PolyChem Alloy of Lenoir Goes Global with ISO

PolyChem Alloy Inc. of Lenoir, a global supplier of polymer compounds and additives to a myriad of industries, recently obtained the global seal of approval for quality assurance known as ISO certification, providing market presence and sustainability.

“We now have the ability to say we’re an ISO 9001-approved company,” said company founder and president Chak Gupta. He realized ISO certification would bolster the principles the company was founded upon: to strive for manufacturing excellence and to exceed quality standards. ISO 9001:2000 is the internationally recognized quality standard from the International Organization for Standardization.

“The reason for pursuing ISO is to authenticate the validity of our internal quality standards,” he said. “This gives comfort and assurance to all of our customers as more and more companies require ISO approval of their vendors.”

He gives much of the credit to North Carolina State University for reaching that quality pinnacle and to IES specialist Barbara Williams in particular for sticking with them through the past three years of striving.

The company, started in the basement of Gupta’s home in 1989, now spreads over a 15-acre site with two manufacturing plants and an administrative building with a mountaintop view.

Initially, a consultant was hired to help with ISO certification. Before the company was to be audited, PCA called North Carolina State University’s ISO specialists Williams and Phil Mintz to give a pre-assessment audit. It didn’t go well. Williams and Mintz made it clear that PolyChem Alloy wasn’t nearly ready for an ISO audit. They had to start over.

Celebration

Three years later, after achieving ISO 9001:2000, Williams and Mintz presented the company with a banner congratulating them during an employee appreciation luncheon.

PolyChem Alloy’s road to ISO may have taken longer than most because the pace of its growth kept taking attention away from ISO – but never for long. Gupta never considered giving up for two reasons: to make significant improvements to internal processes and to fortify PCA’s positioning and presence in the global marketplace.

“We were forced to look inside at the holes in our system,” Gupta said. “To rectify it we had to have proper procedures in place and then put them in action.” ISO forced the entire staff to quantify quality.

PolyChem Alloy annually produces more than 30 million pounds of plastics additives and master batches. These compounds are used in a wide variety of applications ranging from automotive to medical to food packaging to transportation.

Given today’s economy and need to maximize the workforce, employees are required to multitask, often wearing many hats, said Heather Justice, human resource manager and ISO management representative. By creating flow diagrams for each process, employees understood not only how to do a job, but why it was critical from a quality perspective. “It really helped to define roles and responsibilities and removed ambiguities,” she said.

Wider Perspective

The high level of documentation required by ISO works on several levels. Employees seem to understand the business from a wider perspective and better understand capital resource allocation. Managers refer to the ISO standards when leading employees, thus removing bias and conflict. “OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) need not question our internal quality procedures, as the ISO seal of approval substantiates the existence and validity of our quality standards,” Gupta said.

Gupta credits NC State for its success. “We’re personally extremely impressed with Barbara’s expertise,” he said.

Justice agreed: “Barbara’s understanding of the ISO standards is so thorough that she is able to quickly make sense of the ISO language and relate actual examples from our own internal processes to the intent of the standard. During training sessions with Barbara, our ISO team would often say, ’Oh – so that’s what that means.’ Without this type of assistance, the task of deciphering the intent of the standard would have been especially daunting. She is always available and goes the extra mile. We wouldn’t have gotten ISO approval [registration] without her.”

PCA has allocated its resources to complement the emerging technical needs with the opening of a technology center for research and development with on-site microbiology testing capabilities.

“Our success is strengthened by considering environmentally and eco-friendly products for our customers and providing a safe environment for the employees,” Gupta said. “Triangulation of the relationship with the customers and suppliers is possible because everyone within the company takes ownership in the ISO protocol for quality. It is now a part of our culture.”

These days the company’s potential reaches far beyond the mountainous horizon outside his office window.