" Achieving ISO 9002 Registration has provided Regal Boats (Orlando, FL) the framework to achieve continuous improvement, reduce costs and keep our customer satisfaction high", says Dave Catino, Regal's ISO 9000 Management Representative. Regal's Quality Policy, known by every company employee is "V,Q,S", for Value of Regal's products in marketplace, Quality of Regal's workmanship, and Satisfaction of every Regal customer, being the driving force. In business for over 30 years, Regal's ISO 9002 Quality system has helped them achieve many of these goals and has positively changed the culture of the organization. ISO has helped Regal build quality into their products, and has helped avoid costly inspections, warranty costs and rework.

Regal Boats, with the help of consultant, Jim Robison, (Quality Management Exchange, Port Orange, FL) successfully implemented the requirements of ISO 9002 and passed their official ISO Registration on the first try, in April of 1999. Although, some companies can do it in faster timeframe, it took Regal about 12-18 months to create procedures and work instructions, train users, perform internal audits, take corrective action and ensure an effective quality system was taking hold. Rather than achieve ISO 9002 Registration because of customer or dealer pressures, Regal's senior management team lead by owners Duane and Tim Kuck, saw the value of ISO 9002. Their focus was to "change the way they did business", by having documented processes, improved training, and quality records demonstrating a high degree of product and process conformance. Early on, it wasn't easy to convince "old school" line managers or supervisors that ISO was good for them. But with the Consultant's help, Regal received training and documentation to gain buy-in from management and line workers.

The ISO process has worked and worked well for Regal. Rework is down and customer satisfaction is up. ISO 9002 has helped Regal continually improve and is the cornerstone for increased Customer satisfaction, while reducing the cost of poor quality. Regal's belief that "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of failure" is key for any organization that is considering ISO Registration. Let's now look how ISO can help your organization…just like it did for Regal Boats.