What does a company based in rural Kansas do when they need to find specialized expertise to help them improve their business? If the company is Osborne Industries Inc., an international manufacturer with U.S. headquarters in Osborne, Kansas, you turn to MAMTC and the latest Internet technology.
When company management decided they wanted to make ISO 9001 registration a top priority, they found their rural Kansas location made it difficult to find the guidance they needed to work through the process until they turned to MAMTC.
MAMTC’s Anne Brown of Garden City, KS partnered with her MAMTC colleagues in Wichita to manage the long distance project and identify an ISO quality consultant to facilitate a virtual ISO preparation course. ISO 9001 requires long-term preparation and detailed documentation of business practices.
Over a span of nine months, scheduled two hour meetings were conducted via Internet Net-Meeting four times each month with Osborne Quality Control Manager Ron Sturgeon. Communication over the Internet allowed them to discuss quality issues while simultaneously reviewing the required ISO documentation. As Osborne’s ISO documentation was being developed, each person on the call could see changes being made in real time, while talking through the issues as the updates occurred.
“Using the Internet in the preparation process was much more convenient for us,” said Osborne Quality Assurance Manager Ron Sturgeon. “While working on our Quality Policy Manual, System Procedures Manual and other levels of documentation, the ability to review, make recommendations and discuss implementation via the Internet was extremely useful.”
The preparation also included four on-site visits by a qualified ISO consultant. During the entire process, the company’s quality documentation was reviewed continuously, thus eliminating most of the redundancies and problems sometimes associated with ISO document development.
Following the virtual preparation, Osborne Industries spent about eight months implementing the consultant’s recommendations. The company attained ISO registration in October, 2000. Achieving ISO registration is a major accomplishment – to many businesses around the world it signals the highest level of quality. Senior management anticipates that over the long term, the quality registration will result in lower costs and may enhance international sales.
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