The newest member of the Monument family – our Port Arthur plant – was recently awarded ISO 9001 status, a significant milestone that will advance the site’s growth and enhance the capabilities of Monument as a whole. It joins Houston, Kallo, Brandenburg, and Bayport sites as ISO 9001 certified.

Developed by the International Organization for Standards (ISO), ISO 9001 is an international standard that defines requirements for quality management systems and is seen as a minimum standard for quality across many industries. Introduced in 1987, ISO 9001 standards have been applied at more than a million organizations.

The most impressive thing about Port Arthur’s new status is the time in which it was achieved!

“We began the process in January 2022, and completed all the preparation before the end of the year. That’s incredibly fast,” said Blake Saffer, Global Quality Leader and team lead for Port Arthur.

Helping to drive this effort was the recent ISO 9001 certification for our Bayport plant, which provided our team with many lessons that sped up the Port Arthur job.

Using PM OPS software, Monument has developed a suite of custom electronic tools for many aspects of quality and safety management.  Over the years, Blake and multi-site teams have worked hard to improve and refine those tools. Having a standardized electronic system available to quickly integrate a new site is one of the keys to our success. 

The Port Arthur plant required a large investment in capital projects, including rolling out new safety and sustainability management procedures — key goals for all Monument plants. Port Arthur had good base systems, but every aspect of its operations had to be examined and upgraded as necessary.

“We went across the board, bringing policies and procedures in line with Monument formats, altering templates for over 350 procedures. A new comprehensive training program was implemented, and all employees’ training brought into compliance,” said Blake. “It was a tedious but essential process involving every department.”

Savannah Simonds, Bayport’s Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) Manager and the site’s ISO representative, was responsible for the site’s first full system internal audit. “We are proud of both the team effort and the rapid time frame in which this task was conducted,” she said. “This project built on all the experience we have gained with our other sites.”

“Customers expect consistency and quality from Monument, and every plant upgrade offers fresh learnings into how to achieve that efficiently,” shared Blake. Port Arthur now provides new openings for Monument to bring in work from the numerous industries we serve.

“Full recertifications are required every three years, so our work is never done,” Blake added. “Continuous improvement is not only part of the ISO 9001 standard, but also Monument’s standard.  We are always looking for opportunities to update, refine, and enhance our approach to ensuring quality and safety. We are an extension of each customer’s manufacturing arm, and they rely on the systems and processes we have put in place to ensure we can deliver product that meets or exceeds their expectations.”