Applied Component Technology (ACT), which employs nearly 60 people at its factory in Clywedog Road South, Wales, secured the accreditation after just 11 months
It will help to retain and attract new work from the car manufacturers and Tier Ones, which currently accounts for 85% of the firm’s £7 million turnover.
The accreditation has also seen the company strengthen its quality performance with PPM scores down to single digit, just-in-time delivery at 100% and a new product safety focus that goes above and beyond customer requirements.
Comments ACT quality manager Davydd Popple: “We first started looking at the process in December 2016 and knew immediately that we had to get everyone on board, so quickly arranged for all areas of the business to understand what was involved and how they would contribute. This quickly moved into setting up small teams of people, who would look at the different functions and how we could break down the new IATF requirements into manageable chunks.
“It was an approach that undoubtedly worked. Our already robust processes are even better and we now have either removed risk or come up with mitigating actions for everything we do, whether it is a product, process or service.
“With IATF 16949 being so closely aligned with the recent update to ISO9001, I took the opportunity to integrate our management system so we are now certified to both ISO9001:2015 and IATF16949:2016. The ISO certification allows ACT to diversify into non-automotive products, which will help us secure new business in other key markets.”
