Oneonta, New York, January 27, 2005

MAMCO’s ISO efforts raise standards

MAMCO, a worldwide supplier of custom-manufactured injection molds, has launched an upgrade of its ISO/TS management systems to bolster its automotive parts business, David Vergari, the company’s president, announced today.

The ISO 9001:2000 certification with TS 16969:2002 compliance is expected by summer 2005, Vergari said, and was prompted by new customer specific requirements driven by the automotive industry.

Created in 1947, ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 146 countries, all coordinated by a central secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. ISO standards help make development, manufacturing and supply of products and services more efficient, safer and cleaner.

According to Jon Melkonian, a consultant with XL Inc., a provider of ISO/TS business management systems support, “ISO is a system with a structure in place to supply resources to solve problems. The difficulty comes back to management, because management doesn’t understand that this is a business system.”
MAMCO first earned ISO/QS 9000 certification in 1998. For its more recent upgrade efforts, Melkonian instituted a performance gap analysis to compare the company’s current processes to those required by the new certification. From that analysis, he then creates a timeline for meeting those requirements and assigns specific tasks for meeting the goals:
  1. Identify your processes;
  2. Identify what data you are collecting, and determine whether it is valuable to you;
  3. Revalidate your customer requirements; and
  4. Develop internal auditors with the ability to assess themselves.
Once the gap analysis and self assessments are completed, Melkonian plans to return to MAMCO in March to conduct an internal audit training session for employees and then develop a quality systems manual for the company.
“We often shoot from the hip to solve problems. We might fix them today, but we do not prevent them from reoccurring,” explained Melkonian. “Customers don’t like problems happening a second time.”


About XL, Inc.
Based in Greenville, South Carolina, XL, Inc is a provider of custom based quality / business consulting and training to organizations that desire to improve their efficiencies and effectiveness in meeting and exceeding customer expectations and in the process, achieve ISO 9001:2000 and/or TS 16949:2002 certification. Clients include: Tempur Pedic, Woodward Governor, Timken Corporation, Barber-Colman, Meritor Heavy Vehicle Systems LLC, to name a few. For more information, visit www.iso-qs9000.net.