From start to finish, it took only nine months for QDP to attain ISO 9001:2008 Certification. There were a number of factors that attributed to this relatively short time frame. First, from QDP’s founding in 1995, the Quality Management System was set up based on an ISO-based standard. This was due to the fact that Stew McElhone, President of QDP, was an accredited ISO Lead Auditor and had set up ISO standards at previous companies that achieved ISO 9001 Certification. As importantly, QDP contracted the services of the Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center (DVIRC), who provided a quality consultant, Mr. Mike Delpha, of Delpha Quality Consulting, LLC, to assist QDP in the quest for Certification. Through Mike’s guidance, QDP was able to convert their original ISO-based documents over to the new process-driven formats in a short period of time.
Seven months after beginning the ISO project, QDP met with DEKRA representatives for the Phase I and Phase II audits. After corrective action activity to close-out a few minor non-conformances, QDP received ISO:9008 Certification in May, 2014. As a closing comment to the Phase II audit, the DEKRA auditor noted that in his 20-plus years of experience, he felt that QDP was the best-prepared small company (less than 20 employees) for the Certification audits.