Apple Rubber Products, Inc. is an AS9100 Rev. D and ISO 9001:2015 Certified Company.
What does this mean?
For starters, it means that our company is certified by a couple of universal standards. This tells the world that we have a quality management system based on an accepted platform, meaning that no matter where you are in the world you can order from our company and be assured that you will get a quality product you can count on. In today’s post COVID-19 world, that means something.
The AS9100 Standard is for aerospace and defense customers, and the ISO 9001 Standard is for all business platforms. These standards are designed by the AS and ISO communities to ensure that quality management systems are up to the task of promptly providing quality parts. Our policy is to maximize our ability to deliver quality products that meet or exceed our customers’ requirements.
One might ask, how is this done? Well, it takes many people committed to world class operations to keep us on point and doing our best every day. To make sure we are following the standard’s requirements, we not only audit our own quality system, but also have outside companies called “registrars” audit for us. Registars come in to audit us at least once a year, ensuring that we meet all of the standard’s requirements.
The requirements are broken down into seven main categories. These categories are (1) Context of the Organization, (2) Leadership, (3) Planning, (4) Support, (5) Operations, (6) Performance Evaluation, and (7) Improvement. The registrar audits the entire company to make sure each area meets all of the requirements outlined in the standards. They give us an honest assessment of how we are doing, what we have done well, and what things we can improve upon.
One of the actions we discussed in our latest audit was risk management. While our system meets the basics of the requirements, our auditor showed us how to improve our system and make it more robust. Focusing on a task that may be risky such as a short lead time on an order means figuring out how to mitigate the risk and make sure our customer’s products are delivered on time. Accomplishing this is no small task considering recent supplier material shortages and shipping issues.
Risk is all about determining potential impacts on the end user by reviewing probability, consequences, and fallouts. Following this assessment, we put a system in place to reduce that risk. Maybe the solution is finding another backup supplier or shifting priorities to increase production. However, the company ultimately decides the best course of action to reduce overall risk to the customer. That way, we meet our customer’s expectations and meet our goals as a company.
In conclusion, our registrar had some great things to say about our company. We are constantly meeting all of our goals in spite of these challenging times. We have a great ERP system in IQMS that has an integrated quality management system. IQMS allows us to easily track our sales, purchasing, design, manufacturing, and quality processes, ensuring that we are doing our best for our customers, our own company, and our employees so that we can continue to succeed well into the future. We are currently celebrating our 50th year in business, and we would like to be around for the next 50. Having a certified company helps ensure that we will.