ATA maintains ISO certification Published June 10, 2011 By Shawn Jacobs AEDC/PA ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- Aerospace Testing Alliance's (ATA) management system has maintained its certification by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The company was last re-certified by ISO in May of last year. ATA's second external ISO 9001:2008 surveillance audit for this certification period was conducted May 3-5 by ISO registrar Det Norske Veritas (DNV), one of the world's leading certification bodies. The Asset Management, Integrated Scheduling, Work Force Management and Information Services core processes were audited, according to J.T. Northcutt, ATA quality manager. "I would like to thank each of you who participated in this audit and the open and honest dialogue that you had with the auditor," Northcutt wrote in a company e-mail. "Your professional attitude and integrity were paramount to the outcome of the audit and the benefits received from the audit." The audit revealed no major or minor nonconformances to the ISO quality standard for ATA's management system requirements. Twelve noteworthy observations were identified with eight opportunities for improvements. This was the second consecutive audit for this certification period, marking a total of eight consecutive audits in which zero nonconformances were found. "Due to the positive results of this audit, we continue to maintain our contract required ISO 9001:2008 certification," Northcutt wrote. "Many ATA employees are responsible for the outcome of this audit as our processes are inter-related and integrated functionally. "The sustaining positive results of these external audits indicate continual adherence to our established company policy, procedure and work instruction requirements, which are vital in meeting the requirements of our customer and delivering the expected output of maintenance and operations of AEDC in a safe, effective and resource efficient manner. As we continually strive to improve AEDC, it is each employee's responsibility to identify requirements that are in error, create unnecessary barriers or waste of resources or material in accomplishing a task or process." ISO is the world's largest developer and publisher of international standards. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 161 countries. According to the ISO website, ISO 9001:2008 specifies requirements for a quality management system where an organization · Needs to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide product that meets customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, and · Aims to enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for continual improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.