HDS’s New QMS Manager, Paul Gaines, Ready to Tackle ISO 9001 Certification!

HDS recently appointed Paul Gaines as its first QMS Manager, just on the tail of achieving ISO 9001 Compliance status. Paul has a career spanning fifteen years in the area of quality management, and in addition to managing quality departments, he has also led a manufacturing company through the entire process of ISO certification. Paul began his professional career in the U.S. Navy, serving as an aviation electronics technician. After his military career, Paul went to work in the quality department of Gagemaker, to research and develop an electronic gage for GE’s jet turbine division. Paul was also asked assist in their QC department, and within six months, he was heading the department. He made great improvements and strides in the area of quality for Gagemaker over the next eight years. Paul then went on to other positions of quality management in several other organizations.

Today, it is increasingly important for a company to have ISO 9001-2008 Certification. In the industrial sector, ISO Certification makes potential customers feel more assured that a new vendor is going to perform to their expectations: not just once, but consistently every time. HDS takes this very seriously, and wants to be able to provide that assurance to their current and future customers. Says Clayton Lau, president of HDS, “We are continuing to evolve as a world class, independent rotating equipment repair facility. We never want to stop growing, and ISO certification will take us to the next level in achieving organizational excellence.”

Paul Gaines has been tasked to lead HDS through the ISO 9001 certification process. Over the next few months, he will be revising all of the QMS procedures developed in order to achieve ISO 9001 Compliance, and writing new procedures as needed. After focusing on written procedures, Paul will be conducting training on each of the procedures that pertain to specific positions within the HDS organization.

ISO 9001-2008 states: “This International Standard specifies requirements for a quality management system where an organization.

a) Needs to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide product that meets customers and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, and

b) Aims to enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for continual improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.

Paul says, “It will be my focus in HDS to ensure we continue to improve the processes within our system and provide the assurance of conformity to our customers and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. I’m very happy to have joined the HDS team in this capacity, and look forward to helping them continue to move forward with their quality initiatives.”