Forging ahead

Based in Roseville, Minnesota, Innovative Metal Fabrication Inc manufactures precision sheet metal component parts for customers throughout the region. Established in 2001, the company was guided by IMSM to meet ISO 9000 standards at the beginning of last year and was awarded certification by QAS in May 2003.

IMF's Office Manager and ISO Representative, Katie Jensen, told Quest: "We thought certification would be a long process, but it was not - it took just 3-4 months. Now with a complete program in place, we are seeing a number of benefits. Employee training is easier to implement, tracking orders is straightforward, our employees are now more involved in quality control, and our overall shop management is more controlled. With our guidelines set, customer satisfaction is assured."

Katie told us that productivity has also improved. "We now have less rework and are more effective in our overall performance. We have also noticed improved staff motivation and efficiency. Our current customers are very satisfied and excited with our new certification to ISO. This gives them more confidence in working with a company with such high standards of documentation and overall process of their orders.

"We were very pleased with IMSM's overall knowledge, response time, and how friendly the representatives were. They complemented our efforts, making the certification process more adaptable to us. The service was excellent."

Email kjensen@zennet.net