For Immediate Release
ECS and Safety Manager Grover Kuhs Receive Multiple Honors
 

November 7, 2018

[GRANTS PASS, OR] – ECS and safety manager, Grover Kuhs, were recently honored at the annual Southern Oregon Safety and Health Conference on October 18. ECS garnered three awards, while Kuhs was honored with the Safety Professional of the Year.

Among the honors received by ECS: the Safety Committee Recognition Award, which the company has won every year since 2010, the Honorable Distinction for the Safety Committee Award, meaning ECS has been rated within the top two for the outstanding job its Safety Committee is doing, and the award for Outstanding Safety and Health award for a large facility for the second time in five years. In the past 10 years, no company has won the Outstanding Safety and Health award twice.

"In the 10 years I have been attending the conference, this is the first time that one company has achieved these goals," Kuhs said. "This goes to show that our safety program is among the top in the Southern Oregon Region  in all areas."

The winners of these awards were determined by OSHA, SAIF and other facilities throughout Southern Oregon.

On winning the Safety Professional of the year, Kuhs says "this particular award would not have been possible without the help and support of all (of ECS' employees)."

CEO Ted Bennett commended Kuhs and the ESC Safety Program.

"The awards earned for our company’s safety efforts are a direct reflection of Grover's efforts, by ensuring that our company is diligent in protecting all of our employees in the work environment and that he and the safety team are constantly monitoring in order to ensure that we are maintaining that safe environment for everyone to work in," Bennett said. "Grover and his team have been very diligent in ensuring high standards in the safety for our company and promoting many preventive measures to ensure the standards remain in place throughout the years. Those efforts are paying off with outstanding results in reduced accidents, lost work days and reduced insurance costs." 


ECS, located in Southern Oregon, is a manufacturing company that has been family owned and operated for three generations. The company specializes in advanced custom packaging solutions primarily for military, aerospace, tactical, outdoor and emergency response applications.
 

– # # # –

For Immediate Release

ECS taking steps to becoming ISO Certified
 

March 1, 2019

[GRANTS PASS, OR] – ECS has committed itself to receiving ISO (International Organization for Standardization) certification sometime in the fall of 2019, according to Quality Director, Sergio Lopez.

ECS has been compliant to MIL-I-45208 and had been in the process of adapting ISO 9001-2008 when the 2015 version came out. ECS then shifted the focus to the latest ISO 9001 version in an added commitment to certify to the latest requirements and is now well on the road to certification with internal processes being improved to meet the updated requirements.

"Currently many ISO elements are already in place. Fine tuning of our current system is underway and existing internal functions and processes are being updated to meet ISO requirements," Lopez said. "All personnel are taking part to support ISO certification activities and ECS has selected and engaged a certification registrar and has committed to a certification audit date. The best thing is that executive management has been on board from conception and embraced the ISO philosophies."

ECS is adopting a quality management system in a strategic decision that has improved its overall performance providing a sound basis of development. Employment of the “process approach” to incorporate a “Plan-Do-Check-Act” (PDCA) cycle with risk based thinking.

The advantages of adopting the ISO fundamentals include:

  • The better process flow can also be used to drive efficiencies toward fewer errors and resulting reworks, which can improve cost savings.
  • More business and revenue from new customers
  • Improving the company and its products
  • Increasing customer satisfaction
  • Describing, communicating and understanding our company processes
  • Developing a professional culture and better employee moral
  • Improve consistency of company operations
  • Improve efficiency, reduce waste and save money
  • Achieve international quality recognition
  • When a company is looking for a supplier, it is often a requirement to have a quality management system based on ISO 9001-2015 in order to be considered.

While ECS has been compliant for several years, ISO-9001 has became a bigger force in the quality world. It was decided by CEO Ted Bennett that ECS should take a harder look at becoming certified.

"ECS’s journey into the ISO 9000 world began several years ago, at the request of a major customer," Bennett said. "At the time ECS was fully incorporated and operated to the Mil-Standard series for quality requirements. We took a wait and see approach to ISO because of the high cost of certification and most of our customers were still operating to Mil Standard. The first real ISO test came when one of our major customers required that ECS be ISO compliant in order for us to do business with them. (Current VP of Product Management) Mike Van Cleave was the quality manager at the time and Mike was able to structure an ISO program together in order for ECS to pass customer audit requirements in order to achieve ISO Compliance."

Bennett added:

"Sergio is heading up a management team to continue the quest to certify our company. We hope to have a meaningful program in place and achieve our goal by the end of the year. With each and every one of us cooperating with the management team and staying on task, we will reach that goal. With the implementation of ISO into our culture, many process improvements will take place throughout all departments and the transformation of employee mindsets and understanding to higher levels while maintaining ECS in the leadership role in our industry."

ISO is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO members) that outlines the requirements an organization must maintain in its quality system for certification to ISO 9001. ISO fundamentals mean an adoption of the philosophies which are rooted to customer satisfaction and compliance to requirements.

 

ECS, located in Southern Oregon, is a manufacturing company that has been family owned and operated for three generations. The company specializes in advanced custom packaging solutions primarily for military, aerospace, tactical, outdoor and emergency response applications.

– # # # –