ContiTech Receives the IRIS Certificate
02 June 2008
At Hanover in May 2008 ContiTech Air Spring Systems received a quality certificate according to the International Railway Industry Standard (IRIS) from the international railway industry. ContiTech is one of the pioneers of quality management in the railway supplies industry. IRIS certification was achieved at the first attempt, and the minimum requirements significantly exceeded.
The quality standard was specially developed to evaluate manufacturers and suppliers to the railway industry and is equivalent to the quality standard in the automobile industry, ISO/TS 16949. The main points of IRIS include project management, management of tender bids and change management, as well as the reliability, availability, maintenance and safety levels of products.
"Fulfilment of IRIS requirements and the associated certification is one further step in the right direction and clearly demonstrates our marked customer and market orientation“, stressed Friedrich Hoppmann, manager of the product market segment ContiTech Railway Engineering. "Through receipt of the IRIS certificate, ContiTech can now, as a manufacturer of complex suspension systems for rolling stock, count itself amongst the first 50 of the approximately 400 companies in the railway industry that fulfil the strict guidelines of the inter-national railway association UNIFE."
"We are extremely pleased to have been able to have passed the certification audit at the first attempt – with a result which significantly exceeded the minimum requirements," declared Kurt Kischnick, manager of quality management, Con-tiTech Air Spring Systems. "In this way we gave proof as a world market leader that we faced the challenges of the railway industry early on. All large suppliers to the railway industry should be certificated according to IRIS by 2009 – and we have done it already."
