...and what does it do for me, a purchaser of ductile iron pipe and fittings?

First, let's define exactly what ISO 9000 is and what it encompasses. ISO 9000 is an internationally accepted standard system for quality assurance in the design, servicing, manufacturing, inspection, and distribution of products. It covers all phases of product supply, from the time your order is received until the product is delivered to you. It requires that a manufacturer control several important areas in its quality assurance system as well as documenting this control. These areas are: contract review; design control; document control; purchasing; purchaser supplied product; product identification and traceability; process control; inspection and testing; inspection measuring and testing equipment; inspection and testing status; control of nonconforming product; corrective action; handling, storage, packaging and delivery; quality records; training; and statistical techniques.

All of these functions are extremely important to an overall quality management system -- not only to the manufacturer, but especially to you, the customer. Let's discuss a few of them to see how they might affect you. Document Control While this requirement may sound excessive, the value to our customer is enormous. All product documentation, such as manufacturing drawings and specifications, must be issued and stamped as official by a single responsible department. At AMERICAN, the Quality Assurance Department has this responsibility. Individual employees or even departments are no longer allowed to keep obsolete drawings. This also applies to standards -- AWWA standards, for example. Both ANSI and AWWA require that pipe and fittings standards be reviewed and revised or reissued every five years. In most cases, changing market needs or technology prompt revisions to these standards. Some of these revisions are very significant. ISO requires that the issuance of these standards within the company be controlled and only up-to-date issues be on hand. With the control of documents required by ISO 9000, obsolete documents cannot be used. This helps ensure that the products you receive are what you intended them to be. Product Identification and Traceability Each item manufactured by AMERICAN not only has a serial or identification number on it for traceability purposes but also has an inspector's stamp. This unique stamp identifies the item's final inspector. This also is a requirement of ISO 9000, and it provides accountability not only of the production unit that manufactured the item, but also of the inspector who approved it. Traceability and accountability linked together give you the added assurance of excellent quality of each AMERICAN product you buy. Inspection, Testing and Measuring Equipment ISO 9000 requires that all inspection, testing and measuring equipment be calibrated on a regular basis, and that a calibration log be maintained on each item. Anyone who operates any type of testing laboratory or analytical laboratory knows it's necessary to periodically calibrate testing equipment so it is traceable to a national standard. ISO 9000 also requires that all testing instruments -- from micrometers to hardness testing machines to tapes for measuring product -- be calibrated and documented on a regular basis. This requirement assures that all testing and quality control procedures are accurate. Training Documented training and job descriptions of all employees who affect the quality of the product you receive from AMERICAN is one of the most important requirements of ISO 9000. This requirement not only includes manufacturing personnel but also everyone from the salesperson who enters your order to the employee who ships it. That means you can depend on the job performance of AMERICAN personnel and expect uniformity in the quality of our products. All of the requirements of ISO 9000 are as important to our customers as the few discussed above. When you purchase pipe and fittings from AMERICAN, you buy from a company with a long-standing reputation for quality plus the stringent requirements of a quality system certified to ISO 9000. If you purchase from a supplier with less than these qualifications, how can you be sure the products you receive are of top quality? The answer is that you probably can't be sure. A step in the right direction might be to require third-party inspection and certification for suppliers not certified through ISO 9000. That way, you might convince yourself that the material you're buying meets the project specifications and performance criteria you expect and pay for.

Ben Helton, Technical Director, AMERICAN Cast Iron Pipe Company