RK Mechanical, Inc. received official notice in late November 2016 that it has retained its ISO certification and has successfully transitioned from the ISO 9001:2008 standard to the ISO 9001:2015 standard.

ISO publishes many standards for various industries and purposes. The ISO 9000 family of standards provides the requirements for an organizational Quality Management System. By abiding by these standards, companies can ensure that their products and services consistently meet their customers’ quality expectations.

ISO 9001:2015 is the successor of the ISO 9001:2008. Changes in the updated standard call for organizations to more explicitly communicate with stakeholders, including customers, partners and suppliers. The organization is tasked to become more aware of its role in society and the supply chain. The organization is expected to serve its customers with consistent quality and collaborate with suppliers to improve processes and decrease cost. There is a call for more responsibility from management, as well as a stronger focus on analyzing and measuring risk.

The new ISO 9001:2015 standards were released at the end of September, 2015. RK completed a significant overhaul of its Quality Management System in order to adhere to the new requirements, as well as to improve and align the focus of all RK business units on employee engagement, leadership and process integration. This enables more integrated and consistent quality, customer satisfaction and continuous improvement.

When ISO updates its 9001 standards, complying organizations are required to conduct a transition audit within three years after the standard changes. RK’s transition audit was performed in October 2016 – less than one year after the new standard was released. Four external auditors conducted an extensive assessment of the processes, facilities, sites and employees’ comprehension of RK’s Quality Management System. RK is proud to announce that the transition audit was successful and the company has officially transitioned from ISO 9001:2008 to the most recent ISO 9001:2015 standard.

Lindsay Kalis, director of quality, learning and development at RK, has been involved in the implementation of the Quality Management System since RK’s initial ISO 9001:2008 certification in 2011.

“RK’s investment in its Quality Management System, and in engaging employees to understand that they are critical contributors to quality, increases our ability to exceed both stakeholder and customer expectations by ensuring that we’re consistently delivering world-class products and services,” Kalis said.