ISO cost our company us like $10,000 -$15,00 back in the day....we had around 100 people to get thru the motions ....also it was not easy...we did not pass the first time thru.....and we were one of the top shops...had contracts with procter&gamble( I've been inside that place) and many others....

 

The company I just left was thinking of going for ISO certification and they figured it would take a full time employee at a salary of approx 60K minimum. They needed it for a customer they were losing. (medical industry) They didnt even really try for it very hard while i was there. The bottom line is, it doesnt certify that you hold tight tolerances. It only certifies that you document every step of the process to hold what ever tolerances you are holding.

 

I only want to chime in on the Kymco thing.
Kymco makes all their own stuff, right down to the motors. In the 80's Honda was part owner of KYMCO. The Honda reliabilty factor never left the Kymco company when Honda was bought out.
On the Mongoose 250 that I test rode in 2- 12 hour races and a few MX races this year, all my 250R wheels fit right on. I broke a axel at Red Bud (go figure, a mere 250# guy jumping up as far as possible and a stock axel broke..LOL), My buddy had his stock 450R axel and with a lil grinding on a spacer, I was out for moto 2 with a 450R axel installed.

OK, you guys take the other stuff from here.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

I seen lt80's right up on atvscene.com about the axle deal pretty cool and he is right about kymco these guy's are a major OEM CO. in time they will be the 8th major powersports CO. in the u.s

 

Out of all the ISO talk this is the most accurate statement posted

In a nutshell, if you say you hit every 3rd quad with a hammer and then you do, you will get your ISO certification. it has nothing to do with quality or tolerances, it just holds you to a specific process. Now obviously companies have tolerances and quality built into their processes in order to get customers/clients, but that has nothing to do with ISO.

 

Actually lets take out the tolerance issue for the sake of the iso comment. ISO has nothing to do with tolerances. If you have an auto assembly company, that makes nothing but merely assembles all the items. ISO certification simply states that this car is assembled the same way under the same conditions, regardless of the location of the plant, be it in a Kansas plant or in an Illinois plant. In a Manufacturing environment, where you are actually producing a part for some one else to assemble, it simply states that you will make that part the same way under the same conditions. ISO certifications are different depending on the nature of the business. For example, lets look at an Auto assembly plant. The assembly part of the business would be ISO 9000 certified, the office or business end would be ISO 9001 certified, the paper trail end. If this company makes the engine block from a casting, it would also have a ISO 9000 certification.

In regards to geometric tolerancing, if a company contracts or subs out a part or an assembly to another firm, they provide them with part prints and assembly prints. These prints will have the tolerances on them. When you get into a tighter tolerance +/- .0005 inches then it may be more expensive to machine, depending on the part, the fixturing, tooling and the complexity of the geometry. Alot of factors go into the cost of a part. True, the greater the tolerances the easier it is to produce, however with todays modern machining techniques, and using CNC equipment, holding these tolerances tight over the course of a run is fairly simple.

Whew, sorry really went off the deep end.....

From what I understand of the origin of ISO Certifications, it started in europe, and the Europeans started to demand that companies doing business with them were certified. In the States companies like Caterpillar started to certify their outside vendors, mainly job shops. From there it just took off. It actually makes it easier to locate or troubleshoot a problem within the company, no matter what type of company it is. It is infact very expensive to setup and maintain. Many companies have there own ISO team that will precertify them before an actual audit is done. It looks better that way. Maybe someday grocery stores will have ISO certifications...

 

You will find this discussion removed too!

 

I was gonna start a new ISO thread....sorry this has gotten so off topic....

 

Don't worry about it...if it happens, there is nothing you can do about it. Keep it real[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] SEADAWG

 

With some of the chinese manufacturers claiming to be ISO certified. I think its still on topic in a thread with this title.