Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 21, 1993 TAG: 9305210143
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Precision - a maker of fabric used for parachutes, computer ribbons, sleeping bags, water filters and window shades - is one of the first companies in the Roanoke Valley to be certified as meeting the International Standards Organization 9001 standard.
Ali Khan, plant manager, said he thinks it is the first textile firm to achieve the 9001 standard, the highest in the series granted by the international organization, based in Geneva.
The Ingersoll-Rand Rock Drill Division and the AMP Inc. plant, both in Roanoke County, also earned the ISO 9001 certification within the last three months. Ingersoll-Rand's plant "worked pretty hard" for the certificate "which almost guarantees good quality," said Ernie Hinck, vice president and plant manager.
The certification is important in the United States, but it's almost required to do business in Europe, Hinck said.
Khan told a news conference that the documentation at Precision Fabrics' 650-employee plant comes after "almost two years of hard work . . . and prepares us for global certification."
The recognition was presented by Reg Blake, business development manager for the Washington office of British Standards Institution, a certification firm. Three representatives of his agency checked the performance of Precision Fabrics for three days, a "very intensive" process to be reviewed every six months.
Certification "is the easy part. It's difficult to maintain it," Blake said.
He said his agency received 5,500 applications for certification last year. He expects 2,000 U.S. companies to be certified under the ISO series by the end of the year.
Khan said the 9001 certificate covers standards in manufacturing, design, service, research and development, and final inspection of the product.
Applying for certification brings discipline, Khan said, "and that minimizes errors throughout the plant." Productivity rises when errors are reduced, he added.
A core group of employees worked extra time at night "trying to make the system perfect," Khan said. And the employees say the new standards "are really helping them."
The plant had a good quality system, he said, but the ISO certification provides a procedure to document the improvement "and it brings it all together."
He described the process in three steps: knowing what you're doing, documenting what you do and doing what you write down.
To mark the certification, Tom McClure, vice president for manufacturing at Precision Fabrics' Greensboro, N.C., headquarters, gave the plant a flag made from the company's fabric. The message on the flag was: "Quality is an international language." Sister plants at Greensboro and Jamestown, N.C., also won the ISO recognition.
In its 55 years, the Vinton plant has grown from 200 employees producing 150 square yards of fabric a week to the 650 people who turn out almost 3 million square yards weekly on high-speed machines. More than $70 million has been invested at the Vinton plant in the past 15 years, Khan said.
by CNB