MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif. -- Maintenance Center Barstow recently became the latest member of the Marine Corps Logistics Command to be added to a growing list of organizations recognized as registered International Organization for Standardization businesses.That list includes more than 400,000 organizations worldwide that are ISO certified, according to the ISO Web site.In August, Maintenance Center Barstow earned its ISO 9001:2000 registration, joining Maintenance Center Albany and Fleet Support Division Barstow. Fleet Support Division Barstow received its certification in April of this year."Our initial assessment audit was conducted Nov. 15, 2002 by EAQA-USA," said Fred Alley, head, Quality Department at MCB. "This audit identified processes in our Quality Management System that were compliant and those that needed improvement."EAQA-USA is out of Huntington Beach, Calif., and is the same Registrar (team of auditors) that conducted certification audits on Maintenance Center Albany and FSDB, according to Alley. The registration audit was originally scheduled for April however, due to MCB's realignment initiative implemented by Col. Rob Gerlaugh, MCB commander, the audit was rescheduled for August, said Alley.MCB's first involvement with an outside agency reviewing its Quality Management System for compliance was in March 2001. The Defense Contract Management Agency performed the audit and found the Maintenance Center compliant for "qualification" in accordance with the ISO 9002:1994 standard, according to Alley.Qualification in this instance meant that MCB met the minimum standard requirements but not the stringent requirements needed for registration. Unlike the 9002:1994 standard which is organized as a functional point of view, the ISO 9001:2000 is a quality management system that is geared more toward the customer and emphasizes the need for continual improvements in the system, according to Alley.There's also less documentation required under the 9001:2000 standard."There are six critical elements that have to be implemented. Those are control of documents, control of records, control of nonconforming product, internal auditing, corrective action, and preventive action," Alley explained. "There are several elements within the ISO standard that encompass the entire organization, but without meeting those six you will not pass your registration audit."The 9001:2000 standard emphasizes communication with the customer which Dean Knutson, MCB's customer service representative, said he feels MCB is doing more of at all levels."Not just with the customer service reps but with the people that work directly with the customer, which are a lot of our production controllers," said Knutson. "We do that by a lot of different means."Much of this is done during upfront planning prior to bringing work into the Maintenance Center, said Alley. "We're contacting the customer making sure we have the facilities, the equipment and the personnel to do the work," he said.The Statement of Work actually is the beginning of the communication process. It is the customer's requirements, what the customer wants MCB to work toward and what both entities agree on, both Alley and Knutson acknowledged."If there are any ambiguities on the Statement of Work, then we'll talk to the program manager and say, 'We really don't quite understand this' or 'What it is you're needing?'" said Knutson. "So we communicate with the customer to ensure we understand precisely what's in that Statement of Work."During the registration audit the auditors asked various personnel throughout MCB questions regarding the use of Level III work instructions, the process for controlling documents and records, and how they perform upfront planning prior to starting new work, according to Alley. The auditors also reviewed the Maintenance Center's internal audit program."The auditors were very impressed with the workforce," said Alley. "The auditors said that all personnel that they talked to were very knowledgeable about the work processes they perform and proud of the work they did," he said. "The whole Maintenance Center is involved with this (ISO) process, everybody to include the workers on the shop floor.""You can take 'quality' out of 'Quality Management System' but it's a management system that causes all of our processes to work together," he emphasized.According to Knutson, when EAQA-USA came in to do the audit they had no idea what the auditors were going to look at."We could suggest but basically when it came down to it they mentioned that they wanted to look at the M1A1 line from start to finish," he said using this as an example. "They said they wanted to look at the TPS-59 radar process. So we had no idea."When the auditors return to do the surveillance audit in six months they will be doing the same thing, said Alley."We will not be able to direct them, they will tell us where they want to look," he said. "It might be the artisan on the shop floor, it could be a person up in one of the overhead areas somewhere that they want to look at, (or) records and documents. So it's not just isolated areas. It's everybody's responsibility to maintain our registration certification."The auditors also noted that the lean effort - lean thinking - was evident compared to the assessment audit performed in November. From that date to the present things for the Maintenance Center had really turned around, according to Alley."The realignment initiatives that have come about under Col. Gerlaugh's direction have made a significant impact on the difference from our initial review to now; the cleanup of the facility, upfront planning processes, all those things have made a real difference," he said.Alley also noted the Theory of Constraints and Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP-II) initiatives have also made a significant impact on the Maintenance Center and are the keys to the success of the ISO 9001:2000 certification."Really, Theory of Constraints actually ties into Maintenance Center Barstow's Quality Policy," Knutson added. "That policy is Cost, Schedule and Performance. When those are met they equate to customer satisfaction. That's the trust of our quality policy."Overall, according to Alley, all Maintenance Center Barstow personnel worked closely as a team to achieve this effort."Although we are now ISO 9001:2000 registered, this is only the beginning of the journey," he stated. "The auditors will return every six months to perform surveillance audits to ensure we are sustaining our Quality Management System and continuing to improve our performance."They may be also looking to interview those folks who worked so hard toward the certification but were disappointed when they weren't interviewed during this registration audit.