to be more efficient."

Working with BS 8300

Few things link SS Great Britain, Loughborough University, Norwich City College, Bristol Temple Meads Railway Station, Regent's Park Children's Centre and Warsash Maritime Centre in Hampshire. However, Stannah has used BS 8300-compliant solutions to complete each of these projects in recent years.

In Bristol's Great Western Dock, the SS Great Britain is now a permanent museum and education centre for visitors from all around the world. In 2005, Stannah supplied and fitted four lifts at the famous attraction.

Jon says:

"Each of the lifts was installed to help meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act, ensuring the whole conservation project could be accessed by people with disabilities, including wheelchair-users."

"All visitors start the tour of this historic site in the dockyard museum, where an eight-person, fully automatic Stannah passenger lift is installed, which complies with BS EN 81-80, ensuring lifts are suitable for disabled users. The three Stannah Midilifts [vertical platform lifts] comply with BS 8300."

Best Practice Advice

Overview of BS 8300, a code of practice providing guidance on making changes to property to meet the needs of people with disabilities

Every day, BS 8300 enables Stannah to give best-practice advice to its customers.

Jon says:

"By using the standard, we can advise our customers on the best solutions for their needs, effective solutions which help them meet their legal obligations on accessibility."

"Together with the quality, safety and reliability they've come to expect from the Stannah brand, working with standards helps to underline the fact that our products are 'fit for purpose', which enhances their market appeal."

"Standards support our culture and values. They help us to give the best advice to customers and make their lives easier. It really is a win-win situation."