| The Company
Virginia Industries for the Blind (VIB) is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for persons who are blind by providing opportunities for career development. Established over eight decades ago as a not-for-profit organization offering vocational rehabilitation for blind Virginians, VIB is a self-funded division of the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired (DBVI). Currently VIB has two manufacturing locations – in Charlottesville and in Richmond. The scope of this project was at the Charlottesville facility, which presently has 40 employees.
The Situation
The Charlottesville manufacturing facility was encouraged by a primary customer to pursue certification toward the ISO 9001:2008 Standard for continuing business. Through VIB’s National Industries for the Blind (NIB) affiliation and encouragement, the Alabama affiliate recommended VIB seek their state’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) as they had done for similar assistance.
In January 2009, VIB sought assistance from GENEDGE ALLIANCE (formerly VPMEP) for conducting an assessment to ascertain the status of an existing Quality Management System (QMS) relative to the ISO 9001:2008 Standard at the Charlottesville location. GENEDGE ALLIANCE is the designated affiliate of the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The Response
A project summary report detailing the Readiness Assessment (Gap Analysis) findings was issued in February 2009. The assessment identified numerous critical elements in VIB’s existing QMS requiring improvement or full development over the course of the implementation. As a result VIB decided it would register to the ISO 9001 standard for future business as well as for maintaining continuing business with a primary customer.
GENEDGE assigned Project Manager Frank Watson to develop a proposal for an ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System (QMS) Implementation Assistance project at the Charlottesville facility. GENEDGE’s structured approach worked to develop and implement a system achieving the objectives of increasing customer satisfaction, business profitability and competitiveness, and in turn prepare for a possible audit by an independent third party registrar for ISO registration.
As part of the implementation project, the following actions were taken:
- A Gap study at the Charlottesville manufacturing plant
- ISO familiarization session
- Policy manual development
- Internal Auditor Training
- Procedures and records development
- Coaching on auditing
- GENEDGE ALLIANCE auditing
- GENEDGE ALLIANCE 3rd party Pre-pre-assessment
- Registrar Pre-assessment
- Coaching for registration audit
The Results
- $1.93 MM in retained sales
- $34,575 investments in staff training related to project
- 11 jobs retained
Management’s Comments
“The ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System provides a disciplined framework for keeping business on a course of continuous improvement. It provides a vehicle to keep the entire organization engaged in the quality improvement process. GENEDGE ALLIANCE provided a template, training, review and advice to move from the existing quality program to a recognized ISO 9001:2008 Registration.” - Gary Peltier, Manager – Marketing, Quality and Special Projects
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