After 6 years of certification with an ISO registrar, the management of The Robson Company, Inc. has made the decision not to pursue recertification with an ISO certifying body. There are numerous reasons we have made this decision, and I will explain our reasons.
Let me say that The Robson Company firmly believes that a Realistic Quality System Plan and Documentation that is essential to running a company such as ours, and we are very diligent and staying current with all the ISO requirements and actually creating our quality system plan that exceeds the current requirements. I am proud to say that our Plan and Documentation is superior to many companies, large or small.
However, after 6 years of certification, without a single issue in all external audits, we have not seen any proof that having an outside certifying body review our documentation has made our company's quality system better or our company more profitable. On the contrary, the time and money that has been "drained' by the Certification Body, could have been used to make real improvements in quality and operations that benefits our customers and our company. After making this decision at the first of the year, a good example of this, just this year alone, has been to make major continuous improvements, such as developing a Bar Code System, upgrading and improving our engineering software, adding auxiliary equipment to our molding operation for better efficiency and controlling price increases, and adding new machinery to our tooling operations. These real improvements could not have been achieved if money was given to a Certification Body.
Our company has also gained new customers recently, not because of a certificate hanging on the wall, but by the ability to have good documentation and the ability to do a good quality job.
However, after 6 years of certification, without a single issue in all external audits, we have not seen any proof that having an outside certifying body review our documentation has made our company's quality system better or our company more profitable. On the contrary, the time and money that has been "drained' by the Certification Body, could have been used to make real improvements in quality and operations that benefits our customers and our company. After making this decision at the first of the year, a good example of this, just this year alone, has been to make major continuous improvements, such as developing a Bar Code System, upgrading and improving our engineering software, adding auxiliary equipment to our molding operation for better efficiency and controlling price increases, and adding new machinery to our tooling operations. These real improvements could not have been achieved if money was given to a Certification Body.
Our company has also gained new customers recently, not because of a certificate hanging on the wall, but by the ability to have good documentation and the ability to do a good quality job.
I have had companies request our quality systems plan to try to emulate it, which we have refused to share. Since our Plan is unique to our company, and unlike some companies that pay for consultants to develop a plan which is not an honest and functional operating plan, just "smoke and mirrors", ours was developed and formed by our Quality Systems Manager, Dianne Miller, that is a true and honest plan that works and is a living document and quality plan. I have seen and heard of a number of companies that "Purchase" their certification (a company in Philadelphia wanted to "buy" our engineering documentation because they didn't have one and they are QS9000 certified, figure that one out!). Also, just in the Erie area alone, three QS9000 certified companies have gone out of business in the last year. We choose not be part of at statistic.
Our Quality Systems Plan is available and can be reviewed by any customer that wants to verify our operation and we welcome any customer audits that may be needed. I would like to refer to an article in the April 2005 edition of Quality Magazine written by Scott Dalgliesh. His comments verified our decision and sums up our philosophy.
I am sure that any customer would much rather have substance as opposed to wall paper.
Sincerely,
Christopher Robson
President
The Robson Company, Inc.
Our Quality Systems Plan is available and can be reviewed by any customer that wants to verify our operation and we welcome any customer audits that may be needed. I would like to refer to an article in the April 2005 edition of Quality Magazine written by Scott Dalgliesh. His comments verified our decision and sums up our philosophy.
I am sure that any customer would much rather have substance as opposed to wall paper.
Sincerely,
Christopher Robson
President
The Robson Company, Inc.