A leading North East plastics manufacturer has been accredited with a globally recognised standard of excellence for its work in the automotive sector.
The Omega Plastics Group (OPG) has received IATF 16949 accreditation for its facility in Hartlepool following a rigorous assessment process conducted by LRQA.
The certification is one of the automotive sector’s most widely used international standards for quality management systems.
Having first been awarded the ISO/TS 16949 status in 2016, Omega had to be recertified against the newly released IATF 16949:2016 automotive standard to ensure that the company was compliant with the significantly revised standard.
Paul Anderson, group quality manager at Omega Plastics Group, explained:
“The International Automotive Task Force (IATF) has developed the revised IATF 16949 standard in partnership with manufacturers and suppliers operating in the automotive sector and engaged Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) members to ensure that the standard meets the demands of the sector’s key players.
“The new certification merges standards from across Europe and the USA and details best practice requirements for designing, developing, manufacturing, installing and servicing in the automotive sector.
“OPG had to undergo a full, third-party audit of its quality management systems and processes at Hartlepool, which took around seven days to complete and covered all of our procedures from materials being delivered, through the manufacturing process to delivery and customer satisfaction.
“This was a really intensive process so we are delighted to have once again met the criteria to receive the accreditation. We’re currently one of the only manufacturers in the North East to have gained IATF 16949 so it’s something we’re incredibly proud of.”
As an internationally recognised standard, it is often a prerequisite of working with automotive companies that manufacturers have an IATF 16949 compliant quality management system to ensure customer satisfaction and continuously high standards.
Omega Plastics conducts a lot of business with blue chip car manufacturers and OEMs operating in the automotive sector so to receive the accreditation is a real asset to the business.
Dave Crone, group managing director at Omega Plastics Group, added:
“Many of our current and future customers demand IATF 16949 as the minimum requirement for supplying products to them so to have secured certification to the new, more complex standard is a fantastic achievement and testimony to the hard work and expertise of the team here at OPG.
“The accreditation will now last for three years, however we will receive annual visits from our third-party auditor and we will need to carry out internal audits to ensure continued compliance to the standard and our customer specific requirements on a regular basis.
“In the near future, we will be looking to replicate this accreditation process at our site in Washington, which is currently working to the IATF standard, which will help to increase our capacity and ensure standardised quality production across our facilities.”
The Omega Plastics Group provides high-quality advanced prototype and production moulding and tooling services for a range of industrial sectors including automotive, design and packaging, manufacturing and electronics and medical and pharmaceuticals.
Operating facilities at Hartlepool, Washington and Blyth, OPG was named North East Company of the Year in 2017.
To find out more, visit www.omega-plastics.co.uk.