Manufacturer Responds to Market Demand: Implements ISO to Retain Customers and Expand Markets
BACKGROUND:
Newark Industrial Spraying Inc. is a family owned, full service coating company, specializing in prototype and production liquid and powder coating. The Newark N.J. company has been in business for over 65 years, employees 15 and has annual sales of $1,500,000.
Applications include industrial, promotional & display products; sheet metal cabinets; control panels; tubular frames; racks, castings; stampings; brackets & boxes. The company can meet small-to-high volume production runs making it an ideal supplier to a broad range of industries.
CHALLENGE:
The marketplace is changing for many industries, manufacturing in particular. Quality Assurance is becoming a requirement. Companies want to ascertain that their suppliers have systems and standards in place to assure there is consistency in their products. Faced with losing its biggest client because the company wasn’t ISO Certified, Newark Industrial Spraying Inc. set out to assure that would not happen.
Craig Sacerdote of European Quality Assurance LLC contacted New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program, Inc. (NJMEP) to explain that his client needed assistance with training and obtaining their ISO certification. He also explained that the company, Newark Industrial Spraying, is interested in any grants available for this training and asked NJMEP to please call Rick Wantz, President/Owner of the company.
SOLUTION:
NJMEP met with Mr. Wantz, provided an overview of NJMEP, explained the ISO Process and the availability of New Jersey Department of Labor (NJDOL) Training Grants. Working closely together to complete the grant application requirements… grant compliance letters, narrative statement, training plan, etc., the application was submitted and awarded. NJMEP brought in a third party specialist to immediately begin the training in ISO Quality Systems/Management. Courses included:
- ISO Overview
- Quality Policy & Objectives
- Process Review & Leadership
- Document Control
- Quality Manual Development
- Procedure Development Training
- Employee Understanding & Involvement
- Internal Auditor Training
- Management Review Workshop
RESULTS:
When completing the grant close-out report, Mr. Wantz indicated that, “The training program generated a lot of interest within the company resulting in more actual training participants than initially anticipated. The NJMEP resource, Linette Geisel from Prism Solutions was wonderful to work with and did a great job putting everything together.”
Upon completion of the training an internal ISO Audit was performed.
- Rather than losing the company’s best customer, which would have resulted in a loss of one third to one half its customer base and downsizing, the company retained $400,000 in sales, brought in new sales of $10,000 and retained 6 employees that would have lost their jobs.
- $22,000 was saved in training costs as a result of the investment by the State of New Jersey by way of the NJDOL grant.
- In addition, the company realized an overall cost savings of $75,000.
When speaking about the project, Mr. Wantz added, “The training we received under this Grant increased our productivity as well as our cost structure therefore we are more competitive and have minimized the headcount reductions that would have occurred had we not implemented this training program. NJMEP and its third party resource were extremely helpful in teaching these manufacturing related courses. Their expertise was instrumental in enabling us to realize improvements to our operation.
NJMEP’s Main Service Areas:
- Business Development Services
- Contingency and Emergency Planning
- Destination Innovation
- Energy Alliance Program
- ExporTech™
- Human Resources Solutions
- Lean Business Solutions
- Quality Management Systems & ISO
- R&D Tax Credits
- Six Sigma
- Supply Chain, Transportation and Logistics Services