Uncertainty has been a part of business for as long as people have done business. Even in today’s world of industry standards, not everyone down the chain will work efficiently and uniformly.
Take this example: a vendor may be knowledgeable in manufacturing, but their processes are out of date. This causes a delay because it takes them longer to fabricate a prototype.
They spend hours tweaking the settings on their machines. They start from scratch with every attempt, as they do not have a knowledge base to start from due to their poor documentation practices.
What makes things worse is they do not have a contingency plan for those delays, leaving you with the task of having to fix things yourself. This is a headache that could have been avoided through auditing, but you didn’t have the time audit – you needed that prototype right away, and trusted that the vendor would deliver.
As customers we expect the product or service that we’re paying for to be delivered as requested. There is an inherent risk to working with another business, but how do you ensure that business can handle your requests without the time it requires to audit their facilities?
Thankfully, there is a standard that vendors follow to ensure that their processes are as top notch as can be – the ISO 9001 standard.
Here is what the standard is about from the International Standards Organization’s (iso.org) website:
This International Standard specifies requirements for a quality management system when an organization:
a) needs to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, and
b) aims to enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.
An organization that implements the ISO 9001 standard is one that has integrated its industry’s practices into a quality management system that constantly strives to improve to deliver the best product or service for its customers. You can be sure that a business that is ISO 9001 certified has a mature system in place – one that is adaptable to any new demands you may have.
We are an ISO 9001 certified company
All of this requires a rigorous documentation system, a stringent series of processes that is audited on a yearly basis to make sure that what we say in our Mission Statement is what we do.
So, when a part is sent to us, it is in good hands as certified by ISO 9001. Contact us today to see how our certification can work for you.