DISPLAYING THE ISO CERTIFICATE in the HydraForce Inc. lobby are Calibration Manager Vasilios Kokkinos, Quality Auditor Gaby Avellan, and North American Quality Manager Jomy Joseph.
During the month of November, HydraForce Inc. completed an external audit for compliance with ISO standards and on December 2nd, had excellent news from the auditors. “This year’s surveillance audit resulted in ZERO major and ZERO minor finding,” reported Jomy Joseph, North American Quality Manager for HydraForce Inc. “Thank you to everyone who supported and participated in the audit. It was an excellent YEARLONG commitment and effort,” he added.
Gaby Avellan, Quality Auditor, coordinated the event and assisted the HydraForce team in preparation. As part of the preparations, one-on-one training sessions were held in multiple departments on the importance of following the processes according to ISO Standards. Gaby started these trainings a full month ahead of the inspection and, because she has worked as an assembler herself in every area – flow controls, SV, SP – she knew what to look for. “I know the flow,” she said. “But I don’t want the team to think it’s Gaby they need to please – it’s really the customer, and we must think about what the customer wants all the time,” she said. “Gaby was even tougher on us than the ISO inspector!” said Fedir Levchenko, who headed up the Flow Controls group at the time. Octavio Guadarrama (Solenoid Valves), Lucy Soto (Pressure Controls) and Brenda Alonso (Solenoid Valves) also worked closely with Gaby and their assembly teams on the audit preparation.
The external ISO auditors were very thorough in their work, interviewing and viewing our Receiving and Stock Room, CNC Machining, Inspection Lab, Grinding at P2 and other areas at P1 and P3. The auditor focused on quality processes, documentation and training records to ensure that the HF management system remained in compliance with the ISO standard requirements.
“Excellent work, Team and thank you to Gaby,” said Dan Holtzinger, General Manager, HydraForce Inc.
“Impressive result given the environment we are in,” said Tony Casale, Executive Vice President. “All should be very happy with our people paying attention to building quality product, adhering to standards and keeping up to date on changes in work processes. Nicely done!” he added.
“Great to see this outcome. Well done by all! Congratulations,” said Mike Terzich, CEO and President.