Specialty Cable Manufacturer’s Commitment to Quality Earns AS9100 Recertification
Specialty Cable Corporation, headquartered in Wallingford, Connecticut, is a leading manufacturer and supplier of high-performance electrical wire and cable products for diverse industry applications, including precise temperature control, critical patient monitoring and testing equipment, demanding military and aerospace systems (meeting military specifications for in-flight use), and general industrial needs.
Celebrating 100 years in business, the company traces its roots back to Lewis Engineering Company, founded in 1925 to produce specialty wire and cable products for instrumentation. Lewis later established SCC in 1942 as one of its divisions.
SCC’s continued success and growth are rooted in its foundations of innovation and the ability to produce products to the most exacting specifications for critical applications.
They hold certifications in ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D, demonstrating they maintain the highest standards of quality and customer satisfaction and meet additional requirements for the aerospace and defense industry.
The company operates out of its 65,000-square-foot facility, employing 62 people across the organization.
As part of the company’s commitment to its customers and the continuous improvement of its Business Management System, Specialty Cable Corporation needed to conduct its yearly Internal Quality Audit in preparation for its AS9100D certification audit.
Maintaining AS9100D certification can help organizations improve quality, streamline processes, and gain credibility with customers and regulators.
SCC sought an outside auditor to perform its IQA to ensure its Quality Management System aligned with the aerospace sector’s stringent quality and safety standards.
Company leadership recognized that this evaluation of their internal control processes was crucial for both internal and future client growth.
Specialty Cable Corporation partnered with CONNSTEP, leveraging their expertise and unbiased guidance, to assist with its Internal Quality Audit requirements for the 2024 audit cycle, building on their extensive past collaboration, including previous IQAs and employee participation in continuous improvement, and supervisory workshops.
The audit would evaluate the organization’s QMS effectiveness and provide feedback to company leadership regarding its QMS implementation.
A CONNSTEP third-party auditor would perform the IQA and help prepare SCC for the successful completion of its certification audit.
The IQA would be performed over six days and cover the following areas of SCC’s operations: Sales, Purchasing, Product Realization-Manufacturing, QMS Administration, and Leadership Process.
Specialty Cable’s 2024 IQA auditor found that company management ‘Ensures all necessary resources are available to support full implementation and success of the QMS,’ and ‘appears to be adequately involved in enhancing customer satisfaction, including involvement in the periodic review of service conformity and on-time delivery of services.’ The auditor also stated, ‘Top Management is committed to ensuring appropriate action is taken if planned results are not, or will not be, achieved.’
For the benefit of SCC and its clients, the continued success of its QMS is a company-wide effort, with the knowledge and resources required to support it made available to the entire employee population, from standards and mentorship to customer-specific requirements training.
While the auditor noted observations and identified opportunities for improvement, they wrote that ‘SCC has determined appropriate opportunities for improvement and has implemented necessary actions to meet customer requirements and enhance customer satisfaction,’ adding that the company focuses on ‘correcting/preventing/reducing undesired effects as well as improving the performance and effectiveness of the QMS.’ Upon receiving the IQA report, SCC management immediately implemented corrective actions to address identified areas for improvement.
Following the IQA, SCC achieved successful AS9100D recertification from the certification body.
“We were looking to have a more robust internal audit with an unbiased view of our internal processes. Working with CONNSTEP in the past, involving many other topics, such as Continuous Improvement and Lean projects, we turned to CONNSTEP’s resources for assistance. Over the years, we’ve always found them professional and knowledgeable in their respective fields and effective in satisfying our company needs.”