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ISO 9001:2015 Certification Brings New Sales
With the help of: University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services (UT CIS)
About
Applied Thermal Coatings-Combustion Engineering Solutions (ATC-CES) is a small minority owned business offering broad-based engineering, heat treating and coating support to suppliers worldwide. The company was founded in Chattanooga, Tennessee, over thirty years ago and operates with approximately twenty employees. Primary industries served are power, waste-to-energy, and pulp and paper. ATC-CES has extensive experience in diffusion coatings (chromizing, aluminizing, and boronizing) and spray-and-fuse type coatings that improve reliability and durability and superior capabilities in failure analysis, materials characterization, condition assessment, fitness-for-service studies and structural and pressure part design.
The Challenge
In 2017, ATC-CES invested in significantly expanding their engineering capabilities to include a full-service metallurgical lab and an applied welding technology center. While they had identified a robust customer base for these services, several potential new customers requested ISO 9001:2015 certification before entering into service contracts utilizing the new capabilities. Additionally, not having ISO 9001:2015 certification prevented them from being able to submit contract bids in some cases. Realizing that University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services (UT CIS) and the Tennessee Manufacturing Extension Partnership (TMEP), part of the MEP National Network™, had a reputation for results, the President/COO of ATC-CES requested that TMEP assist the company in attaining final ISO 9001:2015 certification.
Greg Ford, the UT-CIS field consultant, was a tremendous help to us; he identified important areas where our quality program was weak and he assisted us in improving the overall strength our processes. He was very accommodating in working with our schedule and he had us well prepared by the time of the audit.
MEP's Role
During a six month period, TMEP completed over 200 hours of ISO 9001:2015 consulting to assist ATC-CES in achieving third party certification. The project included providing a TMEP quality management systems consultant to work closely with the ATC-CES team. The consultant began the project by conducting a two-day gap assessment to the ISO 9001:2015 standards then worked directly with the customer on site to develop and implement processes and procedures to fulfill the ISO requirements. The consultant also provided a three-day internal auditor workshop, facilitated internal audits, conducted a management review, and provided support for preliminary and final registrar audits.
Created August 4, 2022