Quality Management System

Commercial Plating Company: Innovating and Exceeding Quality Standards

The Arlington Plating Company’s Quality Management System follows the guidelines of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). ISO was established in 1947. Its purpose was to create global standards that companies around the world can use. Following these strict guidelines assures that a company has consistency in all aspects of the running of their organization and achieving their quality policy and objectives.

We are certified to the ISO 9001:2015 standard. This means that we have established procedures throughout all areas of our company that follow the ISO 9001:2008 guidelines. This includes procedures for Purchasing, Sales, Human Resources, all areas of Production, Quality, Maintenance, Shipping and Receiving. We have been certified since March 2007.

To be certified means that beyond the internal audits that our team performs on various departments and processes, an independent 3rd party auditor comes to our company annually to audit us. The auditor will review our internal audits, corrective actions, gauge calibration records, Management Review Meeting minutes along with all of the supporting documentation that accompanies the aforementioned activities. The auditor reviews all of the information to ensure there are no non-conformances to the standard.

Arlington Plating Company addresses issues that arise through our Corrective Action process. We use the 8 Disciple (8-D) approach to problem solving.

This 8 step approach consists of:

  1. Planning
  2. Establishing a multi-functional team
  3. Defining the problem
  4. Creating a containment plan with interim actions
  5. Determine the root cause(s)
  6. Determine and implement permanent corrective action(s)
  7. Validate that the corrective action(s) were effective
  8. Establish measures that prevent the issue from reoccurring

We use various problem solving tools such as the Ishikawa Fishbone diagram, the 5 Whys and other tools. These are established and effective tools that ensure a company is using a methodical approach to correctly determine the root cause of an issue, identify suitable corrective action measures and verify that the corrective actions resolve the issue and eliminate any recurrence.

This same 8-D Corrective Action process is also used towards Continuous Improvement at Arlington Plating Company. Through Pareto Analysis we establish which internal concerns need to be addressed in what order. Through this process we are able to further develop our system to improve yields, productivity and efficiencies, all with the goal of improving customer satisfaction.