The establishment, dissemination and utilization of technical norms - internal, Brazilian, regional, and international – have always been recognized by Cemig as key factors for service excellence and enhanced competitiveness.
With this in mind and with the understanding that the adoption and implementation of norms allows the Company to promote the registration of its technological domain, Cemig started structuring this process in 1959, when Conem - the Materials and Equipment Norms Committee - was created to manage and execute activities aimed at the utilization of technical norms.
Since then, this structure has been evolving and improving in order to, among other aspects, keep pace with the Company’s development and the diversification of its businesses, stay permanently in tune with the domestic and international technical norm entities and adapt itself to the speed of the technical evolution of materials, equipment and accessories acquired for the expansion and steady improvement of its electrical system.
Internal norms
The integrated structure of Cemig’s internal norms produces technical documents related to buying materials, equipment, tools, and accessories covering all the Company’s areas and more than 260 specialists. Cemig nowadays has a collection of more than 550 documents, and some of them are in English, which were used in acquisitions abroad. Approximately 50 new or revised documents are approved and issued every year.
Noteworthy among the products evaluated by Cemig’s specialists for establishing and adopting internal norms are the materials and equipment to be used in the Company’s electric system, ranging from advanced technology equipment and equipment for extremely complex production, such as transmission transformers and circuit breakers, to simple ones like a screw, for instance.
External norms
Cemig’s connection with the technical norm entities, especially ABNT - the Brazilian Association for Technical Norms, is established through the disclosure of activities and documents from these entities, through the coordination of and direct participation in Study Committees or Workgroups and, after an internal consensus is reached, through an analysis of and vote by Cemig on norm projects undertaken.
Many specialists participate directly or indirectly in the ABNT’s norm activities in around 260 Study Commissions in the majority of Brazilian Committees. About 100 norm projects are analyzed annually after wide internal circulation among the interested areas resulting in the sending of more than 50 votes to ABNT.
The participation of Cemig’s specialists in the norm forums and the existence of a structure that strives for an internal consensus guarantee that many products, methodologies and criteria adopted on a national scale are in consonance with the practices employed in the Company. The degree to which technology is incorporated into a company’s products is strongly linked to involvement with norm entity technical committees.
The interaction with the supply market
The establishment of internal standards and of technical documents for purchasing in perfect consonance with domestic and international norms guarantees the dissemination of these requirements in Cemig’s supply market, mainly in Minas Gerais. These requirements provide, in most cases, the information required by the suppliers and facilitate the development of product lines derived from the establishment of adequate standards.
The development of internal norms in consonance with the external norms along with the dissemination of the internal standard in the external forums have been essential to the Company’s positioning and contribute to technological development and growth in Minas Gerais and Brazil.