Success Stories

MEP Member

Impact Washington

Story Title

Bridgeways Achieves ISO 9100 Certification with Assistance from Impact Washington

Client Profile

Bridgeways, established in 1981, provides quality services for manufacturing, assembly and kitting through its partnership with Boeing as one of their “Sheltered Work Shop Program” providers for adults with psychiatric disabilities. The private, nonprofit agency providing opportunities for disabled individuals is one of 13 suppliers helping to produce over 2 million production parts a year for the Boeing company. Bridgeways also provides quality service for the medical, biotech, and marine industries. The company employs 75 people at its facility in Everett, Washington.

Situation

As a supplier to the Boeing company, Bridgeways was seeking AS9100 certification in order to become compliant with Boeing Supplier Standards. The company contacted Impact Washington, formerly known as Washington Manufacturing Services (WMS), a NIST MEP network affiliate, for assistance.

Solution

Impact Washington Project Manager Bob Uptagrafft met with Bridgeways to determine what was needed to get them through the registration process and brought in WMS Manufacturing Specialist, Sarah Earl, along with outside resource Steve Rouse. Earl and Rouse helped prepare Bridgeways for AS9100 registration, working with them to improve their systems and document procedures. Through the compliance process, the company improved quality, decreased costs, and dramatically improved on-time deliveries by focusing on reducing nonconformance notifications.

Results

• Achieved AS9100 Certification.
• Increased on-time delivery from 65 percent to 100 percent.
• Reduced costs by 21 percent.
• Reduced customer nonconformance notifications by 80 percent.
• Reduced error rate in Shipping & Receiving by 90 percent.
• Reduced employee turnover from 96 percent to 19 percent.

Testimonial

“Impact Washington was instrumental in helping our new management team become change agents. They helped elevate the role of quality on the production floor, which has resulted in improvements across the organization, from increased employee retention to increased on-time delivery.”
Randy Wood, Director of Manufacturing