ISO 9001:2000 Registration Newspaper Article

TorqMaster lauded for friction hinge       

By Julie Fishman
Staff Writer

January 18, 2003

When Apple Computer embarked on launching its first laptop, engineers at a small
Stamford company created the friction hinge that was used in the new machine.

Today, a dozen years after the Powerbook 100 was introduced, the hinges
manufactured by TorqMaster International are used by companies all over the world in
products such as laptop computers, medical devices and cellular phones.

But it wasn't until last month that the privately held designer and fabricator of
engineered friction hinges was recognized for being one of the best manufacturers of
its kind.

Yesterday, TorqMaster's production floor at its Harvard Avenue headquarters was
converted to a makeshift party room as the company's employees celebrated the
successful completion of the International Organization for Standardization certification
process.

The voluntary international program certifies manufacturing competency and product
reliability.

TorqMaster's celebration signified the end of a complex 18-month process that
entailed writing detailed manufacturing procedures, training employees to follow ISO
guidelines and months of internal audits.

The end result is an ISO 9001:2000 certificate for a quality management system that
guarantees TorqMaster's ability to consistently provide a product that meets customer
requirements, said Larry Hamilton, director of quality assurance for TorqMaster.

"We are a better company today than we were 18 months ago," said company
President Bruce Hall, as he spoke to an audience that included employees, Mayor
Dannel Malloy and many of the people who helped TorqMaster reach its goal.

The certification "was genuine and real and you made it that way," said Hall to his
employees, as a translator interpreted for some of the production workers who don't
speak English fluently. "This is something that is good for you, good for our company
and good for our customers."

Marty Cyr, national sales ambassador for Intertek Testing Service, the company that
registered TorqMaster, presented Hall with the ISO certificate.

"It goes to each and every one of you here -- all of you participated in the process," Cyr
said.

The certification places TorqMaster in an elite group, Cyr said. In North America, about
48,000 companies have been received ISO certification. Of those companies, about
4,000 have achieved 9001:2000 recognition, the newest ISO standard, he said.

The goal behind the certification is to enhance customer satisfaction, said Hamilton.

The company evaluated and wrote procedures that detailed guidelines relating to
every process that impacts the customer experience -- from sales to production to the
shipping process, he said.

Working to ISO standards requires the participation and hard work of every person in
the company, he said.

"Getting the certification is really just the beginning," Hamilton said. "We now have to . .
. continue to improve the quality of all of our processes here."

The company will be reevaluated every six months, he said.

Malloy praised TorqMaster and its workers.

"To the rest of the world you are a company that is truly one of the best at what it does,"
Stamford's mayor said to the group. "It strikes me that you've asked the question that
for too long too many of us have been afraid to ask. That question is, 'Why not be the
best?"

The difficult part of that question is actually showing the willingness to go through the
process to be the best, Malloy said.

"We are here today to celebrate a willingness to go through the process," Malloy said.
Copyright © 2003, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.

This article originally appeared at:
http://www.norwalkadvocate.com/business/scn-sa-torqmaster2jan18,0,4232470.story
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