Mercury Corporation Achieves AS9100 Certification

Mercury Corporation recently announced that the company has been certified as meeting the requirements of AS9100, a widely adopted and standardized quality management system for the aerospace industry.

Founded in 1920, the company is into its fourth generation of Meade family ownership and management, and has 175 employees at its Hammondsport headquarters. Mercury generates annual sales of $90 million from six locations worldwide by providing design, build, and ship services for industries that include defense, electronics, medical, energy, and transportation.

For many years, Mercury has employed various approaches to managing quality such as MIL SPEC, AWS certification, UL and FCC standards, and Zero Defects. To find out why the company thought it was important to add AS9100 certification and how they went about it, AM&T’s Michael Meador spoke with three senior managers: Joseph F. Meade, III (Bud), President and CEO; Joseph F. Meade, IV (Joe), Assistant Vice President; and Glenn Neu, Quality Engineer.

Since Mercury was already certified to the ISO 9001:2008 standard, why AS9100 and why now?

BUD: “To give a little background, we first started working on ISO in the mid-90’s, but we worked with a different consultant who created a very large set of documents that wound up being unusable. In other words, we got bad advice and wound up shelving the project for several years.”

GLENN: “And then in 2003, Bud decided that it was important for us to tackle ISO registration, so we started again, this time using plain language to describe our procedures instead of using some theoretical template. We wanted expert assistance, so we hired AM&T and, with Bob Mann’s help, we passed the certification audit.

We were concerned that achieving and maintaining formal quality certifications was just going to add a lot of indirect labor and other overhead costs. But, in fact, we were able to do it with minimal costs by using some automation to manage our quality documentation -- which is a large part of a good quality system. For example, we print hard copies of work instructions, but everything else is maintained only in electronic form.”

That makes sense, but what was the impact to the company at large?

JOE: “We’ve always embraced the concepts of continuous improvement, but until we had the foundation -- an ISO program -- those tools weren’t very effective because we didn’t have a system to manage quality. We’d put a new procedure or policy in place and people would follow it for a few months and then it would fade away. The system gives us the structure to make sure these kinds of changes stick. Before we implemented ISO, many of our customers assumed that we already had either ISO or a strong quality system, so marketing benefits weren’t the driver -- the big benefit was to internal operations.”

OK, you’ve been ISO-certified for nearly 10 years and ISO is closely aligned with AS9100, so why did you want to add it?

JOE: “Parts of our traditional business are disappearing, so we had to step back and determine where we will fit in the future of manufacturing in the US. Historically our customers came to us based on our reputation; now we have to have a more proactive marketing strategy -- field reps, trade shows, a strong web presence, and those kinds of things -- and a third-party quality certification makes it easier to develop new relationships.

Any company that’s serious about doing business needs a quality system of whatever type is right for that business. We certainly consider that when we look at a supplier so we know that others will want it from us. An important market for Mercury is defense, and AS9100 certification is necessary to be a serious player in that area. We’re seeing that requirement with both existing and new customers.”

BUD: “In fact, we’re now thinking about going for the ISO 13485 that addresses medical industry requirements. In addition to the marketing benefits which are very obvious, getting ready for the certification process created a structure that enabled our employees to raise the bar on standards, to step up to a new level.”

GLENN: “Right -- when we were being reviewed for AS9100 registration, the auditor said he was very impressed with the knowledge that exists on our shop floor. I think these quality programs have played a large part in building that asset for the company.”

It appears that Mercury is looking forward, being innovative, trying to anticipate demands that match your capabilities, and then taking actions such as AS9100 registration to make you more competitive. Are there other benefits to becoming AS9100 registered?

GLENN: “We use our quality systems not just in production but throughout the entire business -- administration, marketing, everything. ISO provided a foundation and then AS 9100 took us to a higher level with, among other things, a risk management review process that is very useful.”

JOE: “At a management level, we had always tried to analyze risks but now we do it in a more systematic way, document what we discover, and then follow-up with contingency plans to mitigate the risks.”

What advice would you give to other Southern Tier companies about ISO and AS certifications?

BUD: “For me, it’s actually very simple: the most important benefit is putting a system in place that makes you do a better job of the things you already do, and gives you a framework to do a good job with the new things you want to get done.”

GLENN: “This company can’t say enough good things about AM&T and Bob Mann. Based on his previous work with us, when we decided to go with AS9100, he was the obvious choice for someone to help. He did a gap analysis, helped with our risk management procedures, and helped tweak our configuration management procedures. The result was that when we had our audit done, our registrar was very impressed and we were recommended for certification.”

JOE: “And I, too, want to emphasize what a great job Bob did -- he worked with us well and only pushed us when it was needed. We would recommend AM&T to anyone who wants to go through this process -- it was well worth what it cost.”

See www.mercurycorp.com for more information.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/5313/5714/3700/2013-01.pdf

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