@INHERIT
New quality standards are met as Series 5 production reaches all-time-high
Posted on Tue 12th August 2008
EDINBURGH, Aug 5, 2008 - Production volumes of the McGRATH® Series 5 have reached an all time high in Q2 2008, just one year on from the establishment of Aircraft NPI, the in-house production and quality facility located at Dalgety Bay, Scotland.
Aircraft NPI (standing for New Product Introduction) was started up in April 2007 to bring production under Aircraft Medical's direct control and to ensure that the highest quality standards could be met. Jeremy Wheeler, Head of Operations at Aircraft NPI said: “In early April 2007 we entered an empty building and within months we had set up a precision testing and production facility. In month 1 we installed laminar airflow, microscopes, curing ovens and other bespoke equipment. We attained ISO13485 for the facility, assessed by SGS, the world's leading certification company within 6 weeks and at a recent 1 year audit passed with zero non conformances - a perfect result. Simultaneously we have built a team of highly qualified specialist technicians with medical device experience to help take us through this journey and they are a great credit to the company.” As with many sophisticated new technologies the first year of production can bring teething issues. The launch version of the McGRATH® Series 5 saw a number of units being returned to base for modification and update. Aircraft NPI has continued to evolve over the past year, with tough targets set and met. Now into its second year of production, the Series 5 is an established technology with cat 1 defects on track for sub 1%. Reflecting on all the changes over the past year Aircraft Medical CEO Matt McGrath said: “In the past 12 months the team at NPI have done an incredible job to push up quality and production volumes while establishing a brand new modern production facility. We are fortunate to have this level of expertise and capability in our company”.