Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Automotive Supplier Achieves IATF 16949:2016 Certification and Expands Business

About

Ingevity Corporation provides specialty chemicals, high-performance carbon materials and engineered polymers that purify, protect, and enhance the world around us. Specifically, the company’s plant in Waynesboro, Georgia, makes a carbon honeycomb filter used to collect automotive gas emissions within a vehicle and reuse them, rather than release them into the atmosphere.

The Challenge

In 2016, after a series of automotive recalls (unrelated to Ingevity) the entire industry worked to improve quality standards. Many automotive OEMs began to require new certifications for companies in their supply chain. Even though Ingevity already had a quality management system in place and was certified to ISO 9001 and its automotive supplement, TS16949, the company needed to certify to the new, more stringent automotive- quality standard, IATF16949:2016, by September 2018, to maintain its customer base.

In addition, due to changes in Environmental Protection Agency emission regulations for vehicles sold in the United States, the company’s product was suddenly in high demand among many automotive manufacturers. Because of this, the company was simultaneously in a period of tremendous growth and expansion and many of the staff members who would have been tasked with implementing the new quality system were already working on other projects.

Chuck Sabo, quality systems manager, quickly realized that his team needed some help and reached out to Elliot Price, Augusta Region Manager, who connected them with a GaMEP project manager and quality management system expert, Ade Shitta-Bey. GaMEP at Georgia Tech is part of the MEP National Network™.

GaMEP has been an incredible resource for our company. Utilizing their services helps us to be successful, which is important to us because it allows us to give back to our employees and our community in a meaningful way.

— Chuck Sabo, Quality Systems Manager

MEP's Role

Shitta-Bey completed an executive overview of the new standard with the company and then worked with members of the implementation team one-on-one, to help them better understand the new requirements and apply them to their product and facility. In addition, she worked with the team to update their processes to meet the standard.

Sabo said, “Working with Ade was not only necessary to get the job done on time, but was also a wonderful experience. She is passionate and dedicated to quality. Her enthusiasm gets people excited and helps them to understand how important it is to not only put the system in place, but to stick to it day in and day out.”

Created August 4, 2022