ISO 14001 and ISO 14000

ISO14001 is similar to ISO9001 in that is sets defined processes and procedures that in this case documents how we handle environmental waste products coming out of our factory as opposed to 9001 which defines how we handle our quality processes. ISO14001 is a program we embarked on about 3 years ago, to ensure we were properly dealing with anything that really came out of our factory from any scrap from our laser cutting operations or any bi-products and anything we were handling from in our factory that was handled in a way that was environmentally safe in accordance with environmental relations and required by state and local government that we are doing what we should be doing with our products. ISO14001 is audited by an outside organisation, an independent outside organisation in this case we also use Harfordsteen Buller as our outside entity who comes in and audits our 14001 processes and procedures just like 9001. It is very similar in a sense that we have defined procedures that document how we have to handle waste products coming out of our facility and our outside auditors perform a multi-day audit to ensure that we are really doing what we say we are going to do. There is cleaning chemicals, there is waste water that comes out of the lasers, there is just as simple as scrap metal skeletons from the laser cutting operation, so a variety of waste products like that, that are disposed of out of our facility. Things such as batteries and stuff like that through to everyday operation. There is a very detailed certification in terms of when we went through our preparation to become audited, we looked at each and every operation in the company and looked at what were the bi-products coming out of each operation and how we had to deal with those to meet the requirements ISO demanded for that certification. The advantages first and foremost is we want to do the right thing for the environment, so we want to be sure we aren’t disposing of things in a way that can hurt the environment, number 2 I think it tells our customers that we are very environmentally conscious of what we do and we have some customers that means a lot to, so from that perspective it is a little bit of a differentiator with our customers but the real reason is we want to be doing the right thing in terms of how we handle our waste products coming out of the factory. In the beginning I think it was difficult because of the preparation we had to go through to get up to speed but now we are there I feel it absolutely is worthwhile.

ABOUT PRECISION CUT INDUSTRIES (PCI)
Precision Cut Industries is a laser cutting, metal bending and welding manufacturing business based in Hanover, PA. Precision Cut Industries is a full service contract manufacturer, servicing the metal industry for over 15 years. Their diversification ranges from flat laser cut parts to fully assembled products. Focus industries include agricultural, automotive, construction, renewable energy and food and beverage.

To find out more, please visit https://pcilasercut.com/