Our company has recently been registered to the ISO 9001:2000 quality standard. This document tries to explain what this means to you.

What is ISO ?

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from some 100 countries, one from each country. ISO is a non-governmental organization established in 1947. The mission of ISO is to promote the development of standardization and related activities in the world with a view to facilitating the international exchange of goods and services, and to developing cooperation in the spheres of intellectual, scientific, technological and economic activity.

• ensuring that correct raw materials or support services are procured;
• ensuring that inspection is adequately defined and adequately conducted by trained persons;
• always using equipment which is up to the task; (whether manufacturing, testing or measuring)
• ensuring personnel are properly trained and supported while carrying out their duties;
• ensuring that the information gained from problems is properly analyzed; (to ensure mistakes are not repeated)

What's involved in achieving registration?

ISO 9001:2000 requires that you have a documented system, which describes how you address each of the twenty subsections of the standard. These include, but are not limited to:

• How you select your suppliers
• What information should be included on your purchase orders
• What checks you make on in-coming goods
• What checks you make on out-going items
• How you control equipment used to produce or test the items
• How you make sure that your staff are trained to do their jobs
• The checks that you make to ensure that the system is working properly
• How you record and collect information about problems that are encountered
• How you control the various documents used in your organization, so that wrong versions are not used

ISO 9001:2000 will provide you with a higher level of assurance in the organization that provided the service, or manufactured the item that you have purchased or are considering. This firm will be able to consistently deliver a higher level of quality goods and services. This will have been confirmed by an independent set of assessors, with no bias one way or the other, to determine if the organization has considered and addressed in some relevant manner, the twenty sections of the standard. This level of consideration will usually mean that the organization concerned will be better than those which have not undertaken ISO 9001:2000.

How does Macmor deliver Quality?

Through a highly refined set of established business processes, which are completely documented in our Quality Assurance manual. In order to fully explain these processes, let’s follow a typical sales order through our company.

Order Entry.

When an order for goods is received from a customer, we immediately verify the appropriate pricing is being charged through our Quotes system. We then record the demand in our Order Entry system, and produce a Packing Slip, which is forwarded to our Warehouse operations for shipping. All packing slips illustrate the expected quantity on hand and the warehouse location code for each item ordered by the customer. This helps to ensure the warehouse personnel can complete the order correctly. We also record other important information, such as the time the order was received and who coded the order.

Each morning our purchasing department receives an analysis detailing all items where the expected supply of goods does not appear to be sufficient to satisfy demand in the immediate future. This analysis includes information such as the quantity demanded, the quantity which we have outstanding from our sources, the expected arrival date, and a 12 month historical analysis of sales for these items. With this information, our purchasing is able to make proactive buying decisions on a daily basis using timely accurate data.

Expediting.

Our administrative personnel regularly expedite virtually all of our outstanding orders with our suppliers to ensure any required goods are in fact due to be delivered when expected. Our suppliers are warned about not being able to produce the products within the expected arrival dates received when we placed our orders with them. This ensures we maintain timely and accurate information about the state of our ability to deliver on our back orders to our customers.

Receiving

Our internal receiving department, when processing items received, records the aisle and bin location where the item is stored, and checks the state of demand for each item received from the supplier. In those unusual instances where it is found that there exists a demand for an item, the order entry department is immediately notified. The customer order is reprinted and forwarded to our shipping department. All receipts are checked a second time and verified as accurate prior to being allowed into our inventories.

Shipping

Our shipping department endeavors to complete all outbound orders within twenty-four hours. Orders which are tagged with special conditions are treated as such. Each completed outgoing order is checked a second time and verified as accurate prior to being released from our building. All completed orders are returned to our Order Entry department to be invoiced. Completed orders are typically invoiced the same day they are shipped.

Our company has implemented an Event Management System, which is used to track all events that affect our ability to deliver goods and services to our customers. All incidents are logged as they occur, and all company employees are immediately notified of the event through our internal email system. This enables the appropriate people to take immediate action. Our sales reps can notify their customers of any delivery problems. Our purchasing can take steps to re-supply our needs. Our management can intervene when necessary. All logged events are reviewed through weekly departmental meetings to ensure all events are properly completed and closed. Each meeting must also address the state of our internal processes to determine if we can continue to improve them. All suppliers are advised when they come to see us about the quantity and types of errors encountered as a result of the products or services they provide to us. When a supplier has many of these events, they are invited to do all they can to ensure further problems are not encountered!

In closing

As we all move into the new millenium, it is no longer sufficient to simply attempt to sell competitively. The whole planet is becoming one large global marketplace where the lowest price for a given product does not always deliver to the best value. Under these conditions the newest buzzword is "Partnering" whereby companies are beginning to understand their interests are best served through the forging of new long lasting relationships with both customer and supplier. We hope that our customers and suppliers see us as a worthwhile partner, able to consistently deliver quality products and services through our enhanced business processes, for their day to day business needs.