Aerospace & Defense Case Study
Arden Engineering Inc.
Arden Engineering started out in 1979 as a 10-person company occupying a 4,500 square foot facility. Its reputation in the Aerospace industry has resulted in
significant growth. Arden Engineering presently has 90 employees composed of 45% Hispanic, 15% Asian and 5% African American, who work in combined
manufacturing and warehousing facilities of over 74,000 square feet. Specializing in on-site engineering, programming and 5-axis CNC machining and
assembly, Arden Engineering provides a variety of structural aerospace components for the commercial and military aerospace markets. Arden had annual sales
of approximately $20 million at the start of the project.
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“CMTC expertise contributed to us being able to
increase our market share and workforce.”
Cyrus Galvan
Quality Assurance Manager
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Issue/Needs
To improve competition, Arden Engineering decided to pursue ISO
AS9100 Registration. The newness of the AS9100 Standard presented
several challenges in understanding the intent and properly addressing
some of its specific requirements. Arden Engineering wanted a clear,
functional understanding of the Standard, in addition to knowing how
to adequately comply with the market-critical requirements of customer
satisfaction. Achieving registration also required the company to conduct
internal audits of the Quality Management System. To accomplish this,
Arden Engineering needed training on the new AS9100 requirements for
its Internal Auditor team.
Implementation Highlights
CMTC provided Arden Engineering with a seminar that offered a
functional overview of AS9100. Between May and June of 2003 CMTC
was engaged to develop all necessary procedures and sections of the
Quality Manual that pertain to the market-critical topic of Customer
Satisfaction. Using this expertise, Arden Engineering was able to
complete the required Level I and Level II documentation in a timely
manner. After the new AS9100 Quality Management System (QMS)
was developed and implemented to a requisite level, CMTC trained the
Arden Engineering Internal Auditor Team to a certified proficiency so
they could proceed with the required task of auditing the entire QMS.
Completion of this requirement, along with a Management Review,
positioned Arden Engineering for its Registrar Assessment.
Improvement Description
The Arden Engineering Quality Team achieved functional knowledge of
the new AS9100 Standard and was able to complete the required
documentation which allowed successful implementation of the new
Quality Management System in their facility. Upon implementation, the
newly certified Internal Auditor team was able to complete the full audit
of the System and ready the facility for their AS9100 registration.
Financial and Investment Impact
As a result of implementing AS9100, Arden Engineering became more
competitive and was able to acquire several new customers and increase
its market share. This resulted in the addition of 20 jobs, a four million
dollar increase in sales, a capital investment of $2.0 million in machinery,
$20,000 in software and $30,000 in employee skills training.
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