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Goodyear Mexico Mounting Plant First with QS 9000

11 August 1997

Goodyear Mexico Mounting Plant First with QS 9000

    HERMOSILLO, Mexico, Aug. 11 -- Goodyear's tire mounting
facility here has become the first Goodyear facility in the Latin America
region to be recommended for QS 9000 certification by Lloyd's Register Quality
Assurance.  LRQA auditors found no areas of non-conformance at the facility.
    The facility is the first tire-mounting facility in the world to receive
QS 9000 certification.
    QS 9000, which includes all of the ISO 9002 requirements, was developed by
North America's Big Three automakers for their suppliers.  QS 9000 includes
many additional requirements including customer satisfaction, continuous
improvement, process capability and tire approval systems.
    "For LRQA auditors to find no areas of nonconformance is unprecedented,"
said Jon Carlson, director of materials management for Goodyear's Latin
America region, "and an achievement for which Hermosillo associates can truly
be proud."
    Auto industry suppliers are required to be certified by the end of this
year.
    The Hermosillo plant is Goodyear's 16th worldwide facility certified to
QS criteria.
    The company's Napanee, Ontario, Canada, plant was the first tire
manufacturing facility in the world to earn the designation and has since been
joined by the company's Union City, Tenn., plant, Akron Tech Center
Manufacturing unit and the company's Collingwood, Ontario, engineered products
facility.
    In addition, the other Goodyear facilities with QS 9000 certification
include Medicine Hat, Alberta, Valleyfield and Quebec City, Quebec; and
Collingwood, Ontario, all in Canada; U.S. plants in Union City, Tennessee;
Lawton, Oklahoma; Gadsden, Alabama; Freeport, Illinois; and Danville,
Virginia; and European locations in Luxembourg (technical center and plant),
Wolverhampton, England and Philippsburg, Germany.
    Located in the Mexico state of Sonora, the Hermosillo facility is one of
the most modem tire mounting facilities in the world.  It is a just-in-time
supplier to the Ford Hermosillo assembly plant.  Operated since November 1986,
and employing 26 associates, the facility has won three Ford quality awards
since 1990 -- The Ford Total Quality Excellence in 1991, the Ford Customer
Driven Quality Award in 1995, and the QS 9000 certification.
    It has completed more than 5 million assemblies since 1986.

SOURCE  The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company