KME, a manufacturer of specialty vehicles for the fire-rescue, aviation, petro-chemical, industrial, energy and military industries, has received its certification from TÜV SÜD America Inc. after they assessed the company’s quality system and found it to be in compliance with ISO 9001:2008. TÜV’s is accredited as a registrar by ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB), the organization responsible for qualifying registrars as competent to audit and certify organizations conforming to ISO 9001 or other management system standards.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from 130 countries. Its ISO 9001 standard is a quality assurance model made up of 20 sets of quality system requirements. This model applies to organizations that design, develop, produce, install, and service products. ISO expects organizations to apply this model, and to meet these requirements by developing a quality system.
KME’s quality policy is “Excellence-Right from the Start” and they have developed a quality and business management system manual designed to support this policy at all KME locations. According to KME’s CEO, John Kovatch III, “We have always had a strict quality control system, but the additional structure of the ISO 9001 registration has helped us to improve all areas of our company including sales, purchasing, inventory control, quality assurance, manufacturing, engineering, and customer service. I’m pleased to report that our personnel at all locations have embraced the system to assure that our customers receive excellent products and services with an ongoing commitment to continuous improvement.”
Bob Krajcirik, KME’s Director of Quality Assurance states, “While no policy by itself assures product quality, KME achieved this certification in a relatively short period of time because it already had a commitment to a documented process of continuous improvement. This investment is a natural path given KME’s substantial growth and commitment to excellence for all of our customers around the world.”
KME is a leading custom manufacturer of a full range of specialty vehicles for military, industrial, commercial, aviation and municipal markets. Additional information on KME can be found at www.kovatch.com.
