Brush Industries Earns ISO 9001:2000 Certification
SUNBURY, PA USA – Brush Industries, a leading provider of magnetic heads and magnetic card readers recently transitioned its existing Quality Management System to meet the requirements of the ISO 9001:2000 standard and earned certification by the International Organization for Standardization.
Previously, “ISO 9000-certified” organizations were actually certified to one of the three certification standards in the 1994 version of the ISO 9000 series: ISO 9001, ISO 9002 and ISO 9003. The scope of these standards differed, but they were of equal rank. Therefore, it was acceptable for organizations publicizing their certification to use either the generic term “ISO 9000 certification,” or to specify ISO 9001, ISO 9002 or ISO 9003.
On 15 December 2000, the revised and improved ISO 9001:2000 was published to replace the three 1994 versions and thus became the only certification standard in the ISO 9000 series. Organizations certified to the 1994 versions were given a three-year period, until 15 December 2003, to make the transition to ISO 9001:2000. During the transition period, new certifications to the 1994 versions remained possible.
Some of the main differences between the ISO 9001:1994 approach and the ISO 9001:2000 approach include the use of the process approach to focus the Quality Management System on the interrelationships between processes that result in customer satisfaction and a profitable business, making quality planning concurrent with business planning, and taking customer satisfaction measurements to provide feeback to improve performance.
Brush officials organized a project team in November 2002. The team was made up of 6 employees representing all aspects of the organization including executive management, clerical and manufacturing employees. In March 2003, members of the team were trained on the new ISO standards during a three-day, off-site seminar.
The team started the transition by performing a gap analysis to identify where the company’s focus should be for the transition. The team then established a process map of each quality system within the organization. The process maps provide all employees with procedural guidelines that help to ensure quality.
In April, the team was ready to have internal auditors inspect their work. Ten Brush employees performed the function of internal auditors. As this process was designed to do, the internal auditors uncovered a handful of nonconformities, which the company was able to correct. The third-party audit for ISO certification occurred in July. In recognition of the diligence of the project team, the internal auditors and all Brush employees, the company passed the third-party audit and earned certification.
Brush COO, Karen Nickolauson, lead the project team throughout the transition process. “ISO certification provides many benefits to the company and to our employees,” said Nickolauson. “The company benefits from a continual improvement approach, employees are provided with ways to improve their skills and everyone comes up a level because the system empowers every employee to affect the company’s quality systems,” Nickolauson said.
Q-Card
Announces the Launch of Q-Lab
SUNBURY,
PA USA – Q-Card, a leading supplier of card testing equipment, announced
the launch of a comprehensive plastic card and paper ticket testing
facility. The new facility will be called Q-Lab and will be located in the
company’s Sunbury, PA facilities. The company recently acquired the
European card testing lab of MasterCard and moved it to Sunbury to
complement its existing testing facility.
Q-Lab
will focus on providing services to help customers fix an existing
problem, improve existing systems or develop entirely new ticket and
plastic card products. “This new laboratory will formalize the services
we’ve been offering for several years,” said Ed Bedell, the
company’s president and CEO. “We are gratified to see our investment
in Q-Card grow into a vital industry service.”
The
new lab will provide consulting services to help card manufacturers,
personalization bureaus, service bureaus, banks, and transit authorities
set up quality testing at their locations or develop new card products. It
also will be capable of setting up quality control programs for production
cards and tickets at Q-Lab or at customer locations.
Q-Lab
is staffed by leaders in the mag strip and plastic card and ticket
industry who have dedicated their careers to card products and quality
since the invention of the mag stripe card. These individuals have
participated in the development of many card technology innovations
including ISO standards activity, card security and industry seminars.
Initially,
services offered by Q-Card’s Q-Lab fall into four categories:
-
Mag Stripe Analysis
-
Check all mag stripe physical and encoding parameters against ISO
-
Determine why a mag stripe fails to read or fails to meet ISO or customer specifications
-
Determine if mag stripe has surface profile problems that are affecting the signal amplitude or jitter
-
Evaluate raw materials—is the tape supplier providing good mag tape
-
Determine if mag stripe cards are being exposed to erasing magnetic fields
-
Analyze mag stripe noise which can lead to the plastic bag solution at POS
-
Evaluate how mag stripe stands up to physical abuse and abrasion
-
Certify that mag stripe cards meet all industry requirements
-
Physical Card Testing
-
Environmental conditions of humidity and temperature
-
Impact resistance
-
Card flatness and profiles
-
Card dimension analysis
-
Color control and matching
-
Card layer adhesion
-
Card flex testing
-
Conductivity and electrostatic discharge
-
Vision inspection for mag stripe, logo or chip location, color correctness and other physical attributes
-
Statistical analysis of all data
-
Report generation, certification of conclusions and recommended directions
-
Providing Test Card
-
Amplitude and jitter cards with precise control of encoding parameters
-
Set of test cards for testing terminals and encoding equipment
-
Calibration cards for equipment setup and cross-calibration to standards
-
Cleaning cards
-
Consulting
-
New card product development
-
Encoding and reading equipment development or improvements
-
New card application development
-
Specifications for new cards production
-
Design of sampling and quality program for new or existing card products
-
Testing new card products for security and performance
-
Patent evaluation and guidance
-
Establish card quality programs, specifications and procedures
-
Settle disputes between equipment, card and end users
Q-Lab
uses much of the same equipment that is offered for sale through Q-Card
including the time-tested Mag3 magnetic stripe analyzer, OptiCheck vision
inspection, the statistical software that was created specifically for
these applications, and a host of ISO-specified testing equipment and
procedures.
For more information about Q-Lab go to www.q-card.com or call 800-717-8007
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New Magnetic Stripe Testing and Analysis Services Complete Offerings of Leading Magstripe Technology Company
SUNBURY,
PA USA -- Q-Card recently
announced the addition of third party
testing and analysis services to its line of magnetic stripe analysis
offerings.
The
Q-Card® line includes the company’s Mag3™, a magnetic stripe analyzer
designed for analyzing magnetic stripe media with laboratory precision
for quality assurance systems and the Mag4™, which is designed for the
production line environment. The testing services allow the company to
provide a complete range of offerings to satisfy any magnetic stripe testing
and analysis need.
“With
the introduction of the Mag4™ for production line testing of cards and
tickets, we closed a gap in the card manufacturer’s needs for testing
and quality assurance. What was left was the need for testing and analysis
services that could provide independent, third party verification of that
quality for both the card manufacturers and their customers,” explained
Elk Technologies CTO Larry Ditty.
The
company has been providing these testing and verification services to many
high-volume users of magnetic stripe technology including the Pennsylvania
Turnpike Commission.
“Many
times, a company just won’t have the resources to dedicate to owning and
operating a sophisticated piece of equipment like our Mag3™ or our Mag4™,”
Ditty said. “Or if they do own analysis equipment, they might need to
confirm their results. Either
way, they get the information they need with an independent, third party
verification performed by magstripe experts,” he said.
According
to the company, the testing services provide numerous benefits including:
-
The ability to test tickets and TFC and ID1 cards before you have problems arise
-
Assurance of quality and consistency of suppliers
-
Consistent testing for adherence to your specifications
-
The ability to test over specific contract periods or in cooperation with QA cycles
-
Identification of problems and what part of the system is causing them
-
The ability to design testing procedures for new systems
-
The ability to test new card and ticket stock, used or damaged stock, even cut tickets
-
Engineering-generated reports with data presented graphically
Brush Industries
Places 23rd in Best Places to Work in PA Program
Brush Industries has been awarded the 23rd best place to work in Pennsylvania for medium sized companies. The Best Place to Work in PA program is program that identifies, recognizes and honors the best places of employment in Pennsylvania, for the benefit of Pennsylvania's economy, its workforce and businesses.
The program examines hundreds of companies in two categories across the state of Pennsylvania. Factors used to determine a company's qualifications for the program include philosophy, practices towards employees, performance and training systems, demographics, with a strong emphasis on how the company's employees rate the company they work for.
"It's rewarding to see our systems approach to building our business garner this kind of attention. This award is a confirmation that our people are our greatest asset," said Edwin Bedell, President and CEO.
Brush Industries is no stranger to the awards circle. The company has been awarded many times, including the Pennsylvania Governor's Export Certificate, the Cubic Certified Supplier and Letter of Commendation, Kulicke & Soffa's Certified Ship to Stock Award, DataCard's Commendable Performance Award, Citicorp's Valued Service Award Letter of Commendation and the Pennsylvania State Legislature Citation.
Brush Industries
Forms New Hong Kong-Based Company
Brush Industries, Chairman and CEO, Ed Bedell, announced the formation of a new company Brush (Hong Kong) Ltd to serve the Asian market. The company, located in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, is a 60/40 joint venture company owned by Ed Bedell and Mr. Y S Yang, Zhuhai, China. Mr. Bedell is Chairman and Mr. Yang is Vice Chairman of Brush (Hong Kong) Ltd.
Brush (Hong Kong) Ltd. is a sales company responsible for sales and marketing of Brush Holding Company products to the Asian market. Products include magnetic heads, readers and test equipment. Local Hong Kong personnel staff the office.
In a separate announcement Brush (Hong Kong) Ltd., Hong Kong, announced it has received an initial order from MTR Corporation, Hong Kong, for Long Life Magnetic Heads manufactured by Brush Industries in Sunbury PA. Ed Bedell, chairman, stated, "We were called in to meet with MTR maintenance engineers based on the reputation of our magnetic heads for long life and reliability in hostile Transit environments. These long life heads will be installed in the Hong Kong Transit System where they read and write fare collection data on the magnetic stripe on transit tickets. Brush Industries, Sunbury employees can take great pride in this accomplishment which reflects the quality of their work."
On a more strategic note Mr. Bedell added, "I have long felt it is necessary to be on the leading edge of the China market entry. Clearly it presents a large potential for our products. With that in mind I have made the Asian market an important personal activity over the last 2 years. It is very gratifying to announce the success of our efforts. It is also very satisfying to know that this will bring additional work into our community."
Brush Industries and its sister company elk Technologies provide hardened components and readers for the ticket and credit card readers, Smartcard card readers, and through its Q-Card® product line, magnetic test cards and developers, magnetic test services and magnetic analyzing equipment. Their products are installed in countries throughout the world including many countries in Asia, Russia, France, UK, South America, Spain, Africa, Australia and the USA. Additionally Brush industries with its precision machine shop is a leading supplier of wire bonding heads to the semiconductor equipment industry.
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