Here at VIP we get all sorts of visitors who get tours of our shop. Throughout the tour, we constantly point out different systems we use to maintain our quality and referencing ISO. However, many companies have no idea of what ISO is and why it’s important. So this post is to discuss what ISO is and how our shop uses a quality system to maintain our quality.So for starters, what is ISO and what does it mean to be ISO certified? The International Organization of Standardization began in 1979, but the standards can be traced back at least 20 years prior to the publication of the United States Department of Defense MIL-Q-9858 standard in 1959. It wasn’t until 1979 when the British Standards Institution (BSI) BS 5750 was submitted to ISO which became a global quality standard. Since then, many countries throughout the world have adopted these standards in order to maintain quality. In order for companies to become ISO certified, they have to meet certain quality management system requirements and go through an auditing process to ensure they are using a system that maintains quality throughout the entire organization.

Now that you have an idea of what it is, you may be asking “well why is this important to me and my company if they are the ones manufacturing my parts?” To work with a manufacturer who is ISO certified, it means that you are working with a company that has demonstrated their system of operations to be of a high standard. The advantage to working with a company that is ISO certified essentially means that you are doing business with the best. Their quality system is robust enough that they have less manufacturing errors, their manufacturing runs more smoothly and more likely to meet on-time deliveries. Overall, working with an ISO certified company means your invested time spend with a company will be well spent. As opposed to a non-certified company, there can be more errors with their operations, less accurate parts, less on-time deliveries which all boils down to time and money lost.

Here at VIP, we have been ISO certified for many years, and still maintain the highest level of quality manufacturing. We are always looking for ways to improve our systems to keep business moving forward. If you are in need of a metal fabrication company, be sure to contact us for a quote.

Stay tuned for our next blog post!