Along with most organisations, West Yorkshire Steel in Wetherby braced itself for the credit crunch – but business is literally flying!
West Yorkshire Steel was established over 30 years ago to supply speciality steel to engineering companies and mills in Yorkshire but now boasts a customer base throughout Europe and the US.
It has just won its largest ever contract from a company that manufactures parts for the aircraft industry – but the order came close to never getting off the ground.
Director Duncan Ellis explained: “We had a well established relationship with the customer but they told us that unless we had ISO9001, they wouldn’t be able to do business with us any more. Although we had our own quality system, it was not recognised to an industry Standard. Getting ISO certification was on our agenda but this news really shocked us into action.”
The company has a high profile web presence and it also uses the web to source products and services. Duncan said: “When we were looking to implement ISO9001, it was the first place we turned to and quickly found ISO in a Box.
“The name really appealed and the website was very informative. We contacted Equas SmartPro, along with other potential suppliers and following the initial presentation from the Equas SmartPro consultant, we concluded that ISO in a Box would be a simple yet highly effective quality management system.”
West Yorkshire Steel opted for a full system build: “We were so busy that we didn’t have the time or the people resource to devote to an assisted build,” said Duncan. A time scale of three months was set for obtaining certification and all went to plan. Their consultant scrutinised all aspects of the business – from an initial enquiry from a customer or potential customer, right through to collecting the cash.
“It all slotted into place like a jigsaw,” said Duncan. Our consultant was constantly on hand, either personally or via email to ensure all the procedures were put in place to meet the standards for our external audit. Everything went according to plan and we received our certification.
“The whole procedure has actively changed the focus of the company and we are better able to assist customers with quality based issues, which is essential when supplying a high value specialised product. Not only did we land the contract with the aircraft parts manufacturer but won a further significant order from an oil company and that just wouldn’t have been possible without ISO in a Box,” concluded Duncan.
Learn more about ISA 9001
