In a year where everything is a bit different, it was no surprise our ISO renewal audit wouldn’t be quite like previous audits. Instead of being performed in-house, the three-day audit was performed remotely with our staff in near-constant communication with the outside auditor, who was based in Houston. Thankfully it all went off without a hitch, both in regards to the technological aspect and the ISO-audit part.

We use ABS Quality Evaluations to audit our quality/ISO processes. Typically, an auditor visits our facility and performs the audit. The auditor can talk face-to-face with employees, asking about procedures and processes. But, with the current Covid-19 pandemic, that type of audit just wouldn’t be happening this year. Instead, we held a three-day video conference with our auditor. There were still interviews with employees, just through webcams. Documents we still inspected, but were scanned and electronically sent.

Despite all these hurdles, it turned out to be one of our most thorough audits (in a good way!). Yes, it would have been nice to have our auditor here in person, but this distanced audit was still beneficial. Our auditor, whom had never audited us before, was able to provide some valuable insight and commentary on our organization.

We’ve been continually certified for more than 20 years, so having a mature quality management system certainly helps with these audits. Our processes are part of the culture here and everybody has a pretty good understanding of what they need to do.

Hopefully next year, our auditor can travel here and give us a good, old-fashioned in-person audit. In the mean-time we’ll keep doing what we do, which is best summarized by our quality policy “IMEC is committed to producing quality products with continual improvement to fulfill our customers’ needs and expectations.”

For those that need a copy of our new certificate, it is posted on our quality page. It is also available just to the left of this text.

“IMEC is committed to producing quality products with continuous improvement to fulfill our customer’s needs and expectations.”

In the world of sheet metal fabrication, having an efficient quality management system in place is critical. Here at IMEC, we accomplish this by being ISO certified.

Our ISO certification governs everything we do here at IMEC. It deals with how we purchase materials, approve new suppliers, how to deal with any potential issues with the parts we are making, and provide a framework so responsibilities & expectations are very clear, not just internally, but also for our customers.

IMEC has been ISO certified since October 1999 and is currently ISO 9001:2015 certified. That means that for more than 20 years, we have had this system in place. It has become such a big part of our culture that the expectations and requirements are second nature. In fact, during a recent surveillance audit, the third-party auditor commented that we have a mature quality management system where everyone knows what is required and expected.

So, what does being ISO certified mean to our customers? It allows them to feel confident in our ability to make a quality product that meets their needs. It means that we have a system in place to make sure we’re buying the right parts from the right suppliers, that we’re inspecting parts as required, that we have documented procedures for dealing with non-conformances, that we’re keeping and maintaining records, etc. And just as importantly, that is audited certified regularly by an outside agency.

Some customers require an ISO certification, but many do not. But all of our customers want to have a supplier they can trust to make the parts right and be able to quickly answer any questions or deal with any issues. We’ve kept and maintained our certification for more than two decades, which proves that we are committed to all of our customers and want to be the best supplier that we can be. IMEC wants to ensure their customers that they’ll receive the best parts that meet and exceed their expectations.