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Saving Big Dollars on ISO: Tips from Galesburg by Joe Scarry When I talk to CastingTrade users, many of them say, "I hope you'll keep an eye out for ways that small-to-medium size foundries like us can stay competitive." If that's important to you, then you need to take a close look at this article. Nobody needs to explain how important it is today to be able to convince buyers that you have the sophisticated management it takes to ASSURE successful fulfillment of the orders they give you. One critical step in accomplishing this is ISO 9000 registration. (And I won't even go into the concrete benefits of ISO-type management for improving your operations.) So ISO is a must-have marketing tool. But for small-to-medium size foundries, it's often difficult to find the resources (i.e. money) to pay for the ISO registration process. That's why the presentation by Nick Fox of Galesburg Castings Inc. at the AFS Congress in Dallas was so powerful. He explained how his foundry successfully achieved ISO registration while getting over 50% of the cost offset by government funding - amounting to $14,891! Most of the assistance came from a state manufacturing extenstion partnership (in Illinois it's called IMEC) and is available to ANY manufacturer with less than 500 employees. Additional funds came from a related agency called ICCB. Here are the numbers:
(1) ISO Consultant - Galesburg hired a consultant to help with the successful completion of the ISO process. His 8 hours/week of work over a 22 week period cost $14,900. IMEC paid about 67% of that cost -- through a combination of grants and discounts -- for a savings of about $9,983!
(2) Registration Costs - The cost of registration itself, covering the first year, was $9,262 -- including the cost of a pre-assessment, the audit, and documentation. IMEC got a reduction of about 33% for Galesburg (approx. $3,056.50).
(3) A Few Unexpected Costs - To finish the last mile, Galesburg found they needed to do a 2-day retraining course for its employees, at a cost of $3,705. An ICCB "Workforce Preparation Grant" paid 50% of the total cost ($1,852.50).
(4) Paying for Lost Time - A big indirect cost issue with ISO is working time lost in training: Galesburg had to page 1350 worker-hours of wages for time spent in ISO training (instead of on the production floor). Fortunately, IMEC reimbursed Galesburg for 25% of those training hours!
The result? Galesburg now has a valuable ISO accreditation - a $27,867 value (not counting indirect training costs) for which they got $14,891 in direct assistance! Most of this assistance is provided at the state level. Go to http://www.mep.nist.gov/index3.html and click on the map to find the office to contact in YOUR area. Presentations like Nick's are a concrete example of how AFS is trying to help ALL small-to-medium size foundries be more competitive in today's marketplace. And we owe a debt of gratitude to Galesburg for sharing their financial data in order to benefit the rest of the industry!