In a press release dated November 24, 2003, mG miniGears S.p.A. (Padova, Italy) and its subsidiary in the United States, mG miniGears North America (Virginia Beach, Virginia), announced that, after undergoing ISO/TS 16949:2000 Quality System audits in October, both facilities have been awarded certification.
"This represents a significant accomplishment towards our strategic corporate initiative in the automotive sector," according to Alexander Bossard, CEO of mG miniGears. "The fact that we were successful with our TS audits at a relatively early stage demonstrates our enduring commitment not only to our automotive customers, but also to all of our customers.
"Our customers can be sure that the gears and assemblies they receive from our company, either from the States or in Europe, have been designed, developed, and manufactured based on a truly world-class system."
ISO/TS 16949 is an international quality system standard specifically formulated for the global automotive industry. It was developed by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) and specifies the quality system requirements for the design, development and production of automotive-related products. The standard successfully harmonizes the supplier quality system requirements of automakers from the U.S., Germany, Italy, France, Japan, and Korea, with the purpose of having a single standard/registration scheme that works for the American, European, and Asian automotive industries. The standard emphasizes an "integrative multidisciplinary systems approach" within an entire organization, focusing not only on product quality but overall company objectives and continuous improvement. In the U.S., DaimlerChrysler, Ford, and GM have announced that they will be expecting their suppliers to be fully registered by December 2004.
In meeting one of its primary objectives for 2003, TS certification puts miniGears in an elite category of just a handful of companies worldwide who are already certified. Many in the industry believe that thousands of companies will rush to get certified in 2004 to meet the deadline imposed by the "Big Three" automakers in the U.S. Meanwhile, mG miniGears will continue optimizing and fine-tuning its processes and systems that make it a very proactive, world-class, and truly global gear manufacturer dedicated to technology, quality, and service. ISO/TS 16949:2000 complements mG miniGears’ already certified ISO-9001:2000 systems.
mG miniGears is a leading designer and manufacturer of custom-engineered gears and gearboxes supplying a broad and diverse group of automotive, industrial, lawn and garden, and power hand tool customers with facilities in Padova, Virginia Beach, and Suzhou, China.
For more information contact Carl Tarantino at (757) 233-7000 ext. 307, or via e-mail at carl.tarantino@minigears.com. Visit the company’s Web site at [www.minigears.com].
