Advanced Chemical Etching
Advanced Chemical Etching receives AS9100 accreditation.
Advanced Chemical Etching (ACE) has secured AS9100 accreditation for the first time. With this achievement, the Telford-based company is hoping to explore new opportunities within the aerospace industry.
To gain this accreditation, the company’s Quality Manager, Ian Radford, helped ensure that its quality management systems were working effectively and that there were problem-solving teams to promote improvements across all engineering disciplines.
“You can’t rest on your laurels when it comes to quality, so we’ve decided to build on the AS9100 accreditation by appointing Ryan Williams as Assistant Quality Manager,” said Radford. “Ryan has significant knowledge of ‘lean manufacturing’ and will play a key role in our ongoing internal auditing, providing day-to-day support that will allow me to focus on the business strategy and how we can embed continuous improvement even more in the business.”
He concluded, “Quality clinics have been important in changing the culture of ACE and people are now encouraged to identify mistakes we can learn from and areas we can do things better. This ‘openness’ has already led to us achieving considerable cost savings.”
Following the introduction of these processes, ACE has been able to achieve more than 97% on-time delivery, and 99.5% right first time across its customer base. Additionally, with this accreditation, ACE hopes to increase its work within the sector by an additional £1 million in turnover.
“AS9100 is one of the most demanding quality accreditations in the industry, so we’re delighted to have secured it within a few months and with such an impressive result,” explained Chris Ball, Executive Director at Advanced Chemical Etching. “It has been a real collective effort with pretty much every member of the team involved in the planning, execution and then the eight-day audit. No stone is left unturned during this process, and it really means you are at the top of your game.”
He continued, “Importantly, it will also open new doors for us as we will now be able to tender for additional work with clients both at home and abroad.”
ACE provides precision components to 25 companies within the aerospace industry including, parts for the undercarriage, interiors and the engines. The company has also added new parts from heat exchangers and actuators to ice protection and components used in galley trolleys, to its portfolio.
Looking to the future, ACE wishes to expand outside of the world of aerospace to also supply parts to the Formula One, electronics, and medical industries.