ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFICATION

Certification Process

To receive ISO 9001:2008 certification, AFW had to lay the groundwork for a quality management and manufacturing road map. This required us to implement a business plan that defined a systematic approach to managing our service processes so that we consistently turned out products that satisfied our customers' expectations and that would meet the auditing standards set forth by ISO Standards.

Part of this certification management plan was to ensure consistency throughout our process:

• Design and engineering of a
  custom component
• Acquisition of quality materials
• Craftsmanship of a friction weld
• Implementation of quality control standards
• Inspection of the pieces
• Inventory control

The Quality Management System (QMS) team's drive was to build a level of confidence that would attract new business in the industries that AFW serves.

To quote our QMS team leader, "We outlined a plan and thoroughly went through each step of our process to ensure that the corrective and preventative measures were in place to meet this goal. It took years of preparation and implementation, but it was worth the effort."

ISO 9001:2008 Certified

View our ISO 9001:2008 Certificate (PDF) 

ISO 9000 Essentials of
Quality Management

ISO has developed over 18,000 International Standards on a variety of subjects. Over 1100 new ISO standards are published every year. The full range of technical fields can be seen from the International Standards Listing.

The ISO 9000 Series of Standards pertain to the ISO's best known management system standards and their impact on the world. Originally issued in 1987, it has been reissued with several revisions to update the standards and make the documentation more user-friendly.

ISO 9001:2008

ISO 9001:2000 introduced a simple process model for structuring and implrementing a contemporary quality managment system (QMS). Using that same model, the ISO 9001:2008 contains the requirements for quality managment systems, as well as flexibility by not implying uniformity of these systems.

ISO 9001:2008 is implemented by over a million organizations throughout 176 countries. It is based on the following 8 principles, derived from ISO 9001:2005:

1. Customer Focus
2. Leadership
3. Involvement of People
4. Process Approach
5. System Approach to Management
6. Continual Improvement
7. Factual Approach to Decision Making
8. Mutually-beneficial Supplier Relationships

Source of ISO information:
Cianfrani, C., Tsiakals, J. & West, J. (2009).
ISO 9001:2008 Explained. Milwaukee, WI: ASQ Quality Press.

"We want to continually maintain our leadership role in the friction welding industry
for all the capabilities that we offer and all the industries that we serve."