AK Steel Specialty Steel Plants Receive Flawless QS-9000 Audits
28 March 2000
AK Steel Specialty Steel Plants Receive Flawless QS-9000 Audits
MIDDLETOWN, Ohio--March 27, 2000--AK Steel said today that it received a flawless report from its most recent third-party, independent QS-9000 quality surveillance audit conducted at each of its specialty steel plants. The audits are conducted every six months as a requirement for maintaining QS-9000 certification, an arduous quality improvement system developed by the U.S. automotive industry. The QS-9000 system incorporates automotive-specific requirements beyond those of ISO-9002, the international quality registration system.The March quality surveillance audit, conducted by Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance, was the first perfect audit since the specialty plants achieved the rigorous quality certification in 1996 when they achieved ISO-9002 registration. The plants audited were in Butler, Pennsylvania; and Coshocton, Mansfield and Zanesville, Ohio. AK Steel's specialty steel (stainless and electrical) plants became in 1998 the first full-line specialty steel plants in the U.S. to earn QS-9000. AK Steel's carbon steel plants achieved QS-9000 in 1996.
"While achieving QS-9000 is a daunting task, we believe maintaining certification may, in fact, be more strenuous," said Richard M. Wardrop, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of AK Steel. "We are delighted our focus on continual improvement and conformance to these rigorous and ever-higher standards continues to underline our unwavering commitment to quality. In particular we are pleased that, despite a workforce transition due to a temporary labor dispute, we received a perfect score at the Mansfield Works. That is an authentication of the durability and accuracy of our QS-9000 procedures," he said.
AK Steel produces flat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steel products for automotive, appliance, construction and manufacturing markets, as well as standard pipe and tubular steel products. AK Steel is headquartered in Middletown, Ohio. It employs about 11,000 men and women in plants and offices in Middletown, Coshocton, Mansfield, Warren and Zanesville, Ohio; Ashland, Kentucky; Rockport, Indiana; and Butler, Sharon and Wheatland, Pennsylvania.