www.devansealants.com
St. Louis
deVan Sealants, Inc., was founded in 1949 as a manufacturer of oil based caulking, putty and glazing compounds. Currently, the company manufactures and supplies sealant products to a variety of manufacturers of metal buildings, windows, truck/bus bodies, HVAC equipment, monuments, floral industry products and telecommunications gear.
In 2004, one of deVan Sealants’ customers, a national manufacturer of commercial and residential windows, announced that to retain preferred status, a supplier would have to be either ISO compliant or registered. Management knew the company had to meet this requirement, but was unsure whether to work toward compliance or registration.
There were three steps in deVan Sealants’ ISO journey. First, in an executive overview of the process, Missouri Enterprise explained what compliance or registration would require.
Next, Missouri Enterprise worked with company officials to perform a thorough gap analysis of the current state of the deVan Sealants’ quality management system. Since deVan Sealants had a relatively good system in place, management decided to work toward ISO 9001:2000 registration.
Finally, Missouri Enterprise provided training and implementation assistance to help the company prepare for its registration audit. The audit was held in April 2006 and the company passed with flying colors.
“Missouri Enterprise’s approach demonstrated their professionalism and their understanding of requirements of the registration process and it really helped keep us on track,” said Company President John Abrams.
Abrams says that being ISO registered will enable the company to retain its preferred status and sales that could have otherwise been lost. Management anticipates that substantial new sales will be generated from markets where registration is a prerequisite for consideration.