Spyderco manufacturing certification?

[TenGrainBread]

Out of random curiosity, does Spyderco maintain any manufacturing certifications?

I work in quality and regulatory at a med device company, so a lot of my job is working with the quality management system to maintain our ISO, FDA, and CE certifications. Considering Spyderco's famous reputation for quality, I'm curious if you guys are ISO or equivalent certified? I don't know if it's info you'd want to share, but I'm always curious as to how my favorite companies' quality management systems work.

This thought came up because I was watching the BladeHQ Spyderco Shop Tour video from 2015 on youtube.

[JD Spydo]

I'm not sure if Spyderco is aligned with those organizations you mentioned. But they must have one of the best quality contol sectors of any company. Not to mention their "Second To None" Customer Service along with their great "Warranty & Repair Dept.
Spyderco is a business model that should be envied world wide IMO.

[The Meat man]

Doesn't Spyderco have contracts with different military/government organizations? I'm sure they would require some kind of documented quality management system like ISO.

[TenGrainBread]

Doesn't Spyderco have contracts with different military/government organizations? I'm sure they would require some kind of documented quality management system like ISO.

That's a good point. I'd at least assume they're ISO 9001 certified.
Not that I'm an expert, but I think that some direct-to-customer business don't find that getting certified is necessary, even if their quality system already is mostly compliant. It's more of a selling point if you are a business-to-business manufacturer or a contract manufacturer, in which situations the buyer usually has some quality requirements that an ISO certification is an easy "yes" to.

[TenGrainBread]

EDIT: DUPLICATE

[sal]

Hi TenGrainBread,

No.

sal

[TenGrainBread]

Brevity is the soul of wit. I have my answer. Thanks Sal!

[208 tim]

Having personally experienced the process behind iso certification, I have mixed feelings.

[The Meat man]

Having personally experienced the process behind iso certification, I have mixed feelings.

Our company just went through the ISO 9001-2015 certification process, so it is still quite fresh in my memory.

[sal]

I looked into ISO. I also looked into UL when I was in electronics mfg.

sal

[Ankerson]

Out of random curiosity, does Spyderco maintain any manufacturing certifications?

I work in quality and regulatory at a med device company, so a lot of my job is working with the quality management system to maintain our ISO, FDA, and CE certifications. Considering Spyderco's famous reputation for quality, I'm curious if you guys are ISO or equivalent certified? I don't know if it's info you'd want to share, but I'm always curious as to how my favorite companies' quality management systems work.

This thought came up because I was watching the BladeHQ Spyderco Shop Tour video from 2015 on youtube.

Kinda hard when there are no industry standards that are enforceable.

So how would one get certified?

It's not like they are making power cords as an example.

[208 tim]

Having personally experienced the process behind iso certification, I have mixed feelings.

Our company just went through the ISO 9001-2015 certification process, so it is still quite fresh in my memory.

What are your thoughts?

[TenGrainBread]

Kinda hard when there are no industry standards that are enforceable.

So how would one get certified?

It's not like they are making power cords as an example.

The ISO certification isn't really specific to the product you are making, but rather a list of quality management recommendations that any manufacturer can adopt. The standards are relatively general, mostly focusing on record-keeping, parts traceability, consumer safety risk analysis, work environment, defect reporting, etc... So most of them can be applied to pretty much any industry and there's a lot of room to make it work for your company's specific circumstances and leave out the things that don't apply. ISO publishes a standards library that you use as a guide when writing your company's standard operating procedures and work instructions. Then you get audited by a licensed ISO certification body and they basically spend a couple days looking over your procedures with you to make sure you're following the standards that are applicable.

It's a good system but, like anything, it's an investment. If you don't have customers that require an ISO certification (for example, if you're a contract manufacturer) or if you don't manufacture a regulated product (like a medical device), there's less incentive to make the investment.

[Ankerson]

Kinda hard when there are no industry standards that are enforceable.

So how would one get certified?

It's not like they are making power cords as an example.

The ISO certification isn't really specific to the product you are making, but rather a list of quality management recommendations that any manufacturer can adopt. The standards are relatively general, mostly focusing on record-keeping, parts traceability, consumer safety risk analysis, work environment, defect reporting, etc... So most of them can be applied to pretty much any industry and there's a lot of room to make it work for your company's specific circumstances and leave out the things that don't apply. ISO publishes a standards library that you use as a guide when writing your company's standard operating procedures and work instructions. Then you get audited by a licensed ISO certification body and they basically spend a couple days looking over your procedures with you to make sure you're following the standards that are applicable.

It's a good system but, like anything, it's an investment. If you don't have customers that require an ISO certification (for example, if you're a contract manufacturer) or if you don't manufacture a regulated product (like a medical device), there's less incentive to make the investment.

OK, I was going too deep into it. :D

[sal]

Hi TenGrainBread,

Thanx for the info, but I'm quite familiar with them. We were working on a bayonet project for a government that didn't know squat about knives or bayonets. We spend a great deal of money ($30K+) developing a design that they wanted. We didn't get the contract though our product was sound, but we weren't ISO approved. The project went to another company that doesn't have near our quality, but had ISO approval. In my opinion it's a scram to make money and the "r" is silent.

We hold 3 ten thousands of an inch on our Golden locks. I need to pay some "organization" lots of money to tell me that my quality is up to their standards? And then they've convinced other "organizations" that they have to get their approval before they can build for them? Sorry. I've seen many knife companies that have ISO approval that can't come near our quality. I guess we'll have to suffer the consequences that there are some "Governments" that we won't be able to build product for them because their "organization" says we're not good enough? Kinda like UL. Just my opinion.

sal

[The Meat man]

Having personally experienced the process behind iso certification, I have mixed feelings.

Our company just went through the ISO 9001-2015 certification process, so it is still quite fresh in my memory.

What are your thoughts?

Like TenGrainBread said, it's mostly an investment that enables us to tap into a wider market.
From what I understand (correct me if I'm wrong), the ISO 9001-2015 cert is a LOT more streamlined than the older -2008 version. The older system was a lot more cumbersome, and was more focused on making companies adhere to an independent set of guidelines with a lot more paperwork, whereas the 2015 system allows each company to write their own quality standard procedures, and merely ensures that the companies are following their own guidelines.

The process at our company went pretty smoothly. We are a small business (10 or 12 employees) so that helped a lot. I didn't think it was much hassle, but then I'm not the boss or any kind of manager so I had minimal interaction with the process.

Having written quality standards and a uniform, consistent operating procedure is useful and a good thing in and of itself, so I think the ISO certification is a good thing in general. But I don't think it'd be worth it unless you want to tap into the "ISO Required" market.

[The Meat man]

Hi TenGrainBread,

Thanx for the info, but I'm quite familiar with them. We were working on a bayonet project for a government that didn't know squat about knives or bayonets. We spend a great deal of money ($30K+) developing a design that they wanted. We didn't get the contract though our product was sound, but we weren't ISO approved. The project went to another company that doesn't have near our quality, but had ISO approval. In my opinion it's a scram to make money and the "r" is silent.

We hold 3 ten thousands of an inch on our Golden locks. I need to pay some "organization" lots of money to tell me that my quality is up to their standards? And then they've convinced other "organizations" that they have to get their approval before they can build for them? Sorry. I've seen many knife companies that have ISO approval that can't come near our quality. I guess we'll have to suffer the consequences that there are some "Governments" that we won't be able to build product for them because their "organization" says we're not good enough? Kinda like UL. Just my opinion.

sal

That's what happens when people focus only on the paperwork and forget what it is actually important. Quality is quality no matter if you've got an ISO certification or not. Sorry to hear about that lost contract. It seems that often the folks making those decisions are the least qualified to do so. :rolleyes:

Nobody does quality like Spyderco, that's for sure. Keep up the good work! :cool: :)

[TenGrainBread]

Sal- No disagreement here that certifications can definitely be a racket. One example is my company having to spend many thousands of dollars to have the plastics on our device tested for bio-toxicity by a fancy third party testing house. These are standard resins that are common and have been tested over and over. Nor is our device in vitro (used inside the body), so it's almost irrelevant anyway.

I think ISO is good in the medical/pharma industry where you want to make sure everything is being done with patient safety in mind and that a recall will go smoothly. Outside of that it can be a pain, or worse, in your experience. Made worse when the customer evaluating suppliers isn't willing to do their own research.

[sal]

Hi TenGrainBread,

Thanx for your understanding. I've been around for a long time and I've seen many rackets across the years. We have to spend money on the California law posting "safety issues" because of the chemicals in our products. We had to change the material of our Sharpener guard for the same reason. Be careful and remember, don't eat our knives or our sharpeners. :eek:

Don't get me started. The nuns running the whore-house.,

sal

[TenGrainBread]

Be careful and remember, don't eat our knives or our sharpeners. :eek:

Huh, I don't remember hearing this warning in the Sharpmaker how-to videos. I'll keep it in mind though :p