WINTER 2023

80 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S

80 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK IMSM LTD. The Gig House, Oxford Street, Malmesbury, Wiltshire, SN16 9AX, England TEL +44 1793 296 704 EMAIL ScottMersch@imsm.com WEB www.imsm.com ISO’S ROLE IN QUALITY MAINTENANCE WITHIN THE FASTENERS INDUSTRY by Scott Mersch More than ever is the need for fastener tools to manufacture and design evolutionary machinery, equipment, and tools. Popular fasteners such as bolts, screws, and rivets are essential for constructing and maintaining everyday global products that we utilize. These essentials can be as standard as the regular wooden drawer that holds your cutlery to the industrial machinery used to develop essential product lines. The manufacturing of high-quality fastening products is utilized in several core industries, including machinery, automobile, aerospace, construction, marine, infrastructure, and appliances. The market size for industrial fasteners is increasing, with expectations to grow from USD 82.56 billion in 2022 to USD 110.91 billion by 2029. This rapid increase shows that industries must maintain high performance to compete in the same fasteners market. The manufacture of screws, rivets, bolts, and nuts produced by fastener manufacturers is part of the foundation of the USA’s industrial sector. Fasteners are utilized today in almost every machine, structure, or material that contributes to our routine lives. Fasteners have developed since the earliest civilizations, and the arrival of the Industrial Revolution has provided a more systematic and streamlined approach to manufacturing a bulk of screws, nuts, and bolts in a minimal amount of time. Fasteners such as bolts, screws, clamps, and pins must be welded at a high standard to ensure compliance, and the quality of their functions must meet the recommended standard for competency. Integrating a recognized and irrefutable Management System, such as ISO 9001 or ISO 27001, will validate that your business has the evidence to maintain quality, competence, security, and adherence to legal regulations. Why ISO? Implementing any ISO standard would result in many benefits to a fastener organization. However, ISO 9001 is by far the most recognizable standard for companies as it allows the integration of a foundational framework on which other ISO standards, such as ISO 14001 and ISO 27001, can be seamlessly built. BUSINESS FOCUS ARTICLE CONTINUED ON PAGE 134