Do we require certification?

A. Hi Bill,

We are doing ISO 9001 with the registration audit scheduled for 3Q/96. In answer to your questions:

1. ISO 9000 Registered Company Directory: North America [on Amazon affil links] is a good reference with indexes by SIC code and by company. It is published by Irwin.

2. Once ISO 900x registered, your processes and methods will be well defined and the consistency of your product should improve. Knowing & documenting what is done, and training to insure procedures are followed is the basic concept. No dramatic changes for us, as we were already well documented, but virtually everything was reformatted in some way.

3. I can recall the "1 quarter through" feeling, but that was 6 or 7 quarters ago! (grin). I found flow charting to be a more clear and efficient means to illustrate a process than words in many cases. It is important to have someone on staff or consulting with registration experience to get to the end point correctly.

A. Sorry I can't personally help you on the ISO 14000 question; I'm not involved with it. But I do thank you for your kind assessment of our efforts, and we'll keep on trying -- and hopefully you'll get helpful responses.

A. Bill,

I do not have any information on ISO 14000 directly, however, I do have a friend in Sweden that is involved with training companies (in Sweden) for ISO 9000. Roger is well aware of ISO 14000 and may provide some good information.

I hope this helps.

A. ISO is turning into QS in these parts (New Jersey, USA). There is interest in many areas as lots of the upper tier suppliers are getting certified.

A. Hi Bill,

Congrats on working for ISO !

Our company recently received ISO 9002 Certification. It has been one of our best assets. We originally began after some of our customers frequently asked when we were thinking of getting certified. We plate mostly for electronics, automotive, etc. Large corp.s in this field have been certified for years. It is quite impressive when I get on the phone with a customer and they begin asking about our quality system, audits, etc As soon as I say we are certified, the conversation ends. They don't even give it another thought. It an insurance plan that we will be doing the same thing each time. Although it may involve major headaches and piles of paperwork, in the long run it pays off.

As far as ISO 14000, this is an environmental system. We just had someone down in Orlando for the AESF EPA Conf who said that they wouldn't be surprised if the EPA will eventually require all platers to have it.

I have loads of info on both so if you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

Hope I helped :)
Bobbi

A. Bill, Generator Div. has been ISO 9002 certified for 3 years, with two recertifications. We have hit a wall, this they say is a natural event with ISO. We now have to focus on the system, and find ways of changing the our culture in some of our upper management. Having up to 30 internal auditors, we find ourselves having to be the catalyst to move forward. This next re-cert will be trying for our division.

We have other divisions in the first stages a little behind and near the 90 % you indicate.

As for 14000 we have just completed training our corp. safety and environmental group and they are auditing areas with our division auditors. They are probably a year away from an attempt at certification.

Thanks and good luck!

Tim

A. ISO 14000 has more difficulties in implementing it in a organisation, compared to ISO 9000.

The funny thing of ISO 14000 is that it leads you through procedures on environmental issues in a similar way as ISO 9000 does on quality matters.

However the thought that "Starting with quality and the result will follow" is now quite deeply rooted in some parts of the industry.

The same thing can't be said about environmental issues.

Here, the government still has a task in forcing companies to comply.

An ISO 14000 will make good behaviour towards the whole environment an integrated part of your business.

I'm convinced that this will become an obligation in our industry.

The question mark is of course if it will lead to a competitive advantage. In any case if you succeed in implementing ISO 14000, it gives you a marketing advantage by being able to say that you're conscious towards our environment and in the final end it will even lead to lower total costs, as a lot of habits appears to be changeable if you keep asking yourself "why do we do it this way, and isn't there another way"

Also here the very important thing is that upper management has to be convinced that implementing ISO 14000 really pays back!

Success.

A. Sarbeet Singh,

5S system was developed in Japan and it's a system for Order and Cleanliness in the plant, office, school, etc. Benefits; Improved ambient, better productivity, better morale, saves space, etc.

You do not need to be certified, like ISO 9000. Just apply the system.

Good luck

Enrique

A. As you indicate you are a defense contractor, you will need to review your customers' purchase order requirements, whether a prime aerospace contractor or direct military / government contracts. Likely your will need to "chem-film" or aluminum conversion coat (Alodine is a trade name), likely you will either certify to the MIL-DTL-5541 [⇦ this spec on DLA] or a customer specification (like Boeing's BAC 5719).

These usually do not impose prescriptive training requirements, but you likely will have flowed-down quality system requirements, such as AS9100 (a derivative of ISO9000) that will have generic requirements to develop an operator training and qualification internal program. This will require third-part audit and accreditation. Customers' contracts may also require another third-party audit and certification to AS7108 (Nadcap Chemical Processing Requirements) which again have generic training requirements.

Additionally, as this is a chromated product, you may have state and local training requirements for safety, health and waste treatment. The material is toxic and not environmentally-friendly.