Quality Management System | American Friction Welding

Quality Policy

American Friction Welding’s mission and policy continue to support our customers’ success by consistently delivering products on time that meet or exceed their requirements and expectations.

American Friction Welding’s management is committed to continually improving the effectiveness of the quality program and the business system. The entire organization at American Friction Welding is to seek and implement the best process available to serve our customers.

Each employee is considered important in their contribution in reaching our goals.

Customer Success is the Key to Our Success!

Certification Process

To achieve ISO 9001:2015

AFW had to lay the groundwork for a quality management and manufacturing roadmap. This required the team to implement a business plan that defined a systematic approach to managing our service processes so that we consistently turned out products that satisfied our customers’ expectations and that would meet the auditing standards set forth by ISO Standards.

Part of this certification management plan was to ensure consistency throughout our process:

Acquisition of quality materials
Craftsmanship of a friction weld
Implementation of quality control standards
Inspection of the pieces
Inventory control

The Quality Management System (QMS) team’s drive was to build a level of confidence that would attract new business in the industries that AFW serves.

To quote our QMS team leader, “We outlined a plan and thoroughly went through each step of our process to ensure that the corrective and preventative measures were in place to meet this goal. It took years of preparation and implementation, but it was worth the effort.”

Inspection Samples

ISO 9000 Essentials

ISO has developed over 18,000 International Standards on a variety of subjects. Over 1100 new ISO standards are published every year. The full range of technical fields can be seen from the International Standards Listing.

The ISO 9000 Series of Standards pertain to the ISO’s best-known management system standards and their impact on the world. Originally issued in 1987, it has been reissued with several revisions to update the standards and make the documentation more user-friendly.

ISO 9001:2008

ISO 9001:2000 introduced a simple process model for structuring and implementing a contemporary quality management system (QMS). Using that same model, the ISO 9001:2008 contains the requirements for quality management systems, as well as flexibility by not implying uniformity of these systems.

ISO 9001:2008 is implemented by over a million organizations throughout 176 countries. It is based on the following 8 principles, derived from ISO 9001:2005:

Customer Focus
Leadership
Involvement of People
Process Approach
System Approach to Management
Continual Improvement
Factual Approach to Decision Making
Mutually-beneficial Supplier Relationships

Source of ISO information:
Cianfrani, C., Tsiakals, J. & West, J. (2009).
ISO 9001:2008 Explained. Milwaukee, WI: ASQ Quality Press.

Download ISO Certificate

Putting Quality Principles to Work Every Day

Quality Assurance is not an abstract concept at AFW. Our Quality Assurance Manager works directly on the plant floor. Responsibilities run from job start to final inspection.