Below is a 6/5/96 Qualcomm press release regarding the earning of ISO 9001 certification. The press release is at qualcomm.com :
SAN DIEGO - June 5, 1996 - QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced that it has been issued a Certificate of Registration (10371.01) by KEMA, an independent ISO registrar, for conformance to the ISO 9001 international standard. Recognized worldwide as a hallmark of total quality management, the Certificate identifies QUALCOMM as a company with a consistently applied system of quality standards and procedures.
"In today's global marketplace, ISO 9001 certification is an invaluable asset," said Dr. Irwin M. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of QUALCOMM. "It tells our customers that they can depend on us to exercise the utmost vigilance in every aspect of our work. We take tremendous pride in this achievement."
Upon completion of their initial evaluation, KEMA auditors noted that, with 98% compliance before any corrective action was required, QUALCOMM had established "exceptional operational and engineering systems." The company's rapid response teams, matrix management approach and new employee orientation were all cited as examples of the company's outstanding operational protocols.
"What's especially impressive is that they earned this certification while undergoing 250% growth over a two-year period," said KEMA Lead Auditor Lindsey Waddell. "That demonstrates how adept they've become at managing change, and infusing their employees with a sense of teamwork and enthusiasm. All in all, QUALCOMM had one of the best quality systems we've seen in our auditing experience." Having achieved certification, QUALCOMM will now undergo regular surveillance audits from KEMA every six months.
According to Dick Malcangio, director of Quality for QUALCOMM, the ISO 9001 registration process involved a focused effort of planning, analysis, documentation, preparation and review by QUALCOMM personnel. "As pleased as we are to win this seal of approval, it really comes as no surprise. When you look at the reliability ratings for any of our products - OmniTRACS, CDMA phones and infrastructure, ASICs, VLSI components,QuSAT and other systems - it's clear that we've always applied an uncompromising standard of excellence.
"Our OmniTRACS mobile satellite communications terminals are a good example," said Malcangio. "Mounted on the cabs of commercial trucks, these terminals operate in extremely demanding environments, and they still maintain a Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) rating of 19 years. That's the kind of quality we strive for every day."
The most comprehensive of the ISO standards, ISO 9001 is a model for quality assurance in design, development, production, installation and servicing which has been adopted as a national standard by more than 80 countries.
KEMA is an independent registrar accredited by the RvC (Dutch Council for Certification) and the RAB (Registrar Accreditation Board.) The ISO standard is sponsored by the International Organization for Standardization, which describes today's international marketplace as "a world in which global trade between nations continues to grow at a rate three to four times faster than national economies; a world in which the design, manufacturing, marketing, and customer service operations of a growing majority of individual enterprises are distributed across many countries; and a world in which electronic communications have dramatically increased technical collabora-tion between experts in academia, governments, and industries from all countries." |
