Wrexham-based Applied Component Technology (ACT) (www.applied-components.com), a leading UK automotive supplier, has celebrated a year of new contract wins by securing the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) 16949 quality award (the IATF is a group of manufacturers that aims to provide high-quality products to automotive customers world-wide).

ACT, which employs nearly 60 people and has a turnover of £7 million, was one of the first SMEs in Wales to secure the accreditation — taking just 11 months from the start of the process to the successful audit.

The company supplies the automotive sector with products that include barrier nets, composite load floors, roller luggage covers, trailer systems and exterior parts.

The accreditation has seen the company strengthen its quality performance with PPM (parts per million) scores down to single digit numbers, just-in-time delivery at 100% and a new product safety focus that goes above and beyond customer requirements.

Davydd Popple, ACT’s quality manager, said: “We first started looking at the process in December 2016 and knew immediately that we had to get everyone on board, so quickly arranged for all areas of the business to understand what was involved and how they would contribute.

"This quickly moved to setting up small teams of people who would look at the different functions and how we could break down the new IATF requirements into manageable chunks.”

He added: “It was an approach that undoubtedly worked. Our processes, which were already robust, are now even better; moreover, we have either removed risk or come up with mitigating actions for everything we do — whether it is a product, process or service.

“With IATF 16949 being so closely aligned with the recent update to ISO 9001, I took the opportunity to integrate our management system so we are now certified to both ISO 9001:2015 and IATF 16949:2016.

"The ISO certification allows ACT to diversify into non-automotive products, which will help us secure new business in other key markets.”